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Hawaii

4.11 of 5 stars 4.11 · rating details · 30,612 ratings · 740 reviews

In Hawaii, Pulitzer Prize–winning author James Michener weaves the classic saga that brought Hawaii’s epic history vividly alive to the American public on its initial publication in 1959, and continues to mesmerize even today.

The volcanic processes by which the Hawaiian Islands grew from the ocean floor were inconceivably slow, and the land remained untouched by man for co...more

Paperback, 960 pages

Published July 9th 2002 by Random House Trade Paperbacks (first published 1959)

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May 10, 2013 Steve aka Sckenda rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Lovers of Epic Historical Fiction and Tolerance

Shelves: favorites-pop-fiction, historical-fiction, hawaii, japan, polynesia, pacific, missionaries, epics, china, religion, pulitzer-prize-author

Michener begins with the geologic formation of Hawaii and ends with its entry as the 50th state. Over the course of a thousand pages (and millions of years), we learn how many ethnic groups fought and learned to live in peace. “Hawaii” is a powerful novel, and the state is a symbol which exemplifies each of Michener’s recurring themes-- interracial harmony, tolerance, and coexistence. (I write this review in 2012 after having read this book in 1984.)

There are six long chapters, each devoted to t...more

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Apr 23, 2012 Jeffrey Keeten rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I picked up this book in the library and one of the things I noticed first about the book was that the edges of the pages have become soft from the hands and fingers of hundreds of readers. The book has been rebound in one of those lovely flat blue library covers. In the back Marsha left her phone number on a yellow sticky note which I have suspicions might be for a support group for those that have started and failed to finish reading Hawaii.

937 pages later I can say that this book is a two s...more

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Dec 04, 2012 Alice rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: epic, historical-fiction, hawaii

James A. Michener is a master storyteller if I've ever come across one; he is truly in a league of his own. (But then again, I don't normally read from cover to cover books longer than 500 pages, let alone 900, so who am I to say?) My God, what a book!

He began his story with the volcanic activity that formed the landmass that became Hawaii, and three pages in, it was already becoming obvious why this book was so damn long. But then again, who's ever described the formation of islands as a consum...more James A. Michener is a master storyteller if I've ever come across one; he is truly in a league of his own. (But then again, I don't normally read from cover to cover books longer than 500 pages, let alone 900, so who am I to say?) My God, what a book!

He began his story with the volcanic activity that formed the landmass that became Hawaii, and three pages in, it was already becoming obvious why this book was so damn long. But then again, who's ever described the formation of islands as a consummated marriage between two great underwater volcanoes?! It typifies the marathon-like experience that is this book; the narrator is kind of like a fellow I'd just want to have a quick chat with, only to find that this dude can talk for hours, but is redeemably rather interesting. The book is about the land of Hawaii, spanning from its beginning as an austere volcanic landmass to being the lush tropical islands cultivated by the ancient Polynesian voyagers, upon which the first Boston missionaries lived and died and for better and for worse forever interrupted their society (and, of course, the land), and upon which the modern-day ethnically diverse society takes shape. The story is thus divided into those three periods: the start of the ancient Hawaiian civilization, the first missionaries and their attempts to cultivate an Americanized Christian society, and the story of the Asian/Pacific Islander immigrants that are brought in to work the businesses of the established children of missionaries.

The emotional heart of the story seems accurate (at least, from my vantage point as a malihini), but make no mistake, this is NOT a history book. (Or, it is as much of a history book as is the book "Roots" by Alex Haley.) And really, it is narrated from the viewpoint of one of the characters (which one might not realize until the end... unless one peeked at the last page as I did), thereby making more forgiveable whatever flawed third-party opinion might have gotten written into it. The author speaks to you as an adult, masterfully traveling through the pages of history to get at the heart of why things might be the way they are.

Perhaps I personally felt drawn to the characters, the society, and the sad turns of history because as a student of hula (haumana o' na hula, as it were), one cannot learn the dances and chants without also learning about the struggles and beauty of past and present-day Hawaii and its people. And this is what I appreciated most about the book: it was a flesh-and-blood depiction of how people can stumble into good and bad decisions that affect society and progeny in a way they might never understand. This explains how a native people could find themselves stuck with the short end of the stick, how newcomers with good intentions can irrevocably harm a nation (and help, to be fair), and how the Asian-Americans (of which I am one) came to navigate their new society and grow into the dual cultures. Even in the 21st century, I still find so much that is apt to current events (culturally, economically, politically, socially); it truly is the case that there is nothing new under the sun. And yet it is all so interesting, because that is the human story.

Bravo, bravo!!(less)

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Oct 01, 2008 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

Reading this was a monumental task: I started it on the plane to Hawaii in mid August and finished it on October 1st!!I nearly didn't make it through the first chapter about the formation of the islands, but I'm glad I persevered. Michener takes us from Tahiti (Bora Bora) to the arrival of the missionaries, the Chinese, and the Japanese. There are a number of marvelous characters (Char Nyuk Tsin is my favorite) and set pieces. Michener is especially good at moments of high tension, which are amp...more

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Aug 11, 2008 Mary Sue rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Those who enjoy multi-generational stories, and those who want to learn about our most exotic state.

I first read this novel in the 1970's. I became very interested in our 50th state and have traveled there several times since. If you have seen the movie, trust me you need to read the book. Michner likes to take the way-back machine all the way to the formation of the islands, then the arrival of flora and fauna and eventually to the arrival of the original Hawaiian's from Bora Bora. The strong parts of the book are the conflict of cultures as new groups arrive. Melting pot is a lovely concept,...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Diane rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this epic many years ago, and it is one of the few that I hope to read again in the near future. As with many of Micheners books, I felt that it was tedious getting through the earlier chapters, and probably one of the longest books I've ever read, but very well worth the effort!

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Mar 23, 2010 Ellen Gemmill rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I cannot say enough good about this book. The relationships, the sagas, the history - it could have been overwhelming and dry in the hands of a less accomplished writer. But James Michener is the master - even going as far as to include geneological charts to help the reader keep the families straight, as well as to lend an air of verismo to the book. This is by far my favorite Michener novel, and the only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because I just couldn't get through the very beginning,...more

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Apr 28, 2013 Ben rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, hawaii, epic, fiction, 19th-century, history, mid-pacific

As a review on the back of my copy of my book said, this historical fiction, sweeping saga has everything. I guess it's kind of hard not to when you write a thousand page book. Unfortunately, there were a few parts where I was bored and had to put extra effort in to get past them. This mainly arose from characters I could least relate to, though, if history is being retold, of course there will be central figures it is hard to relate to. It becomes a bigger problem if you can't relate to those c...more

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Aug 29, 2012 Beth rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics

My 10th grade reading teacher "Mrs. Fine" introduced me to this very large book. I only took her class "Hooked on Books" because I thought it was and easy A. Read several books, do book reports, get a grade. Hawaii was the first book she chose for me. I read the 1st 50 pages... no dialouge, just info about how the island was formed by volcanos. I went back to complain that it was boring, she encouraged me to keep reading... next 50 pages, just as boring, natives from other lands discovering Hawa...more

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Aug 12, 2012 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-historical

I was of older gradeschool age, and after exhausting all the Nancy Drew's my mother's younger sister passed down to me, I went to my parents meager book shelf. I read Exodus, by Leon Uris. The boldface on the book jacket demanding to be read like a hollywood movie demanding to be seen. I had no idea that it already was a movie. From that book forward I was hungry for literature. I tried other books on this parental shelf: this Steinbeck (Winter of our Discontent)--I liked but could not say why;...more I was of older gradeschool age, and after exhausting all the Nancy Drew's my mother's younger sister passed down to me, I went to my parents meager book shelf. I read Exodus, by Leon Uris. The boldface on the book jacket demanding to be read like a hollywood movie demanding to be seen. I had no idea that it already was a movie. From that book forward I was hungry for literature. I tried other books on this parental shelf: this Steinbeck (Winter of our Discontent)--I liked but could not say why; Dale Carnegie--false; Victoria Holt--fake drama; Day of the Jackal--almost, gets the tension; Michener--almost,has drama. Then the 3 shelves had been read.

Fortunately, our township had become a city in the intervening years and built a library (1972) less than a half-mile from my house. Unfortunately, the librarians kept escorting from the adult section to the kid section of which they were so proud. Doubly unfortunately, being an obedient child (my downfall in multiple areas of life) I obeyed. I read little in middle school, because nothing caught my interest.

Fortunately, in high school I had teacher who liked to irritate and shake the ground beneath his students. He threw us into Heart of Darkness, by Conrad laughing under his breath. I took every english class I could with wicked-humored Dane. When he despised my pollyanna-ish, he gave me My Last Duchess, by Browning in a poetry class of the great classic English Poets. In this class we read Pope and lots of Pope. Our final exam were these poems he assigned like medicine to cure a weakness he saw in each of us. We needed to memorize it, analyze it, and defend our presentation of it. Going into this exam, I finally had an "A" in one of his classes--until he asked "Why was she wearing a ribbon about her neck?" Well, I could not bring into my consciousness that malevolent shadow following me whenever I was inside this poem. Pollyanna-ish won and I got a "C".

Fortunately, I was of an age I was no longer escorted out of the adult section in the library, so I read more and more classic he mocked us announcing that we did not have enough life in us to neither comprehend nor write of great literature. Yes, that may be true, but great literature reflects and kindles a flame already lit inside. Besides, great literature can be read more than twice. I think I will go back and re-read Lord Jim.

I read Don Quioxte, because Mr. Rasmussen's idea of school musical was Man of La Mancha. He was banned from doing musicals and plays again. Too bad parents have so little faith and administrators so little courage, Mr. Rasmussen might have shaken the ground beneath our feet, but the opened earth revealed a bigger world we could go forth and master.(less)

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May 02, 2012 Clint rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

This is a writer I consciously avoided for years and years, and I can't really give a reason why other than I just got pissed off that all his books were place names, and I hate the Cult of the Place Name. But my situation is different these days, and I take what I can get when I can, and this book was about a dollar fifty something in American money, and for the money/length-of-time-it-takes-me-to-read ratio, it was a steal. And I was pleasantly surprised by how readable and all-round kickass i...more

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Mar 15, 2012 Joan rated it 4 of 5 stars

What an accomplishment!! I mean just READING this 937 page tome, let alone researching and writing it! This is the second Michener book I have managed to plow through – the first being The Source. If you want to immerse yourself in the history and culture of a place, Michener’s your guy. I began reading Hawaii before our trip to Hawaii, and read it while there, but didn’t finish it. Several books intervened, and it took being laid up with the flu, but I am very glad to have read this novel. Mich...more

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Dec 13, 2011 Glendamyers rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is really looong, and I would say that 90% of it is quite good. It's typical James Michener. You get a comprehensive idea of the history of Hawaii, if not the details, and it's also a pretty fun read. Not high literary style, but not badly written either. My favorite character shows up about halfway through the book, and lives to be over 100 and sticks around to almost the end. So if you're slogging through this one, at least stick around for Nyuk Tsin and her adventures as the Pake Ko...more

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Oct 04, 2011 ellen rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is an epic journey of the islands from their birth to the 20th century. It is intricately woven with characters from the first Polynesians to reach the islands to the different cultural groups that arrived in droves. There is commentary at every level about the effect of the different waves of migration. The historical aspect was absolutely fascinating. I had head that Michener was well-researched and it really feels like learning as you enjoy the soap opera of generations of character...more

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Jul 07, 2011 Marie Ash-Evans rated it 5 of 5 stars

A wonderful book about a place that I have visited many times and twice have lived for short periods of time and that I love. The first Michener book that I read, an historical novel that is written in the truly geographic tradition - begin at the beginning - the formation of the island. How might the plants and animals have reached this island? plausible answers are given to this question and to how the people arrived to populate what is now a tropical paradise. He covers it all - the coming of...more

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Jun 29, 2011 Jenny rated it 3 of 5 stars

Well I guess I liked it enough if I kept reading all the way through the 937 pages! You gotta love Michener for a long trip when you wanna make sure you don't run out of books to read. So he's good for that. Having read a few of his, it can be slow going to slog through the first part, the geology of the place. But it's a neat way to start out, presenting the millennia and how they shaped a place before humans started exerting their influence. And Hawaii's an especially interesting location to c...more

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Apr 06, 2011 Emma rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 4-stars, historical-fiction, hawaii, china, japan, family-saga

I've never read Michener's work before, but this book left me awed with his knowledge of history and storytelling ability. The book begins with a brief section on the formation of the islands, then plunges into a novella (100 pages) about the arrival of the original Polynesian settlers. After that, it jumps forward again to the 1820s and the arrival of the New England missionaries. After this point, the narrative is pretty much continuous, with new chapters covering both the background and the a...more I've never read Michener's work before, but this book left me awed with his knowledge of history and storytelling ability. The book begins with a brief section on the formation of the islands, then plunges into a novella (100 pages) about the arrival of the original Polynesian settlers. After that, it jumps forward again to the 1820s and the arrival of the New England missionaries. After this point, the narrative is pretty much continuous, with new chapters covering both the background and the arrival of new groups (Chinese, Japanese) and continuing the story of those who were already there. At this point it becomes very much a family saga, spanning about 130 years (the book was published in 1959, so the narrative deals only with pre-statehood Hawaii).

Obviously there's a great deal of history here, somewhat fictionalized as it may be, and I've never learned about so many places and cultures in the same book. The depth of Michener's research and the details of his portrayal of the lifestyles and thought processes of people from so many different cultures, in particular, never failed to impress me. But the story is brought down-to-earth through the always-engaging struggles of the protagonists, and the plotting and characterization were certainly enough to keep me reading. The writing style is intelligent; I know some people find Michener too dense for their tastes, but for me this book was just right: much more intelligent than your typical pop lit, but still absolutely readable.

My one reservation about this book is that, while I think Michener was quite progressive for the 50's, there are some wince-worthy moments in his dealing with race relations and his characterization of women and their roles. It doesn't seem to have bothered many people, but there is the occasional bit that hasn't aged especially well. Other reviewers have found the dropping of old protagonists jarring as the story moves on from one generation to the next, but I think that's standard for family sagas, especially when they have the breadth of this one.

I highly recommend this book even to those who have no special interest in Hawaii.(less)

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Nov 22, 2009 Judy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I started this book just before I left for Maui and finished it on the beach there. It was a wonderful way to read the book and enhanced my enjoyment of the book and my experience of the island. Michener does a great job of telling the history of the island and of building interesting characters. If i were a native Hawaiian I might feel that he gave my people short shrift - as if they deserved to lose the island because they were not "ambitious" or focused on econonomic development or perhaps he...more

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Nov 21, 2009 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars

I've never read any of Michener's work and now, at the end of this 1130 page, ultra-fine print book, I feel as if I just run a marathon, but, my feet don't hurt. I've invested 3 weeks of my life with this book and I'm so glad I did. I enjoyed it and I'm so glad I read it after visiting Hawaii. What I kept thinking while reading it, though, was this man wrote dozens of books this long, with this much research. How in the heck did he do it? This book got right to the heart of many of the questions...more

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Jul 07, 2009 Arapahoe Library District rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: joannes-picks, historical-fiction

One of our greatest epic historical story tellers and writers is James Michener. Any of you who have not had the absolute thrill of reading Tales of the South Pacific, which became the musical, South Pacific, or Centennial, the magnificent early history of Colorado, do yourself a favor and devour these classic reads!!

Mr. Michener was a prolific novelist of many wonderful books, but I'd like to share a particular favorite of mine, Hawaii. I'd like to talk in tandem about another wonderful book wr...more

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May 12, 2011 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Lovers of History

Recommended to Lisa (Harmonybites) by: The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Ultimate Reading List

Shelves: historical-fiction, ultimate-reading-list, fiction, novels, popular-fiction

Michener writes in a clunky style and with mostly wooden dialogue--and yet I kept turning the pages and found this an amazing reading experience. I've read that Michener was an inspiration for both Rutherford and Uris, and I can see the family resemblance in novels of theirs such as Sarum and Exodus. (Even if Exodus was published before Hawaii.) By selectively looking at certain families and individuals, Michener attempts to tell the story of a place, the sweep of its history, and in all ways th...more Michener writes in a clunky style and with mostly wooden dialogue--and yet I kept turning the pages and found this an amazing reading experience. I've read that Michener was an inspiration for both Rutherford and Uris, and I can see the family resemblance in novels of theirs such as Sarum and Exodus. (Even if Exodus was published before Hawaii.) By selectively looking at certain families and individuals, Michener attempts to tell the story of a place, the sweep of its history, and in all ways this novel screams epic. It's not a great book--but it is entertaining and at times thought-provoking.

The opening phrase is "millions upon millions of years ago" and the first brief section, "From the Boundless Deep" tells of the formation of the Hawaiian islands and how life took hold there. "From the Sun-Swept Lagoon" tells of the peopling of the island in 813AD by people from Bora Bora, the Polynesian ancestors of the Kanakoas, whose knowledge of navigation and astronomy allowed them to travel thousands of miles despite Stone Age technology--bringing with them breadfruit, coconut, taro, banana--and slaves.

The next section, "From the Farm of Bitterness" was where I became enraptured with the book. It tells of the coming a thousand years later of the American Missionaries from New England in 1822. The later sections are more complex as other families, other cultures are woven into the narrative, and so those sections feel more dry and journalistic to me, and rarely do individual characters in those sections stand out. But here we have a more stark clash of cultures, between the Pagan Hawaiians and the Christian Americans--as well as the character I find the most fascinating in the book because of his tragic contradictions--Abner Hale, who is a mix of admirable, deplorable, and exasperating. When Abner opens his church, he chooses a slave as its first member and dares preach against the institution to the most powerful in the land, telling them this slave, this "foul corpse" has a soul equal to theirs. Yet to the end of his days he's incapable of seeing even Christian converts among the Hawaiians as anything but "heathen" and opposes intermarriage and ordaining Hawaiians. He lovingly translates the Bible into Hawaiian--but won't allow his children to be exposed to the language.

The next section, "From the Starving Village" picks up in China, and deals with the settling of Chinese into the land brought in as plantation workers. Char Nyuk Tsin is the indomitable matriarch of the Kee clan and this section takes us through fire, plague, the leper colony at Molokai and how sugar was the driving force behind the coup against the Hawaiian monarchy and American annexation. Char Nyuk Tsin is about the only character besides Abner Hale that really stands out to me as having an interesting arc of development, who shapes the world around her and has unexpected facets to her character.

"From the Inland Sea" brings in the Japanese through following the Sakagawas--and this was my second favorite part of the book, and among the most moving, as Michener depicts Pearl Harbor and the fight of Japanese Americans for full citizenship as soldiers fighting in Europe and then through one character takes us through a tour of the rest of Polynesia contrasting it to Hawaii. Michener lived through this era, serving in the Navy in the South Pacific during World War II--which might be one reason why he can bring the time and place so vividly to life.

The book ends with "The Golden Man" taking us from the end of World War II to the brink of statehood in 1959. Even that late in the book there were some insights and depictions that surprised me and a deft use of irony. One thing I didn't think worked. A couple of times in previous sections there was a line where the narrator intrudes with an "I" statement. There's a page studded with this in the beginning of the last section, and then the last few paragraphs reveal the book to be the "memoir" of one of the characters. I don't think that fits the personality and arc of the character, and I would have preferred the God's-eye omniscience had been kept to the last. Although it does make me think how many of the opinions expressed in the novel should be seen as Michener's, and what is really the character's and thus should be seen at an ironic distance. I also wouldn't agree at all points with the narrator's take on history and economic forces. However, this was one big fat book I'm very glad I read through.(less)

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Nov 04, 2012 Jonathan rated it 5 of 5 stars

James Michener continues his global tour with Hawaii, another historical epic.

Hawaii covers the entire history of the Islands, from their discovery by their earliest inhabitants, through the first missionaries who came to spread the gospel to the islanders, to the eventual control of the USA.

You learn of the varied demographic groups of Hawaii: the Chinese, Japanese, Natives, and mainland American. It is a story of great tragedy, accomplishment, and a big love for the islands that make up the mo...more

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Dec 26, 2011 Josiah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-pacific, fiction-chinese, history-ad-17th-century, history-ad-18th-century, history-ad-19th-century, history-ad-20th-century, biography, fiction-american, philosophy-ethics

Writing: A
Plot: A
Vocabulary: B
Level: Moderate
Worldview: Evolutionism

This is the first Mitchener novel I've read, and I'm hooked! He writes very organic, believable characters as they are unknowingly caught up in the great sagas of history. A breathtaking story!

In this story trace the Polynesian family Kanakoa as they flee Bora Bora in the 800's and establish their small band of followers on new Havaiki. At the same time, the Hakka family Nyuk is migrating from northern to southern China, where...more

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Nov 18, 2009 Robin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: adventure, ethnic-studies, fiction, us-history, hawaii

I first read this novel as a teenager in the late 1960s. I reread it because I was visiting Hawaii for the first time. Although my overall perspective and my experience with other cultures have broadened, and I had forgotten many of the book’s stories, I actually enjoyed this book more the first time I read it. Perhaps this is because I had more time to read and get into the many plot and character details. Novels of this length (936 pages in paperback) are rarely written anymore, and some parts...more I first read this novel as a teenager in the late 1960s. I reread it because I was visiting Hawaii for the first time. Although my overall perspective and my experience with other cultures have broadened, and I had forgotten many of the book’s stories, I actually enjoyed this book more the first time I read it. Perhaps this is because I had more time to read and get into the many plot and character details. Novels of this length (936 pages in paperback) are rarely written anymore, and some parts seemed a bit too complex. I must confess that I skimmed a few sections. Some sections, however, were absolutely riveting.

Written in 1959, this saga starts with the geology of the volcanic origins of the Islands, then continues with the chronology of various groups as they come to inhabit the Islands: Polynesians, Caucasian Americans, Chinese, and Japanese. The book contains many good history lessons as it traces the various families through generations up to the mid-1950s, complete with genealogical charts. It is largely the story of oppression, sadly. It is also a story of family and survival.

Michener lived in Hawaii during the 1940s and 50s and did extensive research before writing Hawaii. I appreciate that he did not “whitewash” historical facts. In 1959, when Hawaii was published, most Americans were celebrating Hawaii’s annexation and had no idea that American businessmen, descendents of missionaries, had stolen the land for their vast plantations from the original inhabitants of Hawaii—until reading Hawaii. Prejudice towards Japanese-Americans during WWII is another unsavory part of American history that Michener fearlessly tackles, at a time when WWII was a recent memory for readers.

I disliked a few key characters, and this lowered my enjoyment/rating of the book, though the writing is excellent (it's Michener, after all!). Much of the book is about cultural clashes, but the stories of families and characters that do whatever is needed to survive and work past obstacles makes this read rewarding.
(less)

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Mar 14, 2008 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: all

Recommended to Erin by: Lisa

Wowzers! This was a long one, but a good one. It is definitely worth reading and it takes so long that you are able to get really invested in it. My lines between fiction and reality were definitely blurred! I just wondered how much of the book was based on the real evolution of Hawaii because it's how I like to learn my history.

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Jan 06, 2009 Karen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Three months later, and I can put this baby back on the bookshelf! The front cover review calls this an "epic saga" and I couldn't agree more. Epic is certainly the right descriptor.

I really enjoyed parts of this book, and I can certainly appreciate Hawaiian culture and history more after this reading experience. I feel like I understand the stereotypes and the racial infighting that still exist today on a better level. However, taking three months and 1,000 pages to get there was a little painf...more

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Jan 28, 2013 Dana Stabenow rated it 4 of 5 stars

I first read this book back in my teens, and I was in Hawaii recently and decided it was time to reread it. It has held up really well in the interim. Okay, Michener not the greatest master of the craft of writing, agreed, but he knows how to tell a story.

Here he tells a history of Hawaii through the eyes of the different races who lived it, beginning with the Polynesians who emigrated in open canoes across five thousand miles of open ocean 600 years before Prince Henry the Navigator sponsored h...more I first read this book back in my teens, and I was in Hawaii recently and decided it was time to reread it. It has held up really well in the interim. Okay, Michener not the greatest master of the craft of writing, agreed, but he knows how to tell a story.

Here he tells a history of Hawaii through the eyes of the different races who lived it, beginning with the Polynesians who emigrated in open canoes across five thousand miles of open ocean 600 years before Prince Henry the Navigator sponsored his first voyage, navigating only by the stars and a few scraps of oral history. Then come the Calvinist missionaries from New England who wrought such unthinking, well-meaning havoc on the native Hawaiian population, with help from the whalers and traders, who were all then followed by the Chinese and the Japanese imported by the missionary descendants for labor in the sugar cane and pineapple fields, although they sure didn't stay there.

This epic narrative, 1,036 pages in length, is ambitious and all-encompassing. (He probably thought (or his publisher did) that if he included the story of the Filipinos the book would be too long to sell.) The story of the four Sakagawa brothers and their poor sister (I will never forgive Michener for what he did to Reiko), and the story of the 442nd Battalion in World War II is sobering and instructive, and I'm pretty sure Shig's story is the fictionalized version of Senator Daniel Inouye's life.

The story I found most compelling was that of Char Nyuk Tsin, also known as Wu Chow's Auntie, also known as Pake Kokua. This peasant woman is kidnapped from her village in rural China, rescued from a career as a prostitute by an inveterate gambler and immigrates to Hawaii with him. He contracts leprosy and is banished to the leper colony on Molokai, also known as hell on earth. Nyuk Tsin accompanies him there voluntarily and nurses him till he dies, after which she takes on all the other lepers as patients, which earns her the title of Pake Kokua (Hawaiian for, roughly, Chinese Helper, which really ought to read Saint).

She scratched his grave into the sandy soil, choosing the side of a hill as she had promised, and where winds did not blow and where, if there was no tree, there was a least a ledge of rock upon which his spirit could rest on its journeys from and to the grave.

Finally the authorities in Honolulu, who have been supremely indifferent to the terrible state of the leper colony thus far, allow her to return home. There, she and her four sons, Africa, America, Australia, and Asia (really, and the whole Chinese name thing is fascinating, and dizzying), get their hui working to found a financial dynasty that would eventually buy the land out from under the descendants of the missionaries. This book is worth reading for Nyuk Tsin's story alone. I defy you not to tear up when she returns to Molokai to sit next to her husband's grave and report to him on the state of their family.

There is an hilarious scene where one of the missionary descendents writes a marvelous expose entitled

Sex Aboard the Brigantine
or
They Couldn't Have been Seasick All the Time
or
There was Friggin' in the Riggin'

which is about exactly what you think it is about. I only wish Michener had let us read the whole thing, and I would love to have seen the original source material he got that from. I am also intensely curious as to what the Islanders themselves think of Michener's book, and how close it is to the truth. I have googled madly and found very little criticism of it, or comment of any kind for that matter. Be interesting to know.

Well worth reading.(less)

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Aug 23, 2008 Rhiannon Lawrence rated it 2 of 5 stars

I needed a bottle of wine and some stimulants to get through this one, and I'm Hawaiian! The opening is enthralling but skip the entire middle section. I couldn't get past the missionary section and had to keep a barf bucket close by... I loved the rest.

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Dec 15, 2008 Lori rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-time-favorites, historical-fiction, travel-the-world

OK, if this hadn't spent the first 150 pages or so on the geologic formation of the islands, I wouldn't hesitate to give this 5 stars, but the geology at the beginning almost destroyed this book for me. After that, it was wonderful. I read this more than 25 years ago and still remember very specific episodes from this book, it impacted me that much.

I love a lengthy tome and Michener is wonderful at developing a story from the ground up. This actually tells several stories of the different people...more

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Mar 16, 2013 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bestselling-fiction, historical-fiction, places-i-ve-traveled

This is truly a mammoth book that covers the history of Hawaii from the formation of the islands (yup, literally) to just before Hawaii acquired statehood in the 50's. For the most part, I enjoyed the book a lot and feel like I learned some interesting information about the history of the islands (although my understanding is the book portrays certain events inaccurately). At the same time, when any author takes on a project this ambitious, I feel like there are bound to be some problems.

One of...more This is truly a mammoth book that covers the history of Hawaii from the formation of the islands (yup, literally) to just before Hawaii acquired statehood in the 50's. For the most part, I enjoyed the book a lot and feel like I learned some interesting information about the history of the islands (although my understanding is the book portrays certain events inaccurately). At the same time, when any author takes on a project this ambitious, I feel like there are bound to be some problems.

One of my favorite parts of Michener's writing is that he creates a fairly complicated cast of characters. Most of the people in this book are both flawed and likable, and I think Michener made a strong effort to keep his characters human as opposed to two-dimensional cut-out figures that represent some cultural stereotype. I also think Michener made an effort to explore the moral complexities of imperialism in the islands without either completely glorifying or villifying any one group of people. At the same time, I felt uncomfortable with his conclusion that the only hope for the survival of native Hawaiian peoples is through intermarriage with Asian people on the islands and wished that he had either developed the character of Kelly Kanakoa better or created a different last Hawaiian character.

As anyone who has read multiple book reviews by me can probably guess, I also had some issues with Michener's treatment of women in the book. There is a tremendous amount of violence against women, coercion, and rape in these books that the women characters take as a matter of course. While my guess is that much of Michener's portrayal of the treatment of women is historically accurate, I would have loved it if he could have more deeply explored their conflicts about being abused and limited in their opportunities. In addition, I think the women characters are generally less well developed than the male characters, with the notable exceptions of Malama Kanakoa, Char Nyuk Tsin (who is one of my favorite characters ever), and Jerusha Bromley.

As other reviewers have probably mentioned, this book is also just incredibly long. I did stay engaged through the end, but I do agree with others that Michener could probably have cut this story down by about 300 pages. It also felt like he lost a bit of steam by the time we got to the Golden Men section, and that the characters started to feel flatter and less interesting by the end of the book. This is also a book one would read for plot instead of writing. Michener has a straightforward, functional prose that gets you from page to page and plot point to plot point but doesn't do much more than that.

Overall, however, I think this is a book that is worth reading, particularly for people who enjoy epics and historical fiction. I'm not sure if it will end up becoming a classic, but I'm guessing it was pretty revolutionary for the 50's in terms of its complex portrayal of people of color and at least some women characters. It's also a fun read if you're willing to invest a chunk of time in it. (less)

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About James A. Michener

James Albert Michener is best known for his sweeping multi-generation historical fiction sagas, usually focusing on and titled after a particular geographical region. His first novel, Tales of the South Pacific , which inspired the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Toward the end of his life, he created the Journey Prize, awarded annually for th...more

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