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5 comments about Island Soul: A Memoir of Norway.

1. "Island Soul" is about an America woman, Mrs. Patti Jones Morgan, dealing with her feeling of `isolation'. How she went from being a "helpless, isolated woman in a completely foreign land" to a place of semi-belonging. She dutifully followed her husband to Norway. He was a specialist on the Heidrun oil project. This book is the story of Mrs. Morgan's --"survival".

   Up-front, I read this book while in Norway and found myself an outsider looking in on a struggle I couldn't comprehend. For the life of me, hard as I tried, I could not grasp the horrific dark foreboding that Mrs. Morgan said she had to faced in Norway. God knows I've tried to understand how she struggled to "survive" another year, but I was definitely an outsider looking in. Hell, I was more than an outsider, I was more like an alien visiting another planet.

   I have traveled the world, and spent time in some mighty dark and depressing places. That being said I have great difficulty seeing Norway as a "completely foreign land". Communist Vietnam - sure. War torn Congo - yes. Oppressive Afghanistan - Right. But Norway, where English is their second language; where the infrastructures and national income are the best in the world; where the only hardship was the excessive taxes and that they only served real beer, not 'lite beer', and I gained a few pound while staying there. No, I just can't see Norway as a "completely foreign country", any more than I could identify with her helpless, "isolated" whine.

   I'll admit, I must be an insensitive male (ask my girlfriend, she'll tell you), and by popular definition, I am definitely from Mars. This book is not a book I would recommend to men. I would recommend this book to any wife following her husband to a foreign country.

   Mrs. Morgan wrote this book for women, feeling both lonely and disposed while living in another culture. On that level the book is commendable. Her writing style is like listening to chatter at a coffee clutch. Her description of Norway's beauty and people is spot on'.

   One hundred and thirty five pages into the book Mrs. Morgan finishes her language class, and God knows, I was as happy about her matriculation as she was. "Attempting to learn Norwegian, talk with local people and develop friendships - had been my mission." Mrs. Morgan states. This is her story, this is her song. She did it and moved back to Texas, where she now lives.




2. I have a feeling that many people who read "Island Soul" would like to move to Karmoy, the peaceful little island off the coast of Norway which, with its people, is the star of this story.

   Maybe that's a post-9/11 reaction. But in the midst of all that's going on around us, Karmoy seems like the Shangri-La of the 21st century.

   Patti Jones Morgan has a nice eye in spotting the idiosyncracies, the lifestyles, the joys and the trials which make up the culture of the people of Karmoy, and she has a nice style in relating them. And she does it with a quiet but funny sense of humor, which befits both the island and her book.

   And friend, if you've ever traveled overseas for any length of time, as I have, you'll appreciate her struggles as she works ever so hard to master the Norwegian language. Uff-da, as the Norwegians say.

   The book is worth a read, maybe on a rainy day over a cup of coffee. After all, Patti writes accurately enough, "Sometimes a mere hot cup of coffee indoors out of the rain tastes like nectar." And the book will add flavor to the coffee.

   One more thought: Patti wrote the book in 2000. She would have no way of knowing the eerie feeling she generates when she tells of a seemingly innocuous incident in the Oslo airport when she was patted down during a routine search for drugs. "My heart skipped a beat," she writes, "as I visualized the agent's reaction if she found my little plastic bag of white powder."

   In view of the news today, again I say, "Uff-da."

   But I also say hooray to Patti for coming up with an interesting and insightful book about the people of and the peaceful place called Karmoy.




3. Reading Island Soul put me into a quandary: did I want to race to the finish to see what happened to the author in her struggles as a foreigner trying to belong on Karmøy Island? Or did I want to slow down and linger, the better to savor every word? Patti Jones Morgan has written a charming and delightful account of being transplanted to a little-known island in Norway and has shared her soul with us in the pages. The book feels cozy and warm, like sharing good talks with a close friend, yet often her observations strike one as richly nuanced and resonant, revealing a poet's soul. She is also in possession of a rare tweaking sense of humor about people and society which will give the reader a good laugh without bile. This book should appeal strongly to a good cross-section of reader interests, since it concerns travel, cultures, human interest stories, language, Scandinavia, and creativity (the author is a writer and an artist), just to name a few. I recommend it unreservedly as a charming book to warm the soul and let's hope we hear more from this fine author!



4. This was an extremely well written book. I felt as though I were on the island with the author. I would thoroughly recommend it--great reading.



5. Geez Louise. I, too, lived in Norway in the Stavanger area, and moved there from Texas to work in the oil patch. Unlike most American expats working in Norway, I was a single woman working in Norwegian companies. I learned Norwegian the hard way - on the job. The book makes it sound like she was isolated on an island with no contact with Americans. Bull! Karmøy has a bridge - a very large, well traveled bridge - to the mainland. You can hardly tell that it's an island. Americans and other expats are all over the place. Americans had their own school for heavens sake! All she had to do was hook up with the local church and the Petroleum Wives Club and she would have more than enough to do, and plenty of friends - none of which spoke Norwegian.
   
   Just FYI, Norwegians do not make superficial friends. They make friends for life. Americans comparatively speaking have shallow relationships. Norwegians do not "do" that, and are not about to invest themselves in a friendship that surely will not last. American women also suffer from the fact that many, many other American women before them - mostly from Texas - gripe and moan that everything else was better in the U.S., which frankly isn't true. Perhaps that should've been explained to the author by anyone who had lived there more than 6 months.
   
   True, there is an adjustment period because you don't have all of the convenience foods, everlasting cable TV (only two government-run channels when I was there), and eating out several times a week. You are also not allowed to have your usual Houston margaritas at lunch and drive - not without mandatory three weeks in jail if you get caught, and no exceptions just because you are an American. There are, however, many many women's organizations that help you acclimate and find your way around, and the oil companies also have employees strictly hired to provide this service. You do get at least a couple of months back in the States every year paid for by the oil company, so I don't see what she has to complain about. In fact, I'm sorry I left.
   
   Nice idea to make money out of it though. Should've done that myself, LOL!

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2 comments about Innocents in the Arctic: The 1951 Spitsbergen Expedition.

1. Actually I am Colin Bull - Gillian is my wife and is the person who painted that outstanding portrait of me for the back flap of the dust jacket. If I hadn't thought the book was worth five stars I wouldn't have published it. I just hope that you gain as much fun and enjoyment from reading the book as I did in writing it. Exactly half of my test group of six readers bought ten extra copies each fro me - as long as I signed them. So far I have found two typos! Fauno set me a note today : Greetings, I read your Sptsbergen book and I loved it. The picture are great, especially the moonrise one. Carry on, F.C. So I sent her an 8 x 10 color print of "Moonrise over the Strandflat"



2. Innocents In The Arctic: The 1951 Spitsbergen Expedition by Colin Bull (who was awarded the Polar Medal by Queen Elizabeth II and the Antarctic Service Medal by the U.S. Government, and who has made more than twenty-five polar expeditions during his distinguished career as a glaciologist) writes with personal expertise because he was the cook and glaciologist on the trip that saw ten naive young Birmingham men venturing north to the nearly uninhabited, ice-covered island of Spitsbergen in 1951. The scientific progress of this that ensured was despite misfortunes caused by calamitous weather, an unworthy ship, and an entertaining by ill-informed approach to arctic survival. Bull's realistic, deftly written insider story of arctic adventure is especially recommended reading for armchair adventurers, arctic exploration historians, and polar enthusiasts.

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