Negative Positive
Title: Never Dry, Always Satisfying.
Review: Yes, I know that title sounds like a beer commercial. I figured a three-hundred-year-old book needed an updating in the promotions department and except for sex, booze sells the best when it comes to advertising. Seriously, though, Robinson Crusoe is a rich character study that sheds light on the outlook of the human mind of the period, on the world, on civilization's merits, on basic behavior when confronted with extraordinary circumstances for which nothing in life has prepared you. Its tale of one Englishman shipwrecked on an uncharted island greets something wistful inside us all, some part of us that longs to "get away from it all" and escape. Yet at the same time, this novel also provokes a fear reaction from within, as Crusoe lives out his and our own terror of abandonment, of total loss, of being forgotten. This is a classic novel that addresses ageless themes and wraps them in a story that's actually quite good for its age and all location-imposed limitations.
Is the review positive or negative? 