Books: South Pacific Revisited

RETURN To PARADISE (437 pp.)—James A. fAichener—Random House ($3.50).

Most veterans have a sneaking desire to go back to the scenes of the war they knew. Short of a return to service, few get to do it, fewer still are paid to do it. Storyteller James A. Michener is one of the few. He was paid to go back to the South Pacific, wrote eight articles for Holiday magazine, which footed the bill. He also wrote Return to Paradise, based on the articles, and it is the May choice of the Book-of-the-Month Club.

Ex-Seaman Michener knows his South Pacific. As an aviation-maintenance troubleshooter, later as a Navy historical officer, he probably saw more of the area than Melville, Conrad and Maugham put together.

He is not in their class as a storyteller. Michener’s slapdash device in Return to Paradise is to write a fact-packed essay on an old haunt revisited, then write a short story based on the central idea of the essay. The stories fall fathoms below his Pulitzer Prizewinning Tales of the South Pacific. The essays, however, are basically good reporting and have an interest of their own.

Back to Dinner Jackets. Michener writes with genuine affection for the island natives and their simple, relaxed culture. But he warns paradise-hunters and dreamy would-be beachcombers that the cost of heaven-on-earth comes high. Said a Tahiti businessman: “We want the rich tourists, not cheapies who have a high time on five bucks a day.” Michener’s own estimate: “You can get by in almost any part of Polynesia for only 50% more than you pay in Illinois. In Tahiti, of course, the cost is twice as much.”

On Guadalcanal, the pet puppies of the G.I.s are now wild dogs; the British colonial officials again dress for dinner. At Espiritu Santo, once a huge U.S. base, now a placid French colony again, the natives wear T-shirts and tailor-made shorts. Said the chief of police when Michener departed: “You must be very sorry to leave so happy an island. Where everybody dances and gets drunk and the chief of police never makes a fuss.”

Luck with an If. One day in Rabaul, Author Michener talked over with his wife the places they had seen, the people they had met. Their conclusions: “We would be willing to live on almost any Polynesian island. We’d think ourselves lucky to be able to live on Tahiti or Rarotonga. We could enjoy a year or two on even the loneliest atolls. The inconveniences would be offset by the joyous life-patterns of the people who would share them with us.”

The same goes for Melanesia, but the Micheners add a practical if: “If we could earn some income, have screening, some kind of lighting system and some native boys willing to work for a decent wage…”