{{short description|1952 novel by William March}} {{for|the island in Kaliningrad|Oktyabrsky Island}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books --> | name = October Island | title_orig = | translator = | image = File:OctoberIsland.jpg | caption= First US edition | author = William March | cover_artist = | country = United States | language = English | series = | genre = | publisher = Little, Brown (US)<br>Gollancz (UK) | release_date = 1952 | media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback) | pages = | isbn = | preceded_by = Trial Balance: The Collected Short Stories of William March (1945) | followed_by = The Bad Seed (1954) }}
'''''October Island''''' is a novel by American author William March, first published in 1952 by Little, Brown (in the United States) and Gollancz (in the United Kingdom). The book is not currently in print.
While there were plenty of reviews (Roy S. Simmonds lists 29 in his ''William March: An Annotated Checklist''<ref>{{cite book | last = Simmonds | first = Roy S. | authorlink = Roy S. Simmonds | title = William March: An Annotated Checklist | publisher = University of Alabama Press | year = 1988 | location = Tuscaloosa | pages = [https://archive.org/details/williammarchanno0000simm/page/175 175–81] | url = https://archive.org/details/williammarchanno0000simm | url-access = registration | doi = | id = | isbn = 0-8173-0361-8}}</ref>), many of them were quite negative; most of the negative reviews claimed the book was flat and uninteresting. In ''The New York Times Book Review'', Donald Barr complained that the characters were marionettes;<ref>{{cite news | last = Donald | first = Barr | title = A Tale of Morality and Fulfillment | work = The New York Times Book Review | place = | page = 44 | language = | publisher = | date = 1952-10-19 | url = }}</ref> John Betjeman, in the ''Daily Telegraph'', was even more critical: "The book is written simply, but it is empty, and there is really nothing beyond its simplicity. It is neither real nor fantastic."<ref>{{cite news | last = Betjeman | first = John | title = Rev. of ''October Island'' | work = Daily Telegraph | place = | page = 6 | language = | publisher = | date = 1952-06-20 | url = }}</ref>
Positive appraisal came from, for instance, Charles Poore, in ''The New York Times'', who praises March's "novel of salt and savor" full of "quiet, uninsistent irony" and his "mordant undertones of commentary on what it truly means to be an outcast."<ref>{{cite news | last = Poore | first = Charles | title = Books of the Times | work = The New York Times | place = | page = 27 | language = | publisher = | date = 1952-10-16 | url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F7061EFC3558107A93C4A8178BD95F468585F9&scp=1&sq=uninsistent+irony&st=p | accessdate = 2009-08-21}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
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Category:1952 American novels Category:Novels by William March Category:Little, Brown and Company books Category:Novels set on islands