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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
Horribly written - jumps from subject to subject with no reasonable segues. Author's voice way to invasive for a non-fiction book full of dates, names and facts. Repeats itself ad naseum. Doesn't talk about what all the publicity says it talks about until the last 10 pages. Very frustrating read that basically says "Missionaries went to Hawaii. They did some good things and some bad things. Some Hawaiians liked them, some didn't. Eventually they became a U.S. state." Reads like a bad term paper. Incredibly disappointing.
Entertaining and informative, if occasionally unfocused. Religious fanatics and greedy white men ruin everything. As usual. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Fun fact: Vowell interviews a hula dancer who goes to a hula conference in 2010 and gets to go through the private collection at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu to see the 20-foot-long feather skirt made for Princess Nahi'ena'ena. I was there, on that same tour with that guy! The feather skirt is astonishing, made with hundreds of thousands of tiny yellow feathers pulled from under the wings of black birds (photos here: http://archives.starbulletin.com/2003/05/06/features/story1.html). We were not allowed to touch the skirt or even photograph it. You can learn the history and significance of that skirt in this book. Also you can learn about plate lunch, which is awesome.
Fun fact: Vowell interviews a hula dancer who goes to a hula conference in 2010 and gets to go through the private collection at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu to see the 20-foot-long feather skirt made for Princess Nahi'ena'ena. I was there, on that same tour with that guy! The feather skirt is astonishing, made with hundreds of thousands of tiny yellow feathers pulled from under the wings of black birds (photos here: http://archives.starbulletin.com/2003/05/06/features/story1.html). We were not allowed to touch the skirt or even photograph it. You can learn the history and significance of that skirt in this book. Also you can learn about plate lunch, which is awesome.
Sarah Vowell is the history teacher I wished I’d had in college. Not that I had bad teachers, but Vowell has the same kind of curiosity about history that I have. She seems to delight in weird stories while still taking time to consider the deeper implications of historical events and ideas. In Unfamiliar Fishes, Vowell looks at the turbulent history of nineteenth century Hawaii. I’d never really been interested in Hawaii before now–I much prefer cold places to hot ones. But learning about Hawaii, the only state in the union that we invaded rather than acquired through money or revolution, provides an interesting perspective on the history of the United States as a whole...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.
Sarah Vowell hits it out of the ballpark again! Her history of the early years visits of missionaries through the overthrow of the native government of Hawaii is a fascinating, frustrating, entertaining, and occasionally snarky read.
The author always make history seem contemporary and enticing. If more people read Vowell's works, they would love history like she does & like I do.
The author always make history seem contemporary and enticing. If more people read Vowell's works, they would love history like she does & like I do.
Love the tagline- 'where manifest destiny got a sunburn.' I read this before a trip to Hawaii and it was eye-opening and informative. And made the places visited more meaningful. Like Kauai, place where the missionaries first landed and asked for permission to evangelize. How Hawaii had a very unique culture, language and functional monarchy. How the monarchy was gender progressive, with the queens possessing a lot of power. How important crops like taro/poi were. How America lusted after having a naval base in the Pacific Ocean. But it's a sad story too, as in all colonialism stories. Can't help wishing Hawaii had been left well alone and been better off not being noticed by covetous eyes and minds.
I continue to love Sarah Vowell in a way that is probably mildly unhealthy. She has a way of bringing history alive in a sarcastic yet respectful way that makes me want to find her, shake her hand and then ask to go on her next research trip with her. This book follows the colonization and eventual annexation of Hawaii, focusing on the late 1700s to the turn of the 20th century. It is funny, interesting, and perfect to set the tone before a touristy jaunt to that very archipelago.
Interesting, and a topic I previously knew little about. However, not quite as intriguing as other Vowell books I've read. Not sure if it's the topic or how she approaches it, but it was not as much of a page-turner as "Assassination Vacation" or "The Wordy Shipmates."
Sarah Vowell knocked this one out of the park! Expertly researched and presented. While it is very clear that she had definite opinions and views on the events covered, Sarah makes it very clear when she presents facts versus interpretations, and manages to keep it all thoroughly engaging.
I had the audio version, so finding a map of Hawaii (I used our travel guide) was a helpful supplement, as I kept getting lost between islands, towns and other places. Reader, if you have the printed version, that is one advantage over the audio version.
The guest readers were excellent and did good work keeping the "celebrity" out of their reading, while allowing the familiarity of their voices make the personalities represented feel more engaging than just some historic quotes.
Overall, I can't wait to start another.
I had the audio version, so finding a map of Hawaii (I used our travel guide) was a helpful supplement, as I kept getting lost between islands, towns and other places. Reader, if you have the printed version, that is one advantage over the audio version.
The guest readers were excellent and did good work keeping the "celebrity" out of their reading, while allowing the familiarity of their voices make the personalities represented feel more engaging than just some historic quotes.
Overall, I can't wait to start another.
Much like my initial read of The Wordy Shipmates, this is a book that has an interesting idea and history to it, but takes a while to really grab me and start being interesting. While the missionaries' background and the history of the islands did give some new insight of how the missionary expedition in the early 19th century worked, it wasn't until the discussion of how the native Hawaiians reacted and changed to their presence that I started to get interested in the book's topic. Overall, I like Sarah Vowell as a historical commentator/"tourist", but lengthy research passages in this and The Wordy Shipmates (although not in Assassination Vacation) tend to drag and bring my enjoyment of them down.