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Hidden Latitudes Alison Anderson 9780671008888 Books

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Hidden Latitudes Alison Anderson 9780671008888 Books

In 1937, aviatrix Amelia Earhart disappeared with her navigator, Fred Noonan, somewhere in the South Pacific while attempting a circumnavigation of the globe. The mystery of Earhart's fate has captured the public's imagination for decades. Did she perish when her plane hit the water? Was she captured by the Japanese and executed as a spy? Was she abducted by space aliens? Is she living in Idaho with Elvis?
The premise of Alison Anderson's novel HIDDEN LATITUDES, which is set in1979, is that Amelia has survived 42 years as a castaway on a tiny Pacific atoll, the last 40 alone. Then one day, a 35-foot sailboat, the "Stowaway", with husband Robin and wife Lucy aboard, anchors in the island's lagoon, her engine kaput and her hull reef damaged. Might this be Earhart's ride home?
In chapters that alternate between the "voice" of Amelia and those of her might-be rescuers, the author explores the loneliness that derives from complete isolation from the world as compared with that despairing aloneness which grips the partners in a failing marriage. Earhart has become so accustomed to solitary life on her little island that she hesitates to reveal her presence to Robin and Lucy, whose marital difficulties are only exacerbated by their present crisis. At 82, Amelia wonders what would be gained by returning to a world that would regard her as an historical curiosity, soon to become nothing but an aged crony. Being young and not realizing the value of what they have together, Robin and Lucy internally contemplate the possibility of separation once they get back to "civilization".
I liked HIDDEN LATITUDES insofar as the poignancy of Anderson's plot resides almost solely in the Earhart character as she "remembers" for the reader the significant events of her life since she and Fred lost their way, including two near-rescues snatched away early on by cruel Fate. To this extent, Anderson has crafted an imaginatively satisfying "what if" scenario. On the other hand, the Robin and Lucy characters become so caught up in their dysfunctional behavior while struggling to make their boat seaworthy that they approach dangerously close to becoming tiresome. They're so self-absorbed in their own bickering that they fail for too long to follow up on clues that another human is present on this "deserted" island. You want to yell at them, "Snap out of it. Look around you!"
At one point, Amelia sneaks a book from the "Stowaway":
"In my shelter there is a new treasure, a novel. ...I have taken it from them ... but I think if they could ever know the pleasure it will give me they would not mind. Dare I read it over and over, for the pleasure? As it happens I cannot read quickly. I am not used to letters on a page anymore. ... I read aloud, quietly; words and voice struggle together against neglect. Yet I can savor the words and pictures they convey. ... I am like a child, learning to read, learning the world I have forgotten."
Perhaps more than anything else, Earhart yearns for the small things of life like jam, a scissors to cut her hair, a new pair of shorts, needle and thread. And, God bless her, books.


Tags : Hidden Latitudes [Alison Anderson] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. When a near shipwreck strands a young couple on an uncharted island in the Pacific, they encounter a mysterious woman who may or may not be the legendary aviator Amelia Earhart but who has been stranded on the remote strip of land for more than forty years,Alison Anderson,Hidden Latitudes,Scribner,0671008889,Historical - General,1897-1937,Earhart, Amelia,Earhart, Amelia,,Fiction,Fiction General,Fiction Historical

Hidden Latitudes Alison Anderson 9780671008888 Books Reviews

Alison Anderson's "Hidden Latitudes" does have a interesting premise, that Amelia Earhart survived and lived on a small island in the Kiribati islands, and she has been marooned for so long that she no longer wishes to leave. A unhappy married couple stops at the island to repair their boat, and they soon discover that they are not alone, but they are afraid and annoyed by their "visitor". They argue and we find ourselves uninterested in them. Ending is kind of muddled
Imagine Amelia Earhart stranded on a tropical island, and imagine that 40 yrs later a young couple beaches their sailboat on that same island. That's the premise of Hidden Latitudes. Anderson writes convincingly, alternating between Earhart's voice (and now 70yo doesn't immediately reveal herself to these newcomers) and a 3rd-person narrative of the two sailors, whose marriage was shaky to begin with, and now they've got shipwreck to contend with.
Sounds iffy, right? But set aside your doubts, pick this book up, and read it. Besides being a superb first novel, it's a superb story. You won't be disappointed.
There are two stories told here -- that of Amelia Earhart and her experiences being stranged on a deserted island after crashing her airplane with her navigator, and that of a young married couple nearly shipwrecked on that same island but unaware of her presence there.

When the story focuses on Earhart, it's fascinating and heart breaking, the story of a woman left to survive for 40 years on her memories and ingenuity. When the story shifts to the couple, it's far too soap opera-ish. Frankly, you never grow to know or like this whiney couple enough to care much about their problems.

Still, the author is a skilled wordsmith and although leisurely paced, the novel has enough evocative descriptions that the story will stay with me a long time.
Throughout the book, I can see what I think that author is getting at. She wants us to look beyond our materialistic world, to look beyond the people we are in the world we know. All a very valid message.

I find her message in the acknowledgement section somewhat confusing, that perhaps this is not Amelia Earhart afterall, that the reader should make up their own minds. If not Amelia Earhart, then why the companion named Fred, the talk of the fame that this woman knew would surround her when she arrived home and the references to the lost Electra.
Lucy and Robin were not terribly heartwarming characters in my opinion. They both seemed quite immature, self centered and shallow and I doubt that in the long term they would be able to hold a relationship together. They probably matured from their experience, but I think they might find being full time parents rather boring and I see each of them drifting into their old lives and habits, leaving the child to almost raising itself.
As to the woman that the author suggests to be Earhart, she has no choice as to the life she has led on this island, though I find it somewhat unlikely that after 40 years rumors from the Japanese and some natives might not have caused someone to come and take another look.
Inspite of the above criticisms, it was a fast read with a rather predictable ending.
In 1937, aviatrix Amelia Earhart disappeared with her navigator, Fred Noonan, somewhere in the South Pacific while attempting a circumnavigation of the globe. The mystery of Earhart's fate has captured the public's imagination for decades. Did she perish when her plane hit the water? Was she captured by the Japanese and executed as a spy? Was she abducted by space aliens? Is she living in Idaho with Elvis?
The premise of Alison Anderson's novel HIDDEN LATITUDES, which is set in1979, is that Amelia has survived 42 years as a castaway on a tiny Pacific atoll, the last 40 alone. Then one day, a 35-foot sailboat, the "Stowaway", with husband Robin and wife Lucy aboard, anchors in the island's lagoon, her engine kaput and her hull reef damaged. Might this be Earhart's ride home?
In chapters that alternate between the "voice" of Amelia and those of her might-be rescuers, the author explores the loneliness that derives from complete isolation from the world as compared with that despairing aloneness which grips the partners in a failing marriage. Earhart has become so accustomed to solitary life on her little island that she hesitates to reveal her presence to Robin and Lucy, whose marital difficulties are only exacerbated by their present crisis. At 82, Amelia wonders what would be gained by returning to a world that would regard her as an historical curiosity, soon to become nothing but an aged crony. Being young and not realizing the value of what they have together, Robin and Lucy internally contemplate the possibility of separation once they get back to "civilization".
I liked HIDDEN LATITUDES insofar as the poignancy of Anderson's plot resides almost solely in the Earhart character as she "remembers" for the reader the significant events of her life since she and Fred lost their way, including two near-rescues snatched away early on by cruel Fate. To this extent, Anderson has crafted an imaginatively satisfying "what if" scenario. On the other hand, the Robin and Lucy characters become so caught up in their dysfunctional behavior while struggling to make their boat seaworthy that they approach dangerously close to becoming tiresome. They're so self-absorbed in their own bickering that they fail for too long to follow up on clues that another human is present on this "deserted" island. You want to yell at them, "Snap out of it. Look around you!"
At one point, Amelia sneaks a book from the "Stowaway"
"In my shelter there is a new treasure, a novel. ...I have taken it from them ... but I think if they could ever know the pleasure it will give me they would not mind. Dare I read it over and over, for the pleasure? As it happens I cannot read quickly. I am not used to letters on a page anymore. ... I read aloud, quietly; words and voice struggle together against neglect. Yet I can savor the words and pictures they convey. ... I am like a child, learning to read, learning the world I have forgotten."
Perhaps more than anything else, Earhart yearns for the small things of life like jam, a scissors to cut her hair, a new pair of shorts, needle and thread. And, God bless her, books.