A review by marilynsaul
Shark Dialogues by Kiana Davenport

2.0

I FINALLY finished this book, after many thoughts of just putting it down and moving to something else. I definitely liked parts of it: learning more about the history of Hawai'i from a native point of view, including the revolutionary movement among the indigenous peoples; the shark totems and the Kahuna dreams; Duke. But overall, it was, to me, a very sad and disturbing expose of three generations of family dysfunction, which, I think, are supposed to be due to the subjugation of a culture, but which, I believe, transcends cultural affiliation: Pono's distance from her daughters and grand-daughters, framed in a supposed attempt to instill independence; the resulting attempt by the daughters and grand-daughters to find succor in unbridled sex and demeaning sexual-subservient relationships (because, as we all know, without a man, a woman is nothing); the unrelenting "if we don't who our grandfather is, we are nothing" theme, and Pono, so wise and prescient, not seeing the damage she is doing and has done. Early on I thought I would recommend this book to a friend of mine who lived in Lanai for a number of years. But as I got further along, I realized I couldn't recommend this book to anyone.