Customer Reviews

East Wind, Rain: A Novel (P.S.)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a story set in a magical, distant place -- a small, private island in Hawaii where slow, predictable lives are wrenched one day by the crash of a Japanese Zero and its pilot during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The arrival of this warrior from Japan in this isolated place sets in motion a beautifully written tale of love and loyalty, written by a woman who is in love with words and can wonderfully weave in emotions, breathtaking scenery, history, and action. Absorb yourself in the world Paul has created...!

i don't often read historical fiction, but i thoroughly enjoyed the experience of "east wind rain." in addition to beautifully detailed scenes of a place that i never before imagined, it has a truly singular cadence that carried me easily through its final, gripping, conclusion. afterward, i realized how sorry i was to part with the story and its characters.

This book is in a league with MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA and SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS. Really. And if you loved those books, you'll love this one. An exquisite love story, a wonderfully-evoked sense of place, and the backdrop of history--they all unfold, gracefully and vividly, with a style you'll want to savor.

Paul has taken a true story, that of a crash-landed Japanese aviator on an obscure Hawaiian island on December 7, 1941, and wrought a work of fiction that nevertheless remains consistently real. The characters of Irene and Yoshio, the island's sole Japanese inhabitants, torn between wavering loyalties and obligations, are the emotional heart of the book, but one also meets many memorable characters: A boy named Little Preacher. Alymer Robinson, the outright owner of the island, who has his reasons for keeping the islanders out of the mainstream of 20th Century society. And Nishikaichi, the downed Zero pilot at the center of it all. But the most enthralling character is the island of Ni'ihau itself: a place out of time, which gives EAST WIND, RAIN a timeless air.

Highly recommended, particularly for readers in book groups. This is one to read, discuss, and enjoy.

This is a fabulous idea for a story: a real event, buried in the history of the WW II attack on Pearl Harbor, involving an island and a people that have long been hidden from the rest of the world. Paul's treatment of this event scores on several counts: First, the language is wonderfully evocative, full of powerful descriptions, and entirely void of cliches. Second, her account sheds new light on the genesis of the U.S. policy of Japanese internment -- for it was here that the concept, or its approach, first hatched. And third, she does what every novelist hopes to achieve. She makes you wonder about how individual people really dealt with a huge event. All of which makes the book a true pleasure.

Paul has written a rich book with a deceptively simple style and plot line. While exploring the intrusion of an outsider on a closed society, the book delves into topics such as racism, technology, paternalism, marital relations, modernity, and tragedy in the classical sense. Because of its richness, East Wind, Rain would make a fine book to incorporate into a high school curriculum; the novel might pair nicely with works such as The Lord of the Flies. The book would also spark great discussions in adult book clubs.

The story is a new twist on the "caught behind enemy lines" concept. It could only be believable if it really happened - and it did. Just the idea of it reeks with excitement. The story is historical fiction and well written, but needs more work with an editor to maintain the necessary suspense of the storyline. The middle portion of the book slows the story down to the same pace as life on the remote island. Many pages pass without advancing the main theme of the story. From the first page the reader wants to know, "What happens, what happens to the pilot?" The ponderous middle section of the book nearly kills the suspense of the story line. Eventually the excitement does return, and again, for the first time since the beginning of the book, I read each word with a yearning for the next. The conclusion does not disappoint; it is not an ending you would likely to have guessed before hand.

Although the story takes place on a remote Hawaiian island at the beginning of WWII, the subject matter is very topical in todays social climate. The story basically addresses the issue of national allegiance. The interplay between the downed Zero pilot and Yoshiro Harada, an American of Japanese decent, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor is riviting. The reader is drawn into a veritable "time warp" and experiences the thoughts of the pilot, the Harada family and the Hawaiians as they experience a series of betrayals and miscommunications.
This icing on the cake is that this story is based upon an actual event.

I ordered this book because we were going to Hawaii and I wanted to read something with local flavor. I had never heard of this incident before and it sounded like it would be interesting. (I also have a Niihau shell lei (necklace) from my mother-in-law, so that added to the interest.)

Apparently there is not enough fact to write a true account, but Caroline Paul conjures up a story to fill in the blanks. I was amazed to learn about the continued isolation of the residents of this island TO THIS DAY. THAT was an eye opener! They still are not allowed to have telephones, TVs, radios, or newspapers. There is only solar power. Horses provide transportation as there are no cars either. All this in order to preserve the Hawaiian culture and traditions.

There were many ways the story could have been written, but of course, it seems no one knows how it actually went. Since Paul was never able to visit the island and speak with them, it is all conjecture. I don't know if she knows the Hawaiian ways well enough to know whether this is how they might have resolved this issue.

An anguishing, deep and well-crafted novel that packs lessons and intimations into practically every page. Essays could be written based on ideas and conflicts proffered freely by Paul but sopped-up painfully by the thoughtful reader. Symbols and stub-thoughts abound, evidently worked over and thought over (perhaps fought-over, since Paul may have been associated with the SF writers workshop). If you can stand the lessons (and the beauty), it's a delightful and thoughtful torture.

For example, the insidious and hatefuly anti-Japanese prejudice (which today is only an echo of the fear and loathing against "orientals"), a very tough topic, is drawn out in the conflict of one of its victims for his loyalty to the country that fostered the racists who taunted him vs. his fear of his wife's hectoring and his admiration for the power of his "despised" ancestral homeland. This issue is one that those who remember might well wish to escape. Today, Taiwanese-Chinese-Americans are torn by admiration for their great ancestral country and their fear of its leadership and certain events -- evinced by reactions to Hu's recent visit.

But that's a macro issue; each page has some lesson, well-thought out, such as the conflict between primitive and modern, preservation vs. development, the value of "philanthropy", the panic and herd-mentality of people in crisis, and literally dozens of others, subtly available to the wary reader.

To write an essay on this short, brilliant book would take about three times the space as the book itself, and be less stirring.

It's a window not just on historical events, but on the awful lessons from those times for the present ... when, for example, we wonder just how easily people can be manipulated to vote against their own interests (as the "welfare" states such as Mississippi, which receive more than the "donor" states such as California, voted to put into power those who pretend to stopping all such federal largesse).

Despair, too, when you start to wonder just how gullible and stupid are the masses. The entire sequence of World Wars, including the interregnum and in particular the demarche of Japan, is a macroscopic lesson in massive folly. How even gentle people are maneuvered into hating each other and serving the interests of the powerful.

Interesting if read as fiction. Many annoying factual errors. I wish the author had more familiarity with the topic.