Scan barcode
A review by jacki_f
The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings
4.0
Matt King is a moderately successful lawyer living in Hawaii. His family are long term residents, descended from Hawaiian royalty. When the book opens, his wife Joanie has been in a coma for four weeks after a boating accident. She is not going to wake up and the terms of her living will dictate that her life support should be switched off. By all accounts, Joanie was a pretty wild character who drank a lot, but Matt felt their marriage was comfortable, happy and stable. The couple have two daughters. Scottie is a very precocious 10 year old. Alex is older, rebellious and is now away at boarding school after being caught "experimenting" with drugs.
Over the course of the book, Matt has to come to terms with the fact that his wife isn't coming back and that he's now solely responsible for his daughters. He will also learn that his wife was betraying him - in more ways than one. The book is very much about the impact of these changes on him and his family and how they evolve over the course of a few days from a highly dysfunctional unit to one with the potential for a stable and possibly even happy future.
From the first page the book pulled me in. I haven't seen the film that is based on this novel, but it seems to me that George Clooney was perfectly cast, as Matt has the same wry, somewhat cynical, blackly humorous take on the world that Clooney often portrays in his movies. While the subject matter is bleak, the novel is engaging and some vignettes are genuinely funny. Be aware that it is a character driven story rather than plot driven - although the central act is absorbing, the end slows down again.
I also liked the way the food, music and smells of Hawaii were integrated into the book to give it a genuine sense of place.
Over the course of the book, Matt has to come to terms with the fact that his wife isn't coming back and that he's now solely responsible for his daughters. He will also learn that his wife was betraying him - in more ways than one. The book is very much about the impact of these changes on him and his family and how they evolve over the course of a few days from a highly dysfunctional unit to one with the potential for a stable and possibly even happy future.
From the first page the book pulled me in. I haven't seen the film that is based on this novel, but it seems to me that George Clooney was perfectly cast, as Matt has the same wry, somewhat cynical, blackly humorous take on the world that Clooney often portrays in his movies. While the subject matter is bleak, the novel is engaging and some vignettes are genuinely funny. Be aware that it is a character driven story rather than plot driven - although the central act is absorbing, the end slows down again.
I also liked the way the food, music and smells of Hawaii were integrated into the book to give it a genuine sense of place.