rating: 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
thoughts: solomon time is a little outside my usual domain in terms of being a travel memoir, but i bought a signed copy of this and indian summer after the author visited my sixth form about 8-9 years ago. after picking this up multiple times and never finishing it (which had nothing to do with the quality of the book and everything to do with me being quite depressed), i have finally gotten around to finishing it. solomon time was a fun glimpse into life on the solomon islands, a dive into the culture and the people who live there. will randall writes with humour, and i remember his talk to our school being full of laughs (which ultimately convinced me to buy his books), so his writing ended up being a clear reflection of his personality. he writes lovingly about the people on the island as you can tell he grows to feel part of the community, but also realistically about how different the culture was compared to having lived in england for most (if not all) of his life up until that point, and how much this took getting used to. i feel he generally wrote about the people with dignity, not being afraid to poke fun in a good-natured manner, but not looking down on the people for what they lacked, for having different beliefs, etc. it was, i will say, very odd hearing him refer to the children as pickaninnies. to be clear, it didn't seem to be done in a derogatory way and i assume that's the word in general usage on the islands to refer to children - but being in the culture that i am and knowing its usage here, it was funny that a white man was using the word in reference to the solomon islander children.
i guess the reason why my rating is a little lower is that sometimes not a lot happens - and to be honest i think that comes part and parcel of a life lived on the solomon islands anyway! the culture is very laid back and days are repetitive in their own way. a lot of the plot revolves around trying to source chickens to begin a farm, and the author runs into roadblocks, repeatedly. the writing did keep me engaged but i wouldn't have minded if it was a few pages shorter. all in all, though, this was an intriguing introduction to a culture i otherwise might never have looked into, and i'm glad i read it. i don't know if i could ever up and leave for a place as remote as the solomon islands myself, but i'm glad that will randall did so that i could read about it!
