A review by jwinchell
Honolulu by Alan Brennert

4.0

Wow. I learned so much about the history of immigration in Hawaii and traditional life for Korean women at the turn of the century. Like Moloka’i and now Moloka’i’s daughter, Honolulu is a sweeping epic of one woman’s life from childhood to her 60th year. She looks back and tells the story of her life from rural Korea under imperial Japanese rule where women are completely subservient to men, illiterate, and marriage is decided for them. Regret/Jai/Gem resisted all of this from the get go and found ways to educate herself and get to Hawaii as a picture bride. Through an abusive husband and piecing her life together, Gem has a toughness and surety about herself that is admirable and made reading her story a sport. Her suffering was so incredible but she reached out and crafted a family to help her survive and then thrive. One of the families she met included the real story of Joe Kahahawai’s murder and Sadie Thompson’s role in a W Somerset Maugham story. What this book really succeeds at is telling the stories of the immigrants who helped Hawaii thrive in the early 20th century. “Hawai’i is not truly the idyllic paradise of popular songs—islands of love and tranquility, where nothing bad ever happens. It was and is a place where people work and struggle, live and die, as they do the world over.” And like the author writes in his note, “immigrants have played and enormous role in the life and culture of Hawai’i.” If you’re interested in the history of Hawaii, put this book on your list.