Many Lagoons - One Man's Search For an Island Paradise (1958)

Suppose someone offered you a house on a South Sea Island - yours and yours alone for the period of one year. That happened to Ralph Varady, and this is his story of a year in paradise.......

Moorea is a small island in French Oceania. It's eleven miles from Tahiti. It might be a million miles from the crush and tension of modern life.

Ralph Varady arrived in early January, 1956, and took possession of 18 acres, two dilapidated shacks, and the crumbling ruins of a once fine mansion. He loved it from the beginning, and his memory of Moorea enlivens every page of Many Lagoons. Happily, this is a true South Sea idyll.

Varady's enquiring mind explores and reports on the multitudinous facets of what is, on the surface, a simple life. And, as with all fine storytellers, he is as fascinated by his neighbors as by his exotic surroundings. Open this book and you inhale the sweet fragrance of frangipani, feel the caress of tradewinds, hear the rumble of surf on a reef.

You also meet the laughing, sensible people of Polynesia, who long ago concluded that man cannot live by bread alone. Food is in the sea and on the trees, yet human companionship is equally important - a philosophy that is brought directly to Mr. Varady's attention when the whole village conspires to supply him with a woman.

The year on Moorea was a dream come true. It was not, however, a year of lotus-eating. Varady learned about copra making and pearl diving. He visited the neighboring atolls - even Takaroa, on the Tuamotus, where white men rarely go. His interest in shipwrecks led him to Count von Luckner's Seeadler, and the whole fantastic story of the sea raider. And he visited Gauguin's grave; met Gauguin's son and daughter.

There is a wealth of information here, and through it all the author's sincere appreciation of the real values of South Sea Island life. He is a romantic realist who enjoyed every moment of his year.

You will too. (....from the inside cover)