Customer Reviews

Honolulu - CANCELLED

5 star:		(69)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Born in Korea in 1897, only daughter Regret learns from an early age what she can expect from life: servitude, enforced submission, and being "sold" to the highest bidder so she can move on to yet another household where the same existence will continue. Feeling certain there must be more to life than these grim prospects, Regret seeks an education and is aided in her quest by a kindly aunt. But a little education only makes Regret seek more, and when her father denies her any opportunity to become more than chattel, teenaged Regret decides to become a "picture bride" for a Korean man living in Hawai'i. Instantly shunned by her father, she boards a ship along with other young Korean women searching for more than what life in their native land will offer.

Honolulu weaves the true tales of life on Oahu in the early part of the twentieth century with Regret's new life as an unfortunately abused young bride. Regret (who renames herself Jin) is a fiercely independent, strong young woman who constantly strives to better her circumstances; she leaves her abusive husband, despite her careful Korean training to always submit, and uses her seamstress skills to earn some money. As with all lives, Jin's has its moments of love and loss; Brennert allows Jin to tell us of her woes, dreams, triumphs, and ideas herself, and he does an excellent job of using her voice to show how oppressed the working poor actually were on this island paradise. Brennert also peoples this novel with colorful characters as well as real people, and Jin often finds herself at or near the center of some of the gravest situations of the times.

Brennert's research is impeccable and this is a book that will pull you in from the first. The story of Jin is genuine and her voice is real, and I found myself cheering her on in her relentless pursuit of a better life for herself and her loved ones. The plot did tend to drag a bit towards the end, however; I would have liked to have read more of Jin's experiences on Oahu during World War II instead of focusing on the discrimination the Asian and local communities felt at the hands of the white government. Still, Brennert has a way of making you feel and see what his characters are experiencing, and Honolulu is a rich tale of survival and triumph against the odds. Truly deserving of 4.5 stars out of five. Recommended.

I can sum it up very quickly: This is a great book.

I am always impressed when a male writer tells a story from a female point of view and makes it work. In "Honolulu", Alan Brennart has done his considerable research proud, and woven a fictional story in with historical events to create a seamless, very readable tale of a Korean woman of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, and her many family connections, both by blood and friendship.

Jin is a dutiful child of an upper-middle-class Korean family in a small city, who enters the world as an unwanted daughter named "Regret" (because she wasn't a son). Bright and inquisitive by nature, she longs to go to school like her brothers, but to do so would bring shame on her family. By subterfuge and her sympathizing aunt's aid, she finds someone who teaches her how to read; but when her father learns of it, the result is not what Jin had hoped for. She languishes, frustrated, within the confines of her family's home, with only a young sister-in-law-in-training for company.

Her bid to break free comes when she learns of the "picture brides", essentially mail-order brides for Korean men in Hawaii. She overcomes her family's strenuous objections to her desire to become a "picture bride", and embarks upon her greatest adventure, in the company of four other Korean girls.

This is a book that was difficult to put down, as I travelled with Jin through the Hawaii of early non-Hawaiian occupation. The governing of the Hawaiian nation had been connived away from the Hawaiian royal family not many years before; the power was in the hands of a handful of white overlords and the sugar- and pineapple-companies, the labour provided by immigrant, primarily Asian, laborers. Interwoven with the great story of Jin, and her personal struggle for betterment, Mr Brennert has delivered a history of Hawaii I never knew before, and shown it warts and all. Far from being the paradise it was rumored to be, it leaned heavily on the class system, the haves and the have-nots. The houses the laborers lived in, both on the plantations and the tenements in the towns, are shown in all the squalor the unfortunate "picture brides" had to deal with. And it also shows people determined to make their lives better, in the face of great adversity.

The chick-lit device of our "picture brides" - now four in number - eventually creating a partnership, when they have all reunited later in the book, is more than a device; it is, apparently, a recognized association of the time. The author is not only well versed in Hawaii and Hawaiian history, but in a good deal of the Asian cultures who made up the greater part of Hawaiian immigrants. I felt a lot more informed when I finished reading it.

And finishing reading it was the hard part. As I told a friend, it was a book that didn't go fast enough (makes you want to read ahead to find out what happens, but don't do it) while being a book I did not want to end. I was consumed by the story from the first pages, and kept it with me most of the time to snatch a few more minutes as I could. A great story, well told, with great characters and great history. Very recommended.

Alan Brennert's second novel, "Honolulu," continues to provide an entertaining history of the Hawaiian Islands, following his successful first novel, "Moloka'i." While "Moloka'i" had the entire plot line of the leper colony to fascinate readers, "Honolulu" surprises by focusing on the experiences of a Korean picture bride, named by her family, Regret.

Regret's childhood days in Korea and her relationship with a courtesan, who teaches her to read, are key to her character's desire to escape the drudgery of servitude expected of Korean girls.

Once she lands in Hawaii, she finds the streets are not paved with gold. She meets her new husband, endures horrors, and hardships, and continues undaunted to follow her dreams. She begins to use the name Jin.

Jin runs into a wide cast of real-life historical characters, but Brennert weaves them into his plot with emotion, and the reader comes away feeling enlightened as well as moved by the experiences. Hawaii, ever the land of immigrants, has not always been kind to newcomers. The strength of the locals, the growth of the "haole" thinking, and the ever-industrious spirit of the newcomers weave a charming, if sometimes overly expository, tale.

There are memorable lines throughout. My favorite is Jin's mother's explanation of grief: (Speaking of a quilt with black rectangles) "I added these on the day my mother died. . . There is no pattern to where I placed them, as there is no sense to be made of death. . .next to them the blues look bluer, the reds richer, the golds more brilliant. Withoutthem the cloth is pretty, but without character or contrast." Wisdom entwined in colorful language adds another reason to read this book.

First came Jewish guilt, then Catholic guilt, and now with Honolulu by Alan Brennart we are exposed to Korean guilt (or at least one Korean woman's guilt). This is a bang up story of the trials and tribulations of Jin and her friends, all "picture brides" who came to Honolulu in the early 20th century to cultivate the land, and build new lives. This is a wonderful look at "paradise island" and the people who built it, long before it became the vacation destination of choice for millions of people.

Jin's life in her small Korean village is dismal and offers her so little in the way of the education and opportunity she so desperately craves that she eagerly trades her life on this small island (a place where her value as a person is immediately evident to anyone who knows her true Korean name......REGRET) to travel to a new island called Hawaii as the fiancé of a man she has only seen in a photograph. We follow Jin through four dramatic decades as she attempts to build a better life for herself, her friends and her family while confronting the human plague of racism and bigotry, the deprivation of the Great Depression, as well as her personal struggle abiding by the "rules" of her own Korean culture.

As with his first novel, Molokai, the author has captured the flavor of the era by deftly weaving actual characters and events into the lives of his fictional creations. In both books we experience the prejudice, sacrifice and heartbreak encountered by each books protagonist and the triumphs attained in what are ultimately sagas encompassing the celebration of life.

For anyone who enjoys a little history mixed with great characters and an engrossing and imaginative storyline, author Alan Brennert is your A-ticket to an outstanding reading experience. After you have explored Brennert's Honolulu, be sure to visit his Molokai.

This was the best book I've read in a long time. I felt like I was part of their lives and immersed in another culture in another time. Touching and beautiful. The author was very thorough in researching the history and culture so it was a book with historical as well as emotional enlightenment.

Honolulu is a story about a young Korean girl born in 1897. Her parents were so disappointed she was not a boy, that they named her: "Regrettable"; eventually her name was shortened to simply "Regret". Her name alone gives the reader a glimpse into how females were viewed in turn-of-the (20th) century Korea.

As Regret grows up, she realizes that if she stays in Korea, her fate has pretty much been decided. More likely than not, she would have an arranged marriage, and be little more than a servant to her mother-in-law, just like her mother. When Regret tells her father she already knows how to read a bit (having learned behind his back), and that she wishes to continue her education her father will hear nothing of the kind. When her close friend Sunny tells her about someone who finds picture brides for men in Hawaii to marry, Regret decides that this just may be her ticket out of Korea to a better life in Hawaii. Regret's father is only to happy to release his insolent daughter, so he agrees to take money from a man named Mr. Noh, and ships her off to Honolulu for the two to marry.

After more than a week at sea the picture brides land in Honolulu. They are quarantined, in case they brought any diseases with them from Korea. When they are medically cleared the girls meet their husbands, get married and before long they learn that these men were not "as advertised". Regret's husband is not wealthy by merely a plantation worker who likes to drink and gamble. Almost immediately he begins to abuse his new wife, Regret. Mr. Noh beats Regret so badly that she loses her unborn child. Very quickly she decides this life is not for her and she leaves her husband, seeking refuge under the roof of a prostitute. She soon begins earning money as a seamstress. She changes her name from Regret to Jin and she eventually meets a good man, and divorces Mr. Noh.

Spanning some 40 years, Jin never forgets the people she left behind in Korea. She returns one last time to her roots to make peace with the life she left behind many years earlier.

This story was very compelling and extremely well researched. I especially enjoyed learning more about Hawaii (Honolulu) in its early years through the eyes of a picture bride. Alan Brennert has been added to my list of favorite authors. His earlier book Molokai was a favorite read of mine in 2008.

We spent three years in Korea, so I loved the characters and felt they were a solid representation of Korean culture. However, the strong beginning began to lose momentum about halfway through the novel. It seemed like there were many opportunities to finish the novel early. However, it is a well written historical novel which gives good glimpses into Hawaiian past.

When I bought this book I had actually never herd of the author before. It just so happened I was going to Hawaii and what better book to take with me?

The book begins with the main charachter whose name is Regret. (later changes it to Jin) She is a nontraditional Korean girl from the start, wanting to learn to read, wishing to see more of the outside, sneaking out of the house to learn to read. She eventually disobeys her fathers wishes and becomes a picture bride to a rich man in Hawaii. Once she arrives there, she quickly learns that her husband is nothing more than a plantation worker. He is hard to deal with and her adventures really get in after she leaves him. She meets prostitutes, legendary surfers, great friends, and eventually her true love. The hardships that Jin went through entertwined with the history of Hawaii beautifully. The author, a man, does a remarkable job of telling the story through a womans point of view. I often found myself forgetting that it was written by a man!

This book was so amazing that I truly couldn't put it down. It mezmorized me and held my attention through the entire book. The novel is one of trials and errors, but love, honor, and friendship as well. I recommend this book to anyone.

Honolulu by Alan Brennert captures the essence of Hawaii in the 1920's and 1930's and encapsulates the immigrant experience through the characters that emigrate there from different countries and cultures. At the center of Honolulu is Jin, a young girl who leaves her native country of Korea to become a "picture bride" to a man she has never met in Hawaii. She is led to believe that the roads are paved in gold and there are many more opportunities for women there. Girls are not valued in Korean culture and Jin was named Regret at birth. That broke my heart to read that girls lives had such little value and to label them with names that were so demeaning emphasized this. Thankfully, Regret changes her name to Jin when she arrives in Hawaii. Sadly she is not met with roads paved in gold but to find her husband-to-be a farm worker with a harsh and bitter character. The marriage is not a good one as he is horribly abusive and Jin is forced to leave and find her own way.

Jin travels to Honolulu and is able to find her way to change from a naive woman to a strong and determined woman. She finds a way to divorce and remarry a wonderful man and builds a family. She develops a strong connection to a group of friends that are also Korean picture brides and they help each other develop businesses and to survive and thrive. Along the way, they are faced with great prejudice and must deal with their own prejudices. Even the Hawaiian natives are treated poorly by American leaders who invade Hawaii.

This is a historical fiction novel and the author weaves a great amount of information that was interesting and fascinating but at times didn't flow smoothly. As readers we learn of Korean culture and the Japanese invasion of their country. We also learn a great deal about the history of Hawaii from the 20's and 30's through to the 50's which include sugar cane plantations, pineapple and carnation farming, strikes, surfers, prostitution, and the conflict between whites and and other cultures. Ultimately, the Massie Affair was brought into the story at the end which tied Jin and her family to the family of one of the accused.

In the end, Jin travels back to Korea to see the family she left behind and to make peace with her past and present. Jin was a woman of tremendous courage and strength and I admired her character greatly. Mr. Brennert did a wonderful job as a male author portraying a women's voice through Jin.

Alan Brennert's second novel, "Honolulu," continues to provide an entertaining history of the Hawaiian Islands, following his successful first novel, "Moloka'i." While "Moloka'i" had the entire plot line of the leper colony to fascinate readers, "Honolulu" surprises by focusing on the experiences of a Korean picture bride, named by her family, Regret.

Regret's childhood days in Korea and her relationship with a courtesan, who teaches her to read, are key to her character's desire to escape the drudgery of servitude expected of Korean girls.

Once she lands in Hawaii, she finds the streets are not paved with gold. She meets her new husband, endures horrors, and hardships, and continues undaunted to follow her dreams.

Jin runs into a wide cast of real-life historical characters, but Brennert weaves them into his plot with emotion, and the reader comes away feeling enlightened as well as moved by the experiences. Hawaii, ever the land of immigrants, has not always been kind to newcomers. The strength of the locals, the growth of the "haole" thinking, and the ever-industrious spirit of the newcomers weave a charming, if sometimes overly expository, tale.

There are memorable lines throughout. My favorite is Jin's mother's explanation of grief: (Speaking of a quilt with black rectangles) "I added these on the day my mother died. . . There is no pattern to where I placed them, as there is no sense to be made of death. . .next to them the blues look bluer, the reds richer, the golds more brilliant. Withoutthem the cloth is pretty, but without character or contrast." Wisdom entwined in colorful language adds another reason to read this book.