A High Wind in Jamaica

Richard Hughes

1929 • 192 pages

Ratings7

Average rating3.3

"After a terrible hurricane levels their Jamaican estate, the Bas-Thorntons decide to send their children back to the safety and comfort of England. On the way their ship is set upon by pirates, and the children are accidentally transferred to the pirate vessel. Jonsen, the well-meaning pirate captain, doesn't know how to dispose of his new cargo, while the children adjust with surprising ease to their new life.

As this strange company drifts around the Caribbean, events turn more frightening and the pirates find themselves increasingly incriminated by the children's fates. The most shocking betrayal, however, will take place only after the return to civilization.".

"The swift, almost hallucinatory action of Hughes's novel, together with its provocative insight into the psychology of children, made it a best seller when it was first published in 1929 and has since established it as a classic of twentieth-century literature - an unequaled exploration of the nature, and limits of innocence."--BOOK JACKET.

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Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

Lisa

This is such a mess. A lot of misses in Mustich's list for me this year. Very, very dated language (naturally, it's quite old) but the story isn't good enough to give a pass.

November 12, 2022

CLYDE WISHAM

We all know that children aren't like adults. Immature people (children, that is) are really a subspecies. It is a rare writer who can remember (and recreate) what the world looks like to children. IMHO, A High Wind in Jamaica is the best of the few good books written from a child's POV.
(Ducks head. No, really, it is better than The Lord of the Flies.)

August 21, 2011

Sarah

What a curious book. I still don't know entirely what to make of it, and I don't know if I'll figure that anytime soon. I was struck by Hughes' depictions of innocence and childhood. He certainly conveyed the randomness and strangeness of children that is often left out in romanticized versions of children. This was somehow a really beautifully written book and a grim and gruesome one as well. Some of the death in this book we shockingly violent and vivid, and I was genuinely uncomfortable and sad when the animals died or were being mistreated. Hughes' writing was beautiful and evocative, and I am surprised by how much I enjoyed this tale, despite its intense darkness and not so happy ending.

April 7, 2016