Richard Hughes

In general, I don't tend to gravitate to novels about children: there's something about those books which feels out of reach or distant. This was the case, again, with A High Wind in Jamaica, Richard Hughes's curious novel about a group of children captured -- and later released -- by pirates off the coast of Cuba. 

This really is an odd novel: there's brutality and crime, but at the same time, there's tenderness and naivety. I suspect that was Hughes's goal: to contrast youth with age, innocence with corruption. For me, these contrasts did not necessarily warrant pirates or rum. In fact, some of this novel -- which has been celebrated since its publication in 1929 -- seemed almost nonsensical: these captive children would never have survived as they did if it weren't for their, well, credulity. 

And again, maybe this was Hughes's point: that innocence is a surprisingly powerful force, and that children can accommodate almost any circumstance. I acknowledge this argument, and concede there are moments in the novel which effectively highlight that unexpected power. But in the end, this seemed more an idea than the basis for an extended work of fiction. For me, the divergence between youth and age was too jarring to be believable: and the result were interactions between toddlers and pirates which didn't fully fit.