A review by jeannemixon
Hawaii by James A. Michener

4.0

I started reading this before my son's wedding in Hawaii because I realized that the only thing I knew about the state was that Obama came from there and there is surfing. I was amazed by the number of Asians I saw on the streets of Honolulu and the Japanese tour buses. I had known about the Koreans after reading Black Flower by Young-Ha Kim (an amazing book which included information on Koreans who fought in the Mexican Revolution) but I didn't know about the Chinese and Japanese. This is a wonderful with much information. I have two major complaints. The first and foremost is that Michener wrote about real people and companies but because he reconstructed fictional conversations and intuited motivations to them, he changed all the names. This is so frustrating because you know the characters are based on historical people but you can't wiki them. Some of the people have been identified, but others you just have to do your own research to try to figure out who they are. If Wolf Hall could use real names, why not Hawaii? A different time I'm guessing when people were more concerned about libel suits. Second complaint: it's a little racist in spots, but Michener really does mean well and you have to put it in context. Also the ending was weird. Otherwise, a must read especially if you are planning to go to Hawaii and everyone should.