Hawaii: A Novel (Paperback)

by James A. Michener (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
This is Michener's most ambitious book, but at times it almost falls of its own weight in the immense scope of time and place and people projected. For here is the story of Hawaii, told in terms of the peoples who made it- and the forces of nature which held it in thrall. While each of the major sections seems at first almost complete in itself, tracing the elements that together brought the islands to fulfillment, actually the people who wove the texture became themselves a major part of it. First- the story of the millions of years before man, as the volcanic islands rose from the sea, fell again, were rebuilt by the coral, by beds of lava, and slowly populated by vegetation, and life, and a passionate, courageous, adventurous people from the lovely Bora Bora. Then- the missionaries- a thousand years later- Calvinists with humorless intent to save these feckless natives from eternal damnation. The Hales, the Whipples, the Janderses, the Haxworths, the Hewlitts - who became the hierarchy. Some remained in the mission field, but many deserted it - disillusioned, embittered, wearied by the thanklessness of the impossible task of conversion. But they stayed on- as merchants, land owners, progenitors of the Five Families that for generations held the power- socially, politically, economically, though kings came and went, and a people disintegrated. New national groups came- the Chinese first as laborers, then as vital factors in the islands' economy; then the Japanese and the Filipinos. Little by little, through intermarriage, through education, through business endeavors, a new people were formed. The Hawaiians proved a mellow core; but it took a virtual social revolution, two wars, labor upsets, plague, disaster and intrigue at high level and low, to blend a strong people who could prove themselves Americans. It's an enormously interesting story of human beings - at many levels of struggle - and rewards the very considerable contribution the reader must bring to its reading. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
“[A] mammoth epic of the islands, [a] vast panorama . . . wonderful.”—Baltimore Sun

“One novel you must not miss! A tremendous work from every point of view—thrilling, exciting, lusty, vivid, stupendous.” —Chicago Tribune

“A memorable novel, a superb biography of a people.”—Houston Chronicle

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Product Details

• Paperback: 960 pages
• Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks (July 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375760377
• ISBN-13: 978-0375760372
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (103 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #13,462 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The great American novel, November 16, 2005

By	Lilly Flora "by Lilo Drandoff" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Hawaii (Mass Market Paperback)

This may have been the first adult novel I ever read. I was 13, September 11th had just happened and my father was in a hotel across the street from the pentagon. I didn't know if he was ok until an hour after the plane hit, and when I found out I collapsed. He was fine, and I was exhausted from worrying. He had given me this book a week before, saying he read it when he was 20 and had surgery soon after and hallucinated that he relived the entire book in the recovery room.

Since this book is several million years long, that's quite an experience, as is reading this book. I've real quite a bit of Michener's works, and this is buy far his best. For one, there are only 17 pages about geology, not several hundred as in other books. For another, the clear connections of family through the generations in this book really make you know the main characters. For another, it's clear he loves Hawaii, as does anyone who's been there.

This book is the history of Hawaii. It's well arranged, first there are 17 pages of geology, then the Polynesian settlers get 100 pages. Next, we head forward a thousand years and the first Christian missionaries from the east coast arrive (and insisted on wearing wool clothing!) Then came the Chinese, and leprosy. Next the Japanese, and Pearl Harbor. Finally, the golden man emerges a mix of all these races and a good dash of Aloha spirit. Each section follows one or two families who intermix with those already established and intermarry and have children.

This book is fascinating. Every part of it excellent, although I especially love the missionaries, the Chinese family (they're just great characters and you learn so much about Chinese culture) and the descriptions of the Japanese American soldiers fighting in WW2.

Reading this book requires great amounts of patience, because there are rough patches, sections where 50 or so pages will go by without an interesting thing in them. But the great parts are truly great. It's easy to see why Michener is one of the greatest American writers when you read this. I have tried many of his other works and they don't come close to the quality of this book.

I recommend this to everyone, and I recommend you buy it, not check it out from a library. You'll want to read it again and again.

50 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Probably Michener's best novel, January 28, 2003

By	Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: Hawaii (Mass Market Paperback)

Michener, the supreme storyteller, created some really memorable characters in this monster of a novel. The genre of blockbuster historical novels can seem somewhat dated (viz. the mammoth novels of Mitchell, Ferber, McCullough, Caldwell and Follett) but they are definitely delicious if you get a taste for them. Dated or not, Hawaii is a gripping tale of not-so-angelic missionaries, struggling immigrants and early Polynesian settlers. The characters are absolutely unforgettable.

I particularly liked the section of the book where the missionaries run headlong into the traditions of the Polynesian people, whether insisting they wear confining clothing in the tropical heat, or that they should quit their charming and practical tradition of dancing, swimming and surfing in the buff. The missionaries stubbornly eat dried apples shipped to them across the sea, and scorn the richly nutritious native fruits and vegetables unfamiliar to them. They wilt in their long underwear, donned by the season. They try hard to bring a foreign world to their religion in the belief it will benefit the people, but when two vastly different cultures clash, it is inevitably tragic. Michener writes about this clash in vivid, sometimes shocking detail.

This book has been filmed, used as a basis for a musical but nothing compares to reading the original. I couldn't put it down.

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The ultimate family saga, May 3, 2006

By	Nina M. Osier (Augusta, ME USA) - See all my reviews

This, as far I'm concerned, is the ultimate "family saga" novel. Some call it Michener's master work, and I wholeheartedly agree with that assessment.

HAWAII follows an organizational pattern familiar to readers of Michener's other huge historical novels. First he tells the geological and prehistoric story of the region that provides the book's setting. Next, he introduces characters from early in that region's history - characters whose descendants people the book's subsequent sections, joined by a new group of immigrants as each of the tale's installments unfolds. The Polynesians - the New England missionaries, whalers, and merchants - the Chinese - and finally, the Japanese, arrive in different eras and under different circumstances. Each of these groups finds its own place, or rather creates its own place, in a society that's both challenged and enriched by Hawaii's ever-increasing racial and cultural diversity.

Genealogy ties this vast story's threads together, yet each of its major characters exists as a memorable individual in his or her own right. The author never allows his book's colorful setting, or the exciting backdrop of world events against which local happenings play out, to upstage those characters - nor does he let them blur into each other, which could easily happen with this many for both author and reader to keep straight. But what reader could possibly forget the great Alii Nui Malama, no matter how many descendants of the original Malama wind up sharing her name? Who could forget missionary wife Jerusha Bromley Hale, or the Chinese concubine whose true name her hundreds of descendants never know?

HAWAII heads the short list of books that I can read over and over, and always find fresh. A master work, indeed!