'This Other Eden' by Paul Harding - BOOK REVIEW

Paul Harding's 'This Other Eden' enforces its mythical experience with incredible language, earnest humour, and powerful shades of emotion. Shortlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize.
8/10
This Other Eden: Inspired by historical events, This Other Eden tells the story of Apple Island: an enclave off the coast of the United States where castaways - in flight from society and its judgment - have landed and built a home. In 1792, formerly enslaved Benjamin Honey arrives on the island with his Irish wife, Patience, to make a life together there. More than a century later, the Honeys’ descendants remain, alongside an eccentric, diverse band of neighbours. Then comes the intrusion of ‘civilization’: officials determine to ‘cleanse’ the island. A missionary schoolteacher selects one light-skinned boy to save. The rest will succumb to the authorities’ institutions - or cast themselves on the waters in a new Noah’s Ark…
Goodreads: / 61199102
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[@TheLeniverse]

It's like you've been body snatched or something. It's strange to see you so excited (in a good way) about a book. 😂 I'm genuinely happy for you though. I looked at the longlist and thought, nah I'm not doing this. I'm not even willing to commit to the shortlist, although I will read the winner. Probably. I started reading Old God's Time, because that and House of Doors were the only ones that appealed to me. But I think the only way I'll get through it is if I stop paying attention all together. I haven't watched your video about House of Doors yet, because I don't want to be put off. 😅

[@TheDiscoKingOfficial]

Hope you enjoy those two! And yes this review was made at gunpoint

[@KDbooks]

Fun fact - I’m cooking bolognaise watching this

[@TheDiscoKingOfficial]

I'm eating a Granny Smith and checking the comments ngl

[@rororeads]

@@TheDiscoKingOfficialI’m post oesophagoscopy and sat in a waiting room wishing I could eat anything whilst watching this 😂Living the dream. Good work as always mate :)

[@TheDiscoKingOfficial]

@rororeads That's rough as hell, hope you're doing OK man!!

[@rororeads]

@@TheDiscoKingOfficial I’m all good mate.

[@TheCowbiscuit]

Me too omg

[@Christine-jg2ch]

Who are you and what have you done with Alex? 😩😂

[@KDbooks]

MARQUEZ?!

[@KDbooks]

What’s happening

[@Eternalplay]

Agree, Matthew Diamond was a good character. The only one. Other non-islanders were simple templates, boring, predictable. Islanders were interesting but thinly drawn. Ug.

[@ivarsozols6519]

are you high ?

[@bookofdust]

I’m just not sure who you are, you’re my contrarian Booktuber and for you to like something this much just seems wrong. I guess I’ve struggled with this book from the start, as there is already a highly awarded young readers book about this incident and from what I remember it told the story so much better. I’m planning a rereading of it next year to compare. I also found all the biblical references so heavy handed and to on the nose. Were there even actual apples on this island or what? The characters seemed to be overly defined by their quirks and it seemed like a way to make them eccentric and the institutionalization all the more tragic. I also wish the government’s complicity was made more overt. Ugh, I may have liked this book even less then I thought. I guess I feel this history has so much potential in the telling, and he went overboard with what he added when a more straightforward and factual retelling would have been more heartbreaking and devastating. The bells and whistles were an added distraction.

[@TheDiscoKingOfficial]

The characters being defined by their quirks is 100% a fair criticism, for sure.