Tales of the South Pacific was the first of James Mitchner's books I had ever read. After reading it, my girlfriend told me that I drove her crazy in high school claiming that I was one day going to Tahiti. Twenty-five years later, not having spoken of it since high school, I call my girlfriend out of the blue and said 'Guess where I'm going?' 'Tahiti', she said. 'How'd you know?', I asked. 'Because you dreamt of going there since high school', she replied. The book made me want to go there.
So I went to Bora Bora in Tahiti in the South Pacific for two weeks. It was beautiful there. The colors, the water, the fish, the people, all things was magical. When I returned, I re-read The Tales of the South Pacific, especially the chapter on Bora Bora. How can one man delineate in exquisite information what I had felt and encountered just by being in Tahiti? But he did, and very well.
"Chocolate Truffles"
Since then I have been to Bora Bora twice. What a spectacular, place. Now that my money is not as plentiful, I go there vicariously by reading Mitchner's book again. It is the most dog-eared book I have and the only one I re-read over and over again.
I have progressed to many other Mithchner tales and have loved them all. The information he provides is real, the feelings he writes about are real, the charm of the land is real. Read this book, go there. You will enjoy it!
Book chronicle - Tales of the South Pacific