A Hero for the Atomic Age: Thor Heyerdahl and the «Kon-Tiki» Expedition: 00 (Peter Lang Ltd.)

At some point, apparently during a brief encounter in his youth, the author of this book evidently took a dislike to Thor Heyerdahl. Here, Axel Andersson spares no effort in dissecting Heyerdahl’s massive-selling and endlessly appealing account of the Kon-Tiki’s epic and inspiring voyage and finds fault with pretty well all of the aventurer’s motives. An account of the voyage itself, perhaps rightly, is covered in less than two pages: it is well known enough. Details of the pre-voyage preparations and the subsequent efforts to find a publisher are of interest and the writer has clearly researched thoroughly. But the negative tone that pervades Andersson’s pedantic text becomes increasingly wearisome. He criticises Heyerdahl for not contributing much to the war effort (Thor did join up and never pretended to be a hero), notes that he was a womaniser which resulted in divorce, and accuses him of racism, imperialism and ‘pseudo-science’. He even goes so far as to suggest that Heyerdahl was influenced by the same ‘white master race’ ethos as the Nazis - apparently because Thor was briefly assisted by a professor who later collaborated with Hitler’s regime. Andersson makes the cardinal error of imposing present-day liberal-left values on a very different time when an individual’s core beliefs were shaped by the prevailing zeitgeist and even earlier by his or her parents’ beliefs. Even Heyerdahl’s brilliance as a narrator and the timelessness of his tale are dismissed as cynical contrivances. Clearly, Andersson has no time for Thor’s courage, tenacity, ingenuity and leadership qualities, as he doesn’t mention them. There is a case to be made here about heroes and the making a myths which is both pertinent and, in a celebrity-obsessed age, timely. But this book - which reads like an over-blown college thesis - fails ultimately because of its determinedly negative bias. During Andersson’s tirade about Heyerdahl’s alleged sexism he triumphantly notes that the only female who plays a significant role in the voyage is a parrot, and at this point I lost interest. The author, who clearly spends a lot of time in libraries and at a computer has little time for heroes and none at all for their failings: he even opines that Lindberg had no need to fly the Atlantic non-stop as Alcock & Brown had already done it. Finally, this book is grossly over-priced. Of its 252 pages, only 191 comprise the text: the rest are devoted to notes and references and a published price of £30 is ridiculous. Fans of Heyerdahl’s classic won’t like this book, researchers into publishing methods and the making of myths and heroes should, like me, spend a tenner on a pre-owned or a remaindered copy: unlike Thor’s book there will a great many of the latter.