Read This!: Honolulu

By Alan Brennert

I saw people reading this book on the train for ages and when we were planning on our trip to Hawaii back in the spring, I decided to look into it more since I  suddenly had a vested interest.  I bought it eventually and even more eventually got around to reading it.

Honolulu is set in the early 20th century.  It starts in Korea where Regret (so named because she had the misfortune of being born a girl not a boy) wants to escape the traditional life of a Korean wife and mother.    She goes against her parents' wishes and decides to become a "picture bride" for a Korean man in Hawaii.      On Oahu where her story parallels the story of Honolulu, Regret starts a new life, renaming herself Jin (aka Gem).

Like most men authors (and why I tend to not like to read them), Brennert seemed to have some information that he wanted to get into the book whether it really fit 100% or not.  It was as though he was like "I am going to tell you something about the history of Hawaii" and that was that, even if it veered into the Forrest Gump world of "Come on already!"  As a historical fiction fan, I confess I did find much of this interesting (particularly since we were in Hawaii a few months ago and I recognized some of what they were talking about) so I guess it could stay even though if I were editing this book, I would have questioned it before signing off on it.

Aside from that, the novelty of this location and the story in general make it worth reading.  The parts about Regret/Jin's life in Korea were intriguing and reminiscent of The Calligrapher's Daughter.  (I cannot imagine being forced to live a life like that and can see why Jin wanted to leave it.)  But, her life in Hawaii is what made it hard to put this book down.

I am looking forward to reading Moloka'i, another one of Brennert's books, which I asked for for Christmas.  We'll see if Santa comes through on that one.