My Island Home

My Island Home is an appealing autobiography by a fine writer, who is best known for his best-selling Mutiny on the Bounty (co-authored with Charles Nordhoff). Hall describes his life as a boy in Colfax, Iowa; as a student at Grinnell College; as a social worker for foster children in Boston; as a soldier in WWI, first as a machine gunner with the British and then as a fighter pilot with the French as part of the so-called Lafayette Flying Corps. He goes on to describe his collaborations with Nordhoff, first to write a history of the Lafayette Flying Corps, and then to write articles on the South Seas and Tahiti for Harper's magazine, which led to a life-long friendship both with Nordhoff and with Tahiti, where Hall spent the last 30 years of his life. What distinguish the book are the vivid scenes. For example, as an adolescent Hall and two buddies would hop the cowcatcher of a steam locomotive, ride to Grinnell (32 miles to the east), and spend the night rambling around the town and college campus. This three-page scene will thrill any reader and scare any parent. And Hall's descriptions of his WWI experiences must rank with the best descriptions of personal experiences with war. The large irony of Hall's life and book is the mismatch between his nature and his story: he describes himself as a loafer, romantic, idealist, and poet who manages to find more adventure than most lives enjoy, but his observational skill and his poetic sensibilities allow him to put us very much into the scenery of his experiences. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys autobiography and good writing.

James Norman Hall co-authored the "Bounty Trilogy" along with Charles Nordoff. I first read his autobiography in the med-1950's as a middle school student. I had just competed reading "Mutiny on the Bounty" and had developed thirst for more knowledge about the authors when I happened upon Hall's autobiography. I suppose that the book never would have appealed to me otherwise. I found his life story fascinating and full of adventure as he stole rides on steam locomotives in the middle of summer nights near his home in Iowa as a youth, as he joined the British Army at the start of WWI and later as he flew (and was shot down) as a member of the Lafayette Escadrille - surviving a German prison camp and escaping to Switzerland. His travels took him Europe, Iceland and the South Seas and Tahiti - where he and Nordoff wrote a score of books - including the Bounty Trilogy. He is buried at his home site in Tahiti overlooking the bay where the Bounty anchored so many years ago. His autobiography was most important to me because it informed me that the two co-authors also had written "Men Against the Sea" and "Pitcairn's Island" - a fact that I did not know prior to reading the autobiography! This autobiography proved to be a great reading experience for me on its' own merits. However, it is "must reading" for anyone who has found Hall's and Nordoff's great Trilogy to be of significance to their reading experience. Fans of Patrick O'Brian's tales of Aubrey-Maturin will also find this autobiography worthwhile.

A wonderful trip back in time to the Polynesian Islands, and with some very interesting background on Hall's writing. Except for World War II, it was a wonderful, innocent time to be an island writer, and have your special niche and library for your creative writing. Good book. I liked it and would recommend it to anyone who contemplates laying under a beach umbrella on a sandy beach. Mahalo and aloha.