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dingosenior79 's review for:
Unfamiliar Fishes
by Sarah Vowell
I've never read Sarah Vowell before, nor have I read extensively about Hawaii, so I was quite happy to discover a novel voice, and learn about an unfamiliar story. She's witty, wry, sarcastic, and often quite funny, and she seems to earnestly connect with her subject matter. It makes it very easy to appreciate the personal impact her experiences in Hawaii have had on her. To her credit, she balances blaming the Christian missionaries and American imperialists for their influence on Hawaii while recognizing the areas where changes were largely positive. It's also nice that when she calls out Christian missionaries, she draws attention to her own beliefs about them, acknowledging that she starts from a very different set of assumptions. That said, sometimes she seems overly flip when dismissing religious ideology, which was sometimes jarring for me. Even as a Christian reader, I'm fine with reading about the problems Christian mission ideology can cause, but I think being glib about it makes it harder to have a real discussion. I also enjoyed learning about the politics of recognizing Hawaii's various political changes in Washington; I kind of wish more time had been spent on this.
I had trouble getting through a short book because, other than a tendency to start in the past and move towards the present, there was no structure, no clear flow, and so many jumps between historical to contemporary timelines that I rapidly lost track of where I was. I made the mistake of putting the book down once, and re-read 30 pages before I realized it was ground I'd covered before. That's not unforgivable, but it did make things hard for me.
I had trouble getting through a short book because, other than a tendency to start in the past and move towards the present, there was no structure, no clear flow, and so many jumps between historical to contemporary timelines that I rapidly lost track of where I was. I made the mistake of putting the book down once, and re-read 30 pages before I realized it was ground I'd covered before. That's not unforgivable, but it did make things hard for me.