A true classic

a good entertaining listen, it's not going to blow you away, but the story is good and the reading is excellent

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1 person found this helpful

Practical and idealized castaways

I hadn't read the book or watched the movie. This is my first encounter with Swiss Family Robinson. (No real spoilers.) A Swiss family is shipwrecked and abandoned by fellow shipmates. However, they make it ashore and make a life for themselves on an island of incredible abundance. The father is beneficent, helpful, and moralistic and is the narrator of this tale. The mother is quietly helpful and productive, and occasionally expresses some maternal fears, to which her husband reassures her, and the four boys are industrious and adventurous. The family finds numerous plants and animals, from pigs to cows to walruses to ostriches to whales and on and on, which the father helps them identify, tame, and steward. The plot is driven by their ability to make a home for themselves on an uninhabited island through knowledge, industry, and faith in God. So the whole book is simply a series of situations that they must overcome to make a beautiful home.

My take is that this is a story that promotes a form of Christian pragmatism, and is led by a strong but kindly fatherly figure. I'm unaware of why they sailed in the first place, and there is no sentiment for the home, family, and friends left behind. No pangs of loss. Just excitement for the next day, for the next challenge. Really, it reads as an adventure book for adolescent boys. And despite the father's Christian beliefs, with occasional calls for sabbath rest, thanksgiving, and moral behaviour, there is no deep pondering of what it means to be exiled, troubled, or sinful. Humanity is simply shown as it should be - a family plopped into a garden, which they tend and cause to flourish. A garden of Eden where there is no real sense of the Fall.

The narrator did a great job with the voices and the tempo. However, there is an occasional rustling of the manuscript from which he reads. It sounded like an amazing voice actor reading from a lectern. It may distract some but I was pleased with the performance overall.

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