The Red Wind [Hardcover]

Ian Macmillan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1998

In The Red Wind, Ian MacMillan writes vividly of Hawaiian family life on windward Oahu in postwar Hawaii. The story centers in the poignant irony of Kenika, a haole of unknown parentage and background who adopts the ways of the Hawaiian, becoming a Hawaiian himself and marries into a Hawaiian family. His children, however, move outward into Western American culture. His daughters marry haoles and move to the mainland while his son becomes caught in the drug culture and ultimately loses his Hawaiian identity in homelessness. At the center of the novel is Kenika's learning how to build canoes in the old way, immersing himself in the intricacies of the craft and the religious spirit which attends it. MacMillan takes us into the rich physical and emotional life of his characters in this remarkable novel which transcends four generations and takes us from Hawaii just after World War II to the nineties.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A resident of Hawaii for thirty-seven years, Ian MacMillan is author of five novels and four short story collections, one of which won the Associated Writing Programs Award for Short Fiction. He has made over a hundred appearances in literary and commercial magazines including Yankee, Paris Review, Iowa Review, etc., and his work has been reprinted in Best American Short Stories, Pushcart Prize, and O. Henry Award volumes among other 'best' anthologies. Winner of the 1992 Hawaii Award for Literature, he teaches fiction writing at the University if Hawaii, and is fiction editor of Manoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing. His most recent novels are The Red Wind (set in Hawaii) from Mutual Publishing, 1998 and Village of a Million Spirits, a Novel of the Treblinka Uprising (the third novel in a World War II trilogy including Proud Monster and Orbit of Darkness), from Steerforth Press and Penguin Books (May 2000), which won the 2000 PEN USA-West Fiction A! ward.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Mutual Pub Co (October 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566472059
• ISBN-13: 978-1566472050
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,690,525 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!, May 2, 2001

By 

Wendi L. Mitchell (CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Red Wind (Paperback)

Now that I've finished the book, I truly miss the characters. This is a "don't miss" for anyone interested in novels based in Hawaii. I have rarely read a book that is put together as well as this one.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hawaiian Culture Will Touch Your Soul, December 28, 2000

By 

Charlene (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Red Wind (Paperback)

Being a "haole" outrigger canoe paddler, I'm fascinated with the Hawaiian culture, especially that surrounding the spiritual meaning of the canoe. Ian Mac Millian paints an extraordinarily vivid and touching picture of five generations of a "mixed breed" Hawaiian family from the 1950's through the 1990's. I'll warn you that you will laugh and cry and will hate for this book to end! The "canoe" and it's spirit are weaved throughout the story. It touched me so deeply that I named my solo outrigger canoe "Makani Ula" which is the Hawaiian translation.

5.0 out of 5 stars Greatest contepmorary Hawaii story ever, October 26, 2006

By 

Joseph Guillaume (Kailua, HI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Red Wind (Hardcover)

This is absolutely my favorite book. It setting just happens to be where I live, the Windward side of Oahu. It is kind of weird at first how several story lines are interwoven, but in the end it all came together perfectly. It seems so real to me that when I'm going through Kailua I want to say, "Hey there is Angelia's flower shop." I can even imagine the first increment of Keolu Hills. I think I even had the same room as Robert when I was in Castle Hospital. It is a little on the long side, but I was so disappointed when it was pau. The story rings so true to Hawaii. For anybody who has spent any amount of time on the Windward side of Oahu you'll love this book. This same author also has some other short stories which I enjoyed.