I Myself Have Seen It: The Myth of Hawai'i [Hardcover]

Susanna Moore (Author)

Book Description

Series: Directions | Publication Date: April 1, 2003

The islands of Hawaii have often served Susanna Moore as the canvas for her lush and haunting novels. In I Myself have Seen It, she proves the mystery, beauty, and myth of her native islands to be every bit as compelling as her fiction. She interweaves her own memories of growing up in Honolulu in the 1950s and '60s with a concise chronicle of Hawaii's two-hundred-year encounter with the West. Seeking the elusive heart of Hawaii, Moore revisits the small rural island of Kauai. In the breathtaking landscape, she discovers that old, unwritten songs of Polynesia have survived despite the onslaught of missionaries in the early 18th century, the establishment of Hawaiian-language newspapers, and foreign attempts to free Hawaiians of their pagan superstitions. These songs and the ones engendered by them, written by queens and hula masters alike, become the centerpiece for Moore's mesmerizing discovery of the real Hawaii.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This deliciously satisfying travel memoir... lets you taste what is really [in Hawaii] beyond tourist traps [and] cellophane garlands. -- Newsday, May 18, 2003

About the Author

Susanna Moore was raised in Hawaii and now lives in New York City. She is the author of The Whiteness of Bones, Sleeping Beauties, and In the Cut. My Old Sweetheart, her first novel, won the PEN/Ernest Hemingway Citation and the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. 

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: National Geographic; First Edition edition (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0792265289
• ISBN-13: 978-0792265283
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.9 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,552,849 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars One star is being generous..., September 9, 2006

By 

J. B. Kennedy "A Kamaaina" (Hawaii Island) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I Myself Have Seen It: The Myth of Hawai'i (Hardcover)

This book is not worth the effort or the price. The history is shallow and doesn't tie at all into the author's tales of her childhood. There is just this abrupt shift from history to personal life story with no linkage whatsoever. Wierd! Her descriptions of life growing up in Hawaii are even more shallow than her historical chapters. She gets facts wrong. (Okolehao is brewed from the ti plant, not pineapple, for example.)

Moore exhibits limited knowledge of the islands and their people. Maybe she suffers from failing memory, given that she moved away from Hawaii so long ago. However, I suspect she wasn't really paying attention as she was growing up. (One of my friends tells me she was focused on being one of the cool kids in school.) I say all this as a life-long resident of Hawaii who grew up in Hawaii at about the same time she did. On top of everything else Moore's writing is contrived. Don't waste your money.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars thin fluff, February 5, 2005

By 

a reader (Rochester NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Myself Have Seen It: The Myth of Hawai'i (Hardcover)

The book is thin fluff. One of the author's '64 Punahou classmates, Laurie Ames Birnsteel, has written a more authentic and satisfying memoir, *Kahala: Growing Up in Hawaii*

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Look Beneath the Surface, September 5, 2003

By 

Carol Lysek (Albany, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I Myself Have Seen It: The Myth of Hawai'i (Hardcover)

The typical one-week trip to Hawaii involves an immersion in lovely sights and scents and leads to a vague realization that this is a very different place from the rest of the United States. If one is lucky enough to spend a month or more then you begin to get an inkling that this is a very complex place indeed. For those who want to have a deeper inderstanding of that complexity this book is highly recommended.
Susanna Moore , who grew up in Hawaii, nicely blends a short history of the islands with her own experiences going to school there while slowly becoming aware of the "sociology" class going on all around her. For those who want to develop a Hawaiian sense of place this short straightforward book is a good place to begin.