Hawaii: A Novel by James A. Michener Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Hawaii: A Novel
Book Review: The Big Picture
Summary: 5 Stars
Michener is amazing at condensing a lifetime of history into a story that gives you the big picture. We decided to read this one because of my upcoming trip to Hawaii. Reading about my travel destination before going makes the trip more fulfilling. It gives you a since of the culture and history of the place before you get there. It gives you a hint of what you really should look for when you get there. It was such a rush to go to Lahaina and view the missionary house there. It makes the book real and burns it into your mind.Book Review: The ultimate family saga
Summary: 5 Stars
This, as far I'm concerned, is the ultimate "family saga" novel. Some call it Michener's master work, and I wholeheartedly agree with that assessment.
HAWAII follows an organizational pattern familiar to readers of Michener's other huge historical novels. First he tells the geological and prehistoric story of the region that provides the book's setting. Next, he introduces characters from early in that region's history - characters whose descendants people the book's subsequent sections, joined by a new group of immigrants as each of the tale's installments unfolds. The Polynesians - the New England missionaries, whalers, and merchants - the Chinese - and finally, the Japanese, arrive in different eras and under different circumstances. Each of these groups finds its own place, or rather creates its own place, in a society that's both challenged and enriched by Hawaii's ever-increasing racial and cultural diversity.
Genealogy ties this vast story's threads together, yet each of its major characters exists as a memorable individual in his or her own right. The author never allows his book's colorful setting, or the exciting backdrop of world events against which local happenings play out, to upstage those characters - nor does he let them blur into each other, which could easily happen with this many for both author and reader to keep straight. But what reader could possibly forget the great Alii Nui Malama, no matter how many descendants of the original Malama wind up sharing her name? Who could forget missionary wife Jerusha Bromley Hale, or the Chinese concubine whose true name her hundreds of descendants never know?
HAWAII heads the short list of books that I can read over and over, and always find fresh. A master work, indeed!
Book Review: my favorite book of all time
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this for my daughter in law. I have read and re-read this book many times, my copy is so old and dog-eared that i decided to buy a new one for her.
Dorothy Harper