Board meeting in paradise

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Board meeting in paradise (Original: Paratiisisaaren vangit ) is a novel by the Finnish author Arto Paasilinna from 1974 . It's a bizarre story about a group of people whose plane crashes during a storm in the Pacific .

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The story is told first-hand by a Finnish journalist . He is sitting in an airplane of the English airplane type Trident . The plane was chartered by the UN and is on its way from Tokyo to Australia . There are 50 people on board. It gets caught in a storm over Melanesia and crashes. 48 of the 50 passengers survived the crash. Only a Finnish forest worker and a Swedish nurse die.

The narrator is first washed up on an island alone. After wandering around for a few days, he meets the remaining survivors. A list of the people who survived the crash is made. It turns out that 22 men and 26 women now live on the island.

Over time, the stranded get used to life on the island and begin to help each other. Thanks to a box with IUDs, interpersonal relationships are not neglected on the island either (in the course of the story the narrator is with two women). Initially, a council of three people is elected to head, including the narrator.

From then on, you sometimes learn something about the stranded people, their stories and their actual jobs. One day a helicopter comes to the island and shoots at the residents. Two people die in this attack. It turns out that there is a war going on inside the island . When an Indonesian soldier comes to the stranded community, the islanders learn that the military is hunting down deserters like the Indonesian Janne. He throws an eye on the gruff woman Sigurd, who finally also welcomes a child from Janne. However, the child is only born in Europe .

After a while, the narrator and the Englishman Keast have an idea: They plan to clear and light a huge SOS sign in the jungle so that a satellite can be made aware of the situation of the stranded. The whole camp is initially enthusiastic about the proposal. During the work, various cozy houses for normal living are being built on the beach. A schnapps distillery and a sauna are also built. The village community that has now emerged is learning more and more to love the tropics. After about nine months, the giant SOS is ready and ready to be lit. Now the camp splits into two groups. One group would like to stay on the paradise island, the other to go home. It will be voted. Those who want to return to Europe narrowly win the election. So the sign is lit and after a few days American rescuers come. But ten camp residents, including the narrator, do not want to go home and hide in the jungle. Ultimately, they are forcibly taken to the rescue ship. In the end, everyone travels home, except for Janne, who moves in with Mrs. Sigurd.

A deep part of the plot is that the islanders live together in peaceful socialism . This could be a reprimand from Paasilinna that socialism does not always have to lead to a violent end. In addition, there is a contrast between the civilized world, which is full of wars and suffering, and the idyllic island life, in which everyone is equal and there are no obligations.

main characters

  • Narrator (Finnish journalist)
  • Vanninen (Finnish doctor)
  • Taylor (English pilot)
  • black-haired midwife (Finnish midwife)
  • Reeves (English co-pilot)
  • Mrs. Sigurd (Swedish nurse)
  • Janne (Indonesian soldier)
  • Maj-Len, Birgitta, Ingrid, Gunvor, Lily (Swedish nurses)
  • Lämsä, Lakkonen, Ala-Korhonen (Finnish forest workers)
  • Keast (English steward)
  • Iines Sotisaari (Finnish midwife)

The following people defend themselves against the rescue:

  • teller
  • Taylor
  • Lämsa
  • Reeves
  • Lacons
  • Birgitta
  • Gunvor
  • Maj-Len
  • Lily
  • Iines Sotisaari