Exploring Easter Island

Jennifer Vanderbes has several stories going on at once in her 2003 novel Easter Island.

1. Although Elsa, a young Englishwoman, loves a German man she has met, he has inconveniently returned to Germany and she doesn't know when, or even if, she will see him again. So she agrees to marry Edward, a middle-aged scientist, to provide security both for herself and her sister, Alice, who may be autistic and, whatever her condition, needs constant care. Edward, knowing Elsa would never abandon Alice, promises to take care of her, too. The year is 1912.

When Edward gets the chance to go to Easter Island for a long-term study of the Moai statues, he takes both Elsa and Alice with him. To have something to do other than watch over her sister, Elsa attempts to translate the inscriptions found on ancient stones on the island. Meanwhile, Alice develops a mind of her own.

2. In the 1970s a botanist named Greer Farraday, still recovering from the deceit by and death of her husband (he stole her research and claimed it as his own) goes to Easter Island to study the migration of plants from one part of the world to another.

3. Graf von Spee, a German admiral, commands a fleet of warships in the South Pacific when war is declared. Knowing he has little hope of getting his fleet safely back to Germany without being tracked down by Allied ships, he anchors off the coast of Easter Island. (This part of Vanderbes's novel is mostly true.)

4. Also true is the fourth story the author tells, that of the island itself. Along the way she conveys a great deal of information about Easter Island's human history, cultural history and scientific history, although much about this mysterious place remains mostly speculation. How did those massive statues get there? What happened to the trees that once stood on the island? Were they all used to move those stones into position?

Unfortunately these stories, although occasionally interesting in their own right, never really mesh. Those interested in scientific research or in Easter Island may find something fascinating here. Those who just want a good story should look elsewhere.