Customer Reviews

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

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

 

 

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.

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*

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.

This is a stunning history/personal memoir by Hawaii-born Moore, author of four other books. It captures the layered and complicated history of the Hawaiian Islands and at the same time deftly blends in the author's contemporary perspective. A page-turning must-read for anyone interested in Hawaii, or not.

I Myself Have Seen It is more than just a travel book. Susanna Moore gives insightful impressions of the Hawaii she grew up in. Through her writing you can see the real and traditional Hawaii which is unfortunately vanishing.
What is more is you can see the influence Hawaii and its people have had on her earlier novels especially My Old Sweetheart. If you want to understand Hawaii read Ms. Moore's account as she is a real Island Girl.

Perhaps I had the wrong expectation. The brief amount I heard on NPR made me feel I was going to learn about Hawaiian culture and maybe hear stories. This book was written in the time-honored tradition of one American explaining why other Americans should feel bad about being American. Not that she is wrong or has any of her facts misplaced. But Susanna has written a disjointed, self-serving, whining account of Hawai'i. Maybe she is lamenting the loss of a childhood that she may or may not have ever had. But each chapter is kind of summed up the same way: the noble Hawai'ian, raped literally or figuratively by the Westerner in the name of progress or profit. I am hoping that she has a chance to spend time with her therapist (since she has found reason now to live in New York).