This book was required reading for a Grinnell College sociology course on utopias and dystopias taught by Alan Jones. Of all the books in that class we probably enjoyed this most because it was at once tragically utopian and, to our minds, relevant. Not only did it portray a plausible way of life, but it included the earnest use of psychotropics. It is not, however, Huxley at his best. Though we didn't mind, the message dominates whatever literary merit this last novel of his has.

Sevdim mi? Bilmiyorum. Sanırım şansıslığı Cesur Yeni Dünya'dan hemen sonra okunmuş olması oldu, çünkü bir Cesur Yeni Dünya değil. Onun tersi yaratılmış ütopik bir toplum söz konusu. İlgimi çekmiş olması da bu sebeptendi. Evet, toplum çok daha barışcıl, çok daha huzurlu ama yetmedi. Aşırı virgül ve tire kullanımı da beni çok rahatsız etti.

The biggest problem I have with books centered on Utopian themes is that they are written more like a how-to guide than an actual novel. At least with dystopic literature things happen as well as playing as a mirror to the past society before it went "bad". With Utopian novels you have a character, usually a cynic (Will Farnaby here), who stumbles upon/is shipwrecked upon/falls asleep and wakes up in/etc. a brand new world. (Yes, that was an Aldous Huxley joke.) In Will's case, he was shipwrecked on the imaginary island, Pala. Upon wandering around the island Will comes across others, and throughout the course of the book is given lectures from different members of the island in how their life is significantly better than the one Will left behind. I'm sure the exotic location wasn't enough for Will to realize he was probably in a better place.

So the different members talk about all sorts of important and prevalent issues such as religion, industrialization, education, sex and birth control, and - oh yeah - drugs. They're shocked by Will's backwards ways and explain to him in nice ways just how much his lifestyle sucks and look, they're so much better. And it's not to say that they aren't better, but really, nothing happens but a lot of talking and I have enough talking in my day-to-day life and don't feel any better or smarter for it.

I was disappointed, not in so much that the story sucked, but because really Huxley covered the same themes that he did in Brave New World. Except in Brave New World there was a plot and a story and some interesting stuff going on. This felt like Huxley was sort of sick of having Brave New World compared to Nineteen Eighty-Four so much that he wanted to write something "new" and "improved"... and now it's only being compared to... Brave New World.

I wonder if Huxley was familiar with irony?

Tendo o "Admirável Mundo Novo" sido um dos meus livros favoritos of all time, sinto que coloquei expectativas muito altas para este livro, que se dizia uma espécie de antagonismo à distopia do primeiro. Apesar de abordar temas que me são muito queridos (budismo, hinduísmo e alucinógenos naturais) ficou substancialmente abaixo daquilo que tinha imaginado.

É um estilo de narrativa muito diferente do AMN. A ação é menos dinâmica e os diálogos são a fonte de quase toda a história. Não foi apaixonante para mim :/.

In his final novel, which he considered his most important, Aldous Huxley transports us to the remote Pacific island of Pala, where an ideal society has flourished for 120 years.

Despite having several existential crises whilst reading this little book I found many of the ideas to be exceptionally interesting and have given me some real food for thought. This book is essentially Aldous Huxley's version of what a Utopia would be like, in this case, a mixture of Western science and Eastern philosophy and there are many occasions where there are obvious criticisms of Western society, such as the addiction to sitting down, the monotonous and rarely changing nature of western employment, the lack of ability to understand our own minds and use them to be both enlightened and intelligent in our use of them, how we organise our family life, with one family in one domicile which rarely changes, the striving for betterment through increased efficiency, results, profits, status and the constant wanting of more than we need rather than focusing on happiness and having just what we need. Plenty of ideas and I'd encourage anyone reading this review to find a copy!

Aldous Huxley’s last novel is an enjoyably old-fashioned novel of ideas that makes no bones about what it is. Huxley posits an island utopia that has no real dystopian aspects except for the handing of power through the lines of a single family. It allows Huxley to push some of his favorite things, including hallucinogens, free sex, and Buddhism. It’s a fun change from fiction of today. A 3.5.

I found this book engaging with a great depiction of a utopian society. There was a fair amount of flowery language & dense vocabulary for me personally, but it was still engaging nevertheless. My partner & I listened to this on some road trips & I always loved it. I think the end was a bit depressing, but honestly I kind of figured it would end the way it did. There was little to no infrastructure to keep harmful forces out of Pala, so when it was under threat of development, how were they supposed to defend it? That was something that bothered me at the end... The lack of rallying to save the utopia they had built. I think this book touches a lot on colonization & also how our modern education systems could be improved. I really liked the chapters on their school system as well as MAC’s (multiple adoption clubs) the best. The citizens of Pala have a beautiful understanding of love, family, & spirituality which seem to be the things they value most. I really enjoyed this classic read & am sure many others would as well if they never read it.

I am generally suspicious of "novels of ideas," at it takes someone with the literary skill of Dosoevsky or Camus or Iris Murdoch to make one work -- and most attempts fail painfully. So as much as I have enjoyed many other Huxley novels, it took a pandemic to persuade me to explore "Island." I am very glad that I did....

For a novel of ideas, the plot proves compelling and the characterization highly convincing. The anti-hero, journalist Will Farnaby ("A man who cannot take yes for an answer") is a rather likable cynic, while his nemeses -- the insecure, stunted heir to the Palanese throne, Murugan, and the boy's holier-than-thou mother -- are psychologically authentic, if insufferable. And the talking Myna birds that warn passerby by to pay "attention" are inventive and brilliant. We could use them here in New York City; if only pigeons could speak.

Unlike many novels of ideas, Huxley's attitude toward the almost-Utopian society he depicts on the island of Pala appears somewhat ambivalent. While the Palanese have overcome many of the social ills of the rest of the world (sexual repression, overpopulation, economic inequality), they do so at the cost of making themselves vulnerable to outside attack -- and the last pages of the novel show the unsettling consequences of these trade-offs. More than a novel of ideas, "Island" is a novel that offers a series of alternative possibilities. Will's love interest, the widowed Susila, notes of Pala: "No Alcatrazes here. No Billy Grahams or Mao Tse-tungs or Madonnas of Fatima. No hells on earth and no Christian pies in the sky, no Communist pie in the twenty-second century. Just men and women and their children trying to make the best of the here and now, instead of living somewhere else...." While the Palanese spiritual tradition appears to be a hybrid of Buddhism and other eastern religions, the message of the novel appears more anti-ideological than anything more concrete.

As a bonus of sorts, Will asks one of literature's most profound questions: "Which is better--to be born stupid into an intelligent society or intelligent into an insane one?" (It's actually a much more complex question, I would argue, than it appears on the surface.)

Not sure this is as provocative a novel as "Point Counterpoint" or "Brave New World," but it is a quick and fascinating read.

Eu já era fã das obras do Huxley, de como ele analisa o comportamento humano e o mundo a sua volta, porém aqui fica claro o porquê ele é um verdadeiro intelectual, esse livro é uma utopia e a forma como ele organiza as ideias de como seria a sociedade ideal e expõe o quão errado são os nossos sistemas e valores e como isso poderia ser corrigido é simplesmente perfeita. Através dessa ilha fictícia chamada pala, ele meio que criou um mundo alternativo onde os seres humanos realmente vivem uma vida plena, conseguem desenvolver totalmente o auto conhecimento e se realizar como pessoas. Ele criou o que seria o mundo perfeito, uma sociedade humanista, unindo o melhor das culturas oriental e ocidental, livrando os habitantes do consumo desenfreado, produção em massa, qualquer tipo de fanatismo ou comportamento de massa e também de qualquer tipo de ameaça à liberdade dos cidadãos da ilha.
É uma obra totalmente centrada em diálogos e questões filosóficas, super criativa e questionadora da nossa atual civilização. Eu amei demais!

A little hard to stay with this one. A man is shipwrecked on an island populated by the perfect society. A typical Huxley book, he exploits and criticizes the basest elements of his current society by contrasting it with the earth-friendly, free love island's society. His protagonist laughs like a hyena, has flashbacks of his miserable existence, and was essentially trying to get to this island to get a deal for oil companies, which would essentially destroy the island's balance and idealism. I'm not sure I would like to live in this Buddhist-infused community, but I certainly do admire many of the qualities. All in all, the book is a bit too critical - the basic story line is superceded by the political descriptions, almost like a series of lectures strung together loosely by a series of conversations with a little day-to-day living inbetween. Makes you think, but not especially entertaining...

სიმართლე რომ ვთქვა, ცოტათი დამღალა, თითქოს განვითარება არ აქვს... საინტერესო თემებს ეხება და რაც მთავარია, ავტორი განსხვავებულად და კრიტიკულად საუბრობს ამჟამინდელ რეალობაშიც კი აქტუალურ პრობლემებზე. საოცრად დიდი ინფორმაციის მატარებელია და რეალურად, ბუდიზმის შესახებ ბევრი საინტერესო ფაქტი გავიგე. ეს წიგნი გაგრძნობინებთ, რომ არ არსებობს იდეოლოგია, რომელიც დამანგრეველი არ არის ადამიანის პიროვნებისთვის და რომელსაც აუცილებლად ეყოლება მოწინააღმდეგე. დაგარწმუნებთ იმაშიც, რომ ყოველი მცდელობა ჰარმონიული ცხოვრების შექმნისა უშედეგოა! შეიძლება ითქვას, ჰაქსლმა ამ ნაწარმოებით საზოგადოებას მწარე რეალობა დაანახა და ნათლად გამოხატა თავისი სათქმელი. სიუჟეტი უფრო ჩახლართული და განვითარებადი ყოფილიყო, ხუთ ვარსკვლავს აუცილებლად დავუწერდი! იმედია მომიტევებს ავტორი :დ