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I bet just about every review of this book starts with a sentence along the lines of “I am reading this because I read Brave New World . . .�� Well, I am no different! Brave New World is one of my favorite (if not my most favorite) book, so I figured I would give another Huxley book a try.

I am giving this one 3 stars �� not because it is good or because it is bad, but because it just is!

Island is a utopian manifesto thinly veiled behind a story on a fictional island of Pala. I have seen many say it is considered the flip-side novel of the dystopian society presented in Brave New World. I have always enjoyed the story in BNW through many readings. Island, however, is much more textbook �� in fact, each scene has a different utopian ideal discussed with almost bullet point precision.

I felt like the ideas presented were interesting and many still relate today. I can’t say I agree or disagree with everything presented, but it definitely provides some food for thought. At the time of the release (1960s) many of the ideals discussed sound like they would directly appeal to the counter-culture opposing Vietnam War/Post WWII era thoughts on sex, religion, birth control, consumerism, politics, money, education, war, racism, drugs, health care, death, love, the afterlife, etc. While I was not alive during this time period, I can imagine a well-worn copy of this book in the back pocket of many of the protesters seen in iconic photos and videos from that time.

For me, I am glad I read it to see some more of Huxley’s work, but I don’t come away from it feeling like I read a novel. I would recommend it to you if you have an interest in a study on utopia vs dystopia. Also, if you like getting a perspective on some opposing viewpoints to where our world stood in the mid-20th Century, it doesn’t get much better than this.