Self Portrait with Palette

Read the book here.

In this book, Paul Gauguin writes about Tahiti and gives us insight of the race relations between him and the locals.  From the beginning, the Māori treated him like royalty.  However, he treats Tahiti as his personal fetish and vacation from the civilized world.  I read this last year, and reading bits of it now gives me flashbacks to Avatar, especially with Gauguin’s writing of  the fantastic imagery he saw while living amongst the Māori. On the plus side, he also gives us insight into everything Tahiti.  However, we should not trust his views.  I found the book somewhat slow at times, but Gauguin gives us a lot of rich imagery in his writing.  I especially enjoyed his descriptions of Tahitian royalty.