Don't Stop the Carnival Kinja/VI

To the best of my knowledge, unlike Kinja there are no US Caribbean islands that were British. Wouk lived on St Thomas in the 1950s. The hotel in the book is believed by some to be inspired by St Croix's Hotel on the Cay, by others to be inspired by the defunct Water Isle Hotel & Beach Club.

i read about 3-4 books a week. i tried to read that book and was so bored i could not finish it. that has only happened with one other book.

speee1dy,
How long have you lived here? Someone told me once they have their employees read if after they have been here for a year. I read it on the way down, and I enjoyed it. I think I should pick it up and read it again now, after 14 years. I would probably have a whole other perspective now. I seem to remember the second half was much better than the first.

ive been here 4 1/2 years. i can read almost anything but it was just sooooo boring.

So many people love this book, Ric did. But I'm with speed1dy, this was one boring book. And I found I didn't care at all about the main character -- to me he was an annoying little dweeb. I got as far as the water delivery and just stopped.

BeachPhilosopher: If you talk to the people who lived on St Thomas at the time Mr Wouk was here, they all have stories about the real characters he fictionalized.

linda i think i stopped where you did.

Linda and Speee1dy, I think we need to chat over some 11ses.

I re-read it every couple of years. I guess I'm easily entertained. But then again I also re-read Mitchner's " Caribbean.

I must be the minority, but I liked the book.

molly
all the people i talk to like the book too. i think linda and i are in the minority

I dutifully read it and like Speedy and Linda, found it boring, although I did get a few chuckles from some parts. Paperman was not an easy guy to like.

Now, if Carl Hiaasen had written it... can you imagine !!! THAT would be a great book.

I did NOT like the book either. I only finished it because it was what the book club was reading at the time.
I did not like Norman one bit. He was a cheating weasel.

I did LOL at a few things though - particularly the 'bottom of the cistern' conversation.

In a write up about Bill Dowling, of Carib Beach fame, in St Thomas, it stated that Wouk ate there almost every night and listened to Dowling recant the activities of the day at that hotel. Location was something else. I figured he was using Hassel Island as a model for the hotel. The one on the Cay or Water Island would work as well.

I am with Ronnie - I know it may have been a fictional amalgamation of places but the Royal Mail on Hassel Is. seems a close approximation of the real places at the time.