West of Then: A Mother, a Daughter, and a Journey Past Paradise [Paperback]

Tara Bray Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 4, 2005

At the center of West of Then is Karen Morgan -- island flower, fifth-generation haole (white) Hawaiian, Mayflower descendant -- now living on the streets of downtown Honolulu. Despite her recklessness, Karen inspires fierce loyalty and love in her three daughters. When she goes missing in the spring of 2002, Tara, the eldest, sets out to find and hopefully save her mother. Her journey is about what you give up when you try to renounce your past, whether personal, familial, or historical, and what you gain when you confront it.

By turns tough and touching, Smith's modern detective story unravels the rich history of the fiftieth state and the realities of contemporary Hawaii -- its sizable homeless population, its drug subculture -- as well as its generous, diverse humanity and astonishing beauty. In this land of so many ghosts, the author's search for her mother becomes a reckoning with herself, her family, and with the meaning of home.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

First-time memoirist Smith has spent most of her adult life on the East Coast, swapping the palm trees and leis of her Hawaiian childhood for subways and argyle sweaters. Not that she can be blamed for trying to distance herself from her roots. A descendant of an upper-class, white family, Smith's drug-addicted mother abandoned Smith when she was seven. Their family's saga resembles "a Faulkner sketch that had stumbled off to Honolulu. Plumeria instead of magnolia, but the setpieces were the same...." Although geographically separated from her wandering mother, Smith maintains a fierce attachment to her that ultimately brings her back to Hawaii. She draws on memories to tell of the search for her mother, who, homeless and using, disappears in 2002. The narrative dips back into turning points of Smith's upbringing to illustrate the experience of adoring a mother who often abandons her child, sometimes willfully, and sometimes because she's simply become distracted by a new lover or an old drug habit. Smith masterfully recounts Hawaii's history; the rise and fall of her family's fortunes parallel Hawaii's development. And Smith's Hawaiian experience differs from that of most nonwhite Hawaiians, resulting in an intriguing read.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From The New Yorker

When Smith was a child in Honolulu, her drug-prone mother, Karen, would vanish for hours at a time; when Smith was thirty-two, Karen, now homeless and a hopeless addict, went missing for several months. In this memoir, Smith combs the parks, rehab clinics, and red-light district of Honolulu for her mother, examining not only Karen's descent into prostitution and heroin but also her family's genteel past on Hawaii's sugarcane plantations. Her sense of place and of history amplifies the narrative, though at times she relies too heavily on the well-worn trope of corrupted paradise. She has a sharp descriptive eye—a housing subdivision consists of "concrete-block ranch houses xeroxed onto freshly paved streets"—and a strong voice, which, though it occasionally shades into portentousness, honestly plumbs the guilt, rage, love, and pity that she feels toward her mother.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (October 4, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743236807
• ISBN-13: 978-0743236805
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #925,655 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a supremely enchanting debut...., October 15, 2004

By 

Felicia Sullivan (New York, ny United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: West of Then: A Mother, a Daughter, and a Journey Past Paradise (Hardcover)

While I'm not privy to use the overused term "unflinching" but for some reason, that fits here for Tara Bray Smith's rather impressive debut. And unlike many memoirs, the concept of "place" plays a very important role in the story - Hawaii, in its rich 150 year history of drugs, sugar cane trade, fables, stories and a tradition of language and societal rules, is a character in and of itself. Bray deftly weaves the stories of her ancestors and Hawaiian traditions to the current day narrative - Bray's determined search for her heroin-addicted mother, Karen, through the gritty streets of Chinatown and downtown Hawaii. Because of a sustaining drug habit (Karen has an affinity for heroin but will sample others), the author's mother abandons Bray and her two sisters but manages to drop in and out of their lives, evoking pain and complex love from the daughters. I marveled at Tara's cadence, her language, her "old way" of telling a story and I was taken in, immediately. An absolute recommend!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book set in the "real" Hawai'i!, March 29, 2005

By 

Puamohala "Puamohala" (Hawai'i) - See all my reviews

This review is from: West of Then: A Mother, a Daughter, and a Journey Past Paradise (Hardcover)

This book is one of the very best books set in Hawai'i that I have read.
As a long-time resident of Kaua'i, I read this book with recognition of just about everything described. There were no false notes of someone trying to write about "paradise" like a tourist brochure. Just the true life that most of us who live here, especially haole (caucasian) have experienced.

This author in her first book writes with such sensitivity about life in the islands, and in her family in particular,
that you feel yourself in whatever space she creates, whether it is a forbidden trip to the island of Ni'ihau, or a visit to her Gamma's Kahala beach cottage on O'ahu.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves the real Hawai'i. Such an enjoyable read I never wanted it to end!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars an unforgettable story by a first-time talent, July 24, 2006

By 

Andrew J. Weber (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: West of Then: A Mother, a Daughter, and a Journey Past Paradise (Hardcover)

One can only hope that this is merely a hint of what is to come from the talented Tara Bray Smith. It's impossible not to be moved by Tara's struggles to connect with her estranged and wayward mother.

As someone who has suffered great personal family tragedy, I can honestly say that Tara "Tells it like it is." The image she creates of Hawaiian paradise and its appearance vs. reality reflects her own inner journey; Tara hopes to reach the "paradise" where she has the mother she wants (and still believes she can have) rather than the imperfect and troubled mother she actually has.

Ultimately, this story is unforgettable.