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timeywriter 's review for:
Daughter of Moloka'i
by Alan Brennert
In Moloka'i, Rachel is forced to give away her daughter, Ruth, since her seclusion on the Hawaiian island of Moloka'i for her leprosy also ensures that her child cannot remain with her. This sequel follows Ruth as she is transported from Molaka'i to an orphanage and into a life away from her parents.
Ruth desperately hopes that a family will adopt her. Unknowing as to why her birth parents had to give her up, Ruth is thankfully adopted by a Japanese couple who want a daughter after having four sons of their own. Being half Hawaiian and half Japanese, Ruth takes on the characteristics and customs of her new family as they first live in Hawaii and then move to California. Spending the majority of her childhood in California, Ruth learns the ways of the farm she lives on with her family and her uncle's family. The vast majority of their small town consists of Japanese business owners and farmers. Ruth finds love and marriage, starting her own family as she helps her husband open his own restaurant. And then, in the midst of all of this, the Japanese Empire bombs Pearl Harbor with the United States declaring war and joining WWII. Being of Japanese decent leads Ruth's family to be detained at an internment camp during the war, detailing the conditions, hardships, and sacrifices made by those of Japanese heritage during this horrid time. Yet, as Rachel did in the first book, so too does Ruth in this book. With her family they are released from the internment camp and attempt to regain their normal lives once again. It is then, after the war, that Ruth comes to find a letter from her birth mother. Reaching out to Rachel for the first time, the story that was the ending in Moloka'i intertwines with the ending of this novel, and Ruth begins to know the mother who was forced to give her up. I greatly enjoyed how this novel was not necessarily a sequel, but more of a continuation of the first book. Much of the timelines synced up after a time, especially after Rachel and Ruth found each other once again. I believe this book was a lot more detailed about their relationship and their time together than the first book, which I appreciated since they are so intertwined. And while Ruth's time in the internment camp was an important piece of history, I also felt that it ran a little long in comparison to the rest of the novel's sequence. Also, while Ruth showed a lot of passion and emotion concerning their time in the internment camp, I wish that fire for justification had continued instead of just being a pushed down anger. Ruth could have become an advocate, as several along the west coast became, to earn justice for what was done to the Japanese during the war, but intertwining with Rachel's story was more important. And while I was concerned that Ruth showed such a love for animals in the beginning that it would amount to nothing in the end, the subtle aspects of Ruth's daughter and her own love for the family pets made it all come together.
This was as emotionally driven as the first book and I greatly enjoyed this as a sequel. Though, like the first book, I felt that there were some lagging and elongated moments, the whole of the novel was a spectacular insight into a story meant to continue.
Ruth desperately hopes that a family will adopt her. Unknowing as to why her birth parents had to give her up, Ruth is thankfully adopted by a Japanese couple who want a daughter after having four sons of their own. Being half Hawaiian and half Japanese, Ruth takes on the characteristics and customs of her new family as they first live in Hawaii and then move to California. Spending the majority of her childhood in California, Ruth learns the ways of the farm she lives on with her family and her uncle's family. The vast majority of their small town consists of Japanese business owners and farmers. Ruth finds love and marriage, starting her own family as she helps her husband open his own restaurant. And then, in the midst of all of this, the Japanese Empire bombs Pearl Harbor with the United States declaring war and joining WWII. Being of Japanese decent leads Ruth's family to be detained at an internment camp during the war, detailing the conditions, hardships, and sacrifices made by those of Japanese heritage during this horrid time. Yet, as Rachel did in the first book, so too does Ruth in this book. With her family they are released from the internment camp and attempt to regain their normal lives once again. It is then, after the war, that Ruth comes to find a letter from her birth mother. Reaching out to Rachel for the first time, the story that was the ending in Moloka'i intertwines with the ending of this novel, and Ruth begins to know the mother who was forced to give her up. I greatly enjoyed how this novel was not necessarily a sequel, but more of a continuation of the first book. Much of the timelines synced up after a time, especially after Rachel and Ruth found each other once again. I believe this book was a lot more detailed about their relationship and their time together than the first book, which I appreciated since they are so intertwined. And while Ruth's time in the internment camp was an important piece of history, I also felt that it ran a little long in comparison to the rest of the novel's sequence. Also, while Ruth showed a lot of passion and emotion concerning their time in the internment camp, I wish that fire for justification had continued instead of just being a pushed down anger. Ruth could have become an advocate, as several along the west coast became, to earn justice for what was done to the Japanese during the war, but intertwining with Rachel's story was more important. And while I was concerned that Ruth showed such a love for animals in the beginning that it would amount to nothing in the end, the subtle aspects of Ruth's daughter and her own love for the family pets made it all come together.
This was as emotionally driven as the first book and I greatly enjoyed this as a sequel. Though, like the first book, I felt that there were some lagging and elongated moments, the whole of the novel was a spectacular insight into a story meant to continue.