Don't Stop the Carnival (novel)

Don't Stop the Carnival
1st edition
Author(s)	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
OCLC Number	25632993

Don't Stop the Carnival is a 1965 novel by American writer Herman Wouk. It is a comedy 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.

Plot

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 he'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.

”

This book is said to be loosely based on Herman Wouk's experiences in managing an actual hotel the Royal Mail Inn in the early 1960s St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. The hotel was on Hassel Island, located in Charlotte Amalie Harbour.