******
- Verified Buyer
I chose this book because I'm interested old-timey anthropology, women science-ing, sea voyages, and the folklore of the South Pacific - and I got all that in Easter Island. What I didn't expect was to be touched. I actually cried, not because anything tragic happened, but because this was so perfect. Vanderbes's writing was dynamic and evocative and beautiful, which was a lovely complement to the academic rigor and technical diction with which Greer and Elsa tackled their work. I also appreciated the author's note in which we learned what was factual in this fictional book. I even purchased Katherine Routledge's Mystery of Easter Island on which Elsa's story was based, that's how interested Vanderbes made me in Easter Island.However, I found that Greer's story intrigued me much more than Elsa's, even though Elsa's was closer to my normal time period and subject matter of choice. Something about her got under my skin, the way she thought of her sister as both a burden and a boon, her alternate gratitude and grovelling toward Edward, for some reason it was unpleasant to read about that. I was much more compelled by Greer's story, her friends, her professional struggles, the betrayal of her husband, the relationships she forms on Rapa Nui. Most of all, though, was her passion for her work, her love and appreciation for nature coupled with her steely determination and intellectual acumen were a pleasure to read. (Much of my love for this book may be rooted in my own desire to be a jet-setting academic on a solo expedition to a far off land.). By contrast, Elsa began her work with the rongorongo for something to do, and Edward's exploration of the moai seems more a result of mid-life crisis than a spirited desire for an answer to that inquiry - and that shows in their thoughts and dialogue about their studies. Valid characterization, to be sure, but not as enjoyable to sit through.The side characters, Mahina, Greer's fellow researchers, Jo, Vicente, were well-developed and a pleasure to read about.Unlike some reviewers, I was pleasantly surprised and proud of Vanderbes for NOT shoehorning in a direct collision of the 1913 and 1973 stories. If something like Greer discovering Elsa's journal or Vicente finding the tablets in Germany had occurred, it would have lessened the novel for me. There was beauty, grace, nuance in Greer being given the fossilized shell from Alice's necklace to help her discovery about the palms without realizing it was from the lost English expedition, that Luka knew them. Also, it would have torpedoed what I consider to be the main theme, moving on when you don't have everything, when things aren't perfect, appreciating what is rather than mourning what isn't. Greer was able to find the key to the palynology and history of the island despite grief over her failed marriage. Vicente developed a new passionate interest, in the biography of Von Spee; his new academic passion coming directly from the disappointment of failing to find the kohua and translate the pictographs. Even a bit character, like Burke-Jones, finds in the inability to replicate the raising of a moai closure on his wife's death and the motivation to leave for India. Wonderful things can come from the imperfect. This is going to sound so snobby, but I think a certain degree of literary taste is needed to fully appreciate this book. And, no, the botany information is neither dull nor too difficult to understand.All in all, this is a very romantic book about science, and a very scientific book about beauty, in life and in love. I haven't read something this moving in a while, and I even feel I learned a fair bit about botany and Easter Island. I have already ordered both another book by Vanderbes and The Mystery of Easter Island, if that tells you how happy this book made me. If anyone has made it this far in my review (say hi if so!), please, please give yourself the gift of reading this.
