I have never visited Hawaii, but I understand its position as a geographical crossroads in the Pacific and its additional lore as a cultural crossroads. James A Michener’s Hawaii (1959) hews gripping tales into a wonderful historical novel that deftly relates the highs and lows of being a cultural mixing pot at the busiest intersection on the well-traveled Pacific Ocean. The story’s the thing, though, and Michener delights us with characters just complicated enough to produce plots just twisty enough to bring life to the dramatic birth of an island, a nation, and finally a part of the United States of America. This book is for anyone who wants to get lost in a long series of engrossing tales; it is perfect for people in jails or prisons.
Hawaii begins with a drama of Biblical proportions as Michener describes the millions of years of earth shaking that forms the islands. This consumes a mere 16 pages. Then, the author turns to the humans. From the island’s first settlers, escaping religious persecution on Bora Bora, to the American missionaries of the mid 19th century to the influx of Asians, Hawaii’s humans populate stories of struggle, triumph, war, peace, sex and love. The story ends just shy of statehood.
The principal characters in a tangled genealogical web (charts provided in back of book) could each star in the cinematic version of their story. Seven or eight good films could derive from this book. Michener knows how to create interesting characters and place them in interesting conflicts where the stakes are high.
Michener’s cadence and word choice give the voice of the novel a nearly Biblical feel. Occasionally, passages struck me as sounding, well, scriptural. This is not annoying. Rather, it adds a certain drama to the saga, which is nothing less than the creation and peopling of a small world. The owner of the voice is also one of the book’s finest twists, revealed in the final sentence.
I wish for a sequel because I know much has happened in Hawaii since 1959. I would love to learn how recent history affects the descendants of the characters I came to love in Michener’s book. Instead, I will set down the 1036-page tome that kept me entertained for a couple of jail weeks, and in a few more, I will begin Michener’s equally hefty Alaska.
March 16, 2014