Moloka'i by Alan Brennert

I'm not ashamed to admit I sobbed several times through the reading of this book.  It was a tragic, yet beautiful telling of life in a place where people were sent to die.  And it is probably one of the best books I've read in the last couple of years.

Rachel is a young girl when the first rosy signs of leprosy begin to appear on her skin.  Torn from her loving family, she is first hospitalized and then sent to Moloka'i, an island in Hawaii where a leper colony was formed.  There, she begins a new life, one born under the tutelage of the nuns who operate a school/dormitory for young girls with the disease, and also of a woman who becomes like a mother to her and teaches her the other ways of Hawaii.  It is in this small world that she will spend her life, trying to live as others do, and also hoping for a cure.

Rachel is a fantastic character.  She is exceptionally real and you can envision her exact story happening in real life.  And chances are it did.  Brennert said he studied journals and other sources of media to develop Rachel's character, so in all likelihood her story is real.  And she experiences so much in her life, despite being confined to the island, and you can see her character grow as the years pass and she deals with her disease.  And the other people of the colony were also very real.  Her uncle Pono, her aunt, and the numerous friends she had all shared that same resilience and want to live, despite being disfigured and shunned by the rest of society.  And Sister Catherine, a nun that was Rachel was close to, was really a guiding figure for the book despite having her own problems.  I think Brennert did a good job too of showing the shame that was felt and the stigma of leprosy among the population.  It is horrific how they were treated because medical science hadn't yet developed a cure and people were afraid of the unknown.

Even though there is no great action in this book (unless you count the bombing of Pearl Harbor, which the characters observed from a distance), it was just as exciting as any book I've read.  I think it was the depth and eloquence of the writing that did it.  You felt as if you were living life on this Leper colony right along with Rachel.  You felt for her and wanted to see a good outcome and happiness.  And the people around her were all a part of the telling, right down to the accents that Brennert gave them in dialogue.   I had actually never heard of Kalaupapa or Moloka'i before this book.  And didn't know the history of the leper colony there either and found it heartbreaking.   To know that these events happened in real life even though this book is fiction just further instills those feelings. 

This book is a hard one to review for me, because it was so excellent and because I can't share my excitement of it without telling you the whole plot.  Suffice to say it is one I definitely recommend.  It is an engaging book that will draw you in and make you not want to put it down, and leave you wanting more when it is finished.

Moloka'i
Copyright 2003
389 pages

Lost Kingdom by Julia Flynn Siler

I wanted so desperately to like this book. When I saw it on the shelf with its bright turquoise cover I immediately snatched it up. But now, after forcing myself to finish it, I find myself largely underwhelmed. Two stars from this reviewer.

Lost Kingdom says on its cover that it is about Hawaii's last queen, the sugar kings, and America's First Imperial Adventure. I'd say to an extent it's about those things, but largely it was about the Queen Lili'uokalani. The history covered a little bit about when traders, Captain Cook and missionaries came to the islands, but really started going into detail when Lili'u (shortened for ease) was born and then follows her through the time she is deposed and Hawaii is annexed by the United States. There is a little bit about what happens after she's gone, but like the time before she was born, it was only briefly covered.

Lili'u is described very favorably in this book. Especially when compared to the myriad of other people that are described. Those sugar barons, Thurston, Dole, & Spreckel, who were big businessmen in Hawaii. Her husband is also somewhat described, but not in favorable terms. And of her adopted children, barely anything is said about them. She is the main focus of this book. And while she's well described, I was looking for more than that since I thought the book would be about more than just her. The average Hawaiian person is barely mentioned in the book at all. Which is another thing I fault it for. Hawaii is its people, much like any other country, and to only show the rich, royal or powerful does a disservice to the history.

The writing style is very dry. There is a lot of detail, and I hesitate to call it textbook like because there have been many textbooks I've enjoyed, but there's just nothing to really sink into in this book. You can be reading a paragraph about one topic only to immediately jump into the next paragraph about something completely different and the overall effect wasn't cohesive. Important details, like her husband's death and other things are told in only a few sentences. And could easily be missed if you are just skimming the book. It's clear that she did a lot of research (as evidenced by the over one hundred pages of sources, end-notes, indices, and bibliography at the end of the book. In fact, I'd say that section takes up a good third of the book so you end up finishing it sooner than you think you would. And as this is the first book I've really read on Hawaii, I can't comment on if the facts are actually true or not. It looks like a lot of research, but as others have said, when calling the Hula sensual, it just doesn't ring authentic.

One aspect I did enjoy was the list of terms at the front for different Hawaiian words. It helped when I encountered them within the book itself, although struggling with pronunciation in my head was difficult.

I can't say that I'd recommend this book to anyone. It took a very interesting topic and made it dull. It was so hard for me to finish the book that I had to take it just a chapter at a time, which is very unusual for me. Perhaps somewhere out there will be a book about Hawaii that will captivate me.

Lost Kingdom
Copyright 2012
302 pages (415 pages with all the misc. stuff)