Don't Stop the Carnival

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Don't Stop the Carnival
Author Herman Wouk
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Novel
Publisher Doubleday
Publication date 1965
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 395 pp
ISBN 978-0316955126

Don't Stop the Carnival is a 1965 novel by American writer Herman Wouk about escaping middle-age crisis to the Caribbean, a heaven that quickly turns into a hell for the main character. The novel was turned into a short-lived musical by Jimmy Buffett in 1997.

[edit] Plot introduction

It takes place on the fictional island of Amerigo. According to the opening of the musical (a paraphrased excerpt from the novel),

"Kinja was the name of the island when it was British. The actual name was King George III Island, but the islanders shortened that to Kinja. Now the names in the maps and guidebooks is Amerigo, but everybody who lives there still calls it Kinja. The United States acquired the island peacefully in 1940 as part of the shuffling of old destroyers and Caribbean real estate that went on between Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill. The details of the transaction were, and are, vague to the inhabitants. The West Indian is not exactly hostile to change, but it's not much inclined to believe in it. Meantime, in a fashion, Amerigo was getting American-ized; the inflow of cash was making everybody more prosperous. Most Kinjans go along cheerily with this explosion of American energy in the Caribbean. To them, it seems a new, harmless, and apparently endless carnival."