Hawaii: A Novel by James A. Michener Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Hawaii: A Novel
Book Review: Not a great novel
Summary: 2 Stars
This book started off slow with the formation of the Hawaiian islands and just continued from there. The second chapter was more insightful and interesting but it seemed to drag. Several pages could have been cut or edited out. It would have been better if this book moved through the years a little more swiftly, than dragging to each persons life. It was very difficult to finish and this is one book I will not re-read again. It was about as interesting as a school text book, without a teacher to bring out the lesson.Book Review: Not my favorite
Summary: 3 Stars
My favorite Michener novel is "The Novel". This is probably partly because I'm a writer myself. As I contemplated my review for Hawaii, I did read some of the reviews and they fascinated me. It would be interesting to know a profile of readers who love Michener. Please indulge me regarding the comments below prefacing my review of Hawaii.
Michener's books are almost invariably extremely lengthy. And he gets away with what would be literary suicide for many writers. Most all his books include hundreds of pages of exposition: geologic research, cultural backgrounds, historical references, family trees/genealogies, archaeological discoveries, geographical information, etc. I've read stern warnings in many instructional books regarding the temptation to include all your research in a novel just because you spent so many hours compiling it. The books state how boring and tedious this can become for readers to wade through all this exposition in a desperate search for the plot.
It was a little amusing to me how many readers acknowledged Michener's penchant for massive exposition. Then the reviewer typically goes on to say that the book was still great and engrossing, etc. I'm a researcher as well as a writer, so it's saying a lot for me to state that I think Michener does go a little overboard at times with the truckloads of background material. But he's great enough to still keep an interesting plot moving along and sell tons of books.
Regarding Hawaii, I read it and, like others, found sections of it quite fascinating. One section, however, disturbed me quite a bit. It seemed as if the missionaries were caricatured as horrible human beings. They were foolish, sour, stern, mean-spirited, and even cruel at times. I'm not saying Michener is lying. I believe that some early missionaries misunderstood grossly what it meant to evangelize and invite people to consider the salvation offered through Christ's death on the cross for mankind. They thought that native people's cultural mores must be forsaken for them to be "Christianized." They sometimes made cultural mountains out of molehills and forced standards upon native peoples which did not even come from the Bible. Christian missions has changed in huge ways and for many decades it has spread the gospel of Christ without destroying the cultures and customs of various people groups.
Maybe I'm overreacting a little, because most reviewers seemed to realize that Michener was not cynically condemning all Christian missions with ugly, biased intentions. But, in any case, I'm just recording my reactions to the book. Please don't email me with bristling retorts as if I've bad-mouthed Michener. I have read some of his books and agree that he's a great writer. If you have an interest in writing, I especially recommend that you read The Novel. It is excellent.
Book Review: One of Mitchener`s finest!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Although, as with other Mitchener novels, "Hawaii" had some sections that could have been shortened, or even eliminated, I still enjoyed most of the historical adventure of this wonderful area. The fact that I had been to the Hawaiian Islands twice made it even more interesting!Book Review: Review of Hawaii
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a very long book so it is somewhat of a committment to read. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is taking a trip to the Hawaiian Islands. It will definitely enrich your visit by giving you a better understanding of the land, the traditions and the history.
Some might say the first 30 or so pages are a little boring. I thought them somewhat interesting. These pages explain how millions and millions of years ago the islands were formed by a series of volcanos. Birds arrived and eventually trees grew, etc. After you get past these pages the next one-third of the book is as exciting as any you will ever read. It explains how the people of Bora Bora escape to form their own civilization. To me this was the highlight of the book. This part of the book was dramatic and intense. After that point though I thought the action slowly receeded. The remainder of the book was still interesting in my opinion, but there wasn't a lot of action. It mostly dealt with the business, political and racial aspects of the islands. It gave a fictional history starting with the missionaries, the arrival of the Japanese and followed on until Hawaii reached statehood in 1959.
I recommended this book to a couple in our bible study prior to their trip to Hawaii. The wife started reading the book, but admitted that three-fourths of the way through she lost interest and quit even though she said she learned a lot. I am glad that I read it and I learned a lot, but this book is certainly not recommended for everyone.
Book Review: The "Golden Man" Cometh to Hawaii and Our World
Summary: 5 Stars
Michener's "Hawaii" is a colorful, entertaining masterpiece of historical fiction. Prefaced by an imaginative prelude on the volcanic formation of the islands, the saga begins in the 9th century with terror and suspense, as the first canoe of determined Polynesians flees Bora Bora to escape extermination under the new and evil god, Oro, guided northward only by the wind, spirits and stars on a perilous voyage that miraculously reaches the uninhabited shores of Hawaii. Deftly weaving an intricate, fugue-like procession of peoples through thousand-year genealogical charts, Michener details the multi-generational story of how the original Hawaiians clashed and intermingle--both in bloodline and culture--with conservative 19th century Congregationalist missionaries educated at Yale, ambitious Chinese workers of rivaling Punti and Hakka extraction who ventured to the islands to make their fortunes on the sugar plantations controlled by ex-missionaries and seafarers-turned-businessmen, and their hardworking Japanese brethren from Hiroshima who brought to the sugar and pineapple fields yet another distinct culture with its own deep-rooted traditions.
From the proud and innocently incestuous royal Hawaiian siblings, Alii Nui and Kelolo Kanaloa; to the prim-and-proper Hale, Whipple and Hewlett missionaries and their overworked wives; to the sincere sea captain Janders and worldly womanizing whaler Hoxworth; to the selfless, tirelessly enterprising concubine Nyuk Tsin with her big feet and unlucky leprous lover, Kee Mun Ki; to the stout Sakagawa Kamejiro with long arms swinging at his knees, who swaps picture-brides with his crazily patriotic friend Mr. Ishii--a parade of memorable characters flourish and fade, only to be replaced by their equally endearing sons, daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Through beheadings and lovemaking, riots and baptism, plague and good health, conflagration and rebuilding, World War II and its aftermath, tsunami and Pacific paradise, strike and profit, struggle and frivolous pleasures, death and birth--gradually, over many generations, a unique, resilient Hawaiian culture evolves. Ultimately, despite the tendency of each individual, whatever his cultural upbringing, to cling prejudicially to his own traditions and values, out of the inevitable conflux of peoples arises a new type of Golden Man, "a man influenced by both the west and the east, a man at home in either the business councils of New York or the philosophical retreats of Kyoto, a man wholly modern and American yet in tune with the ancient and the Oriental."
Michener's sensitive portrayal of people, traditions and generational change--human strength through cultural diversity to build a brighter and more hopeful future for not only the microcosm of Hawaii but the world as a whole--is the hallmark of this remarkable contribution to literature. Self-centered Abner Hale, cursing all the non-Christian heathens and madly flailing his cane at sacred scrolls in a Buddhist temple, ironically dies a stubbornly devout, lonely missionary without a congregation; however, a century later his great-great-grandson, Hoxworth Hale, of one-sixteenth Hawaiian blood and, morever, having lived and breathed the quintessentially Hawaiian ebb and flow of disparate social, economic and political forces as head of the island's largest business empire, blossoms by story's end into the most enlightened of Michener's Golden Men. Indeed, where "ideas clash on equal footing and remain free to cross-fertilize and bear new fruit," there is hope and progress. Appropriately, the publication of this monumental work dates from 1959, the same year Hawaii ascended to statehood, becoming America's 50th state.
I highly recommend this masterpiece for anyone seeking a deeper appreciation of history and the catalysts of cultural change in our multifarious modern world. Whether you happen to be relaxing under swaying palms in Hawaiian paradise, lying on a white sand beach or elsewhere, pick up a copy of this mellifluous novel, absorb its radiance and enjoy!