My only reason for giving this book two stars instead of one is my respect for Defoe as an author, who made the first novel a meta fictional text and who continues to fool many readers into believing Crusoe despite his glaring contradictions and inconsistencies. Other than that, I hate this "classic." It moves far too slowly and the climax is anticlimactic since we know from the beginning that Crusoe escapes--hello, old Crusoe opens the story. Crusoe is an unreliable narrator who consistently blames his isolation on unknown exterior forces rather than owning his faults and accepting responsibility for his actions. Speaking of ownership, let's not forget Crusoe's immediate desire to slaughter the natives from the mainland and enslave those he "saves" (both literally and through his own twisted version of religion). I love that I can hate a character so much, but there just wasn't enough action or solid writing to compel me to enjoy this text.