(Uhm. I am not stalking; promise. I'm just going through the reviews. )

Boredom aside, I find the book to be dubious throughout. Guy had a good thing going when starting out with isolated man vs nature and then introducing Friday. Here's where we can explore ethics and interpersonal relationships! And Defoe does, I suppose, just not the way I wanted him to. Which makes absolutely perfect sense, given that I don't live in his time.

I think maybe this book could be more interesting if Crusoe had suffered amnesia. I wonder if he would be more animal-like, then; more determined by his environment. But of course the point of the book seems to be more about elevating Reason to the pinnacle of human achievement, and I'm, well, I'm just. . . naturally suspicious of reason with a capital r. I'm more a fan of aesthetics.

HOWEVER. Man on desert island is a great way to express contemporary culture's core values and views on humanity. I think that makes Robinson Crusoe a valuable book, even if it's boring, and I really wouldn't mind the same general plot being repeated over and over again as our society undergoes dramatic changes.