What do you think?
Rate this book
Spirit of the Village: A Maui Memoir
A life symphony resonates in Spirit of the Village A Maui Memoir by Jackie Pias Carlin. It is a story of extended families, superstitions, cockfights and family secrets. Her narrative nonfiction is orchestrated with vivid memories of life in a sugarcane plantation camp in Hawaii during the '50s.
199 pages, Paperback
First published September 30, 2006
5 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 28, 2022
I picked this book up on a trip to Maui at a giftshop from a museum out there.
I was pleasantly surprised to find a maui memoir on a Filipina who grew up in Hawai'i during the sugar plantation days. An easy read that whisks you away into the life of someone who grew up doing that time. Jackie does a wonderful job explaining what it was like for her and the sights she saw and witnessed.
Jackie's story is quite unique, Jackie is adopted and as she tells her story throughout the book I enjoy bits and pieces of revelation she's learned since experiencing her childhood. For example, feelings she had once had that were unexplainable were then the realization of mental health struggles such as depression.
I was pleasantly surprised to find a maui memoir on a Filipina who grew up in Hawai'i during the sugar plantation days. An easy read that whisks you away into the life of someone who grew up doing that time. Jackie does a wonderful job explaining what it was like for her and the sights she saw and witnessed.
Jackie's story is quite unique, Jackie is adopted and as she tells her story throughout the book I enjoy bits and pieces of revelation she's learned since experiencing her childhood. For example, feelings she had once had that were unexplainable were then the realization of mental health struggles such as depression.
September 6, 2024
Unblinking, unfettered, straight look at life on the island living on Plantations into the 70's. Remarkable telling of what it felt like to be young Filipino girl in the racial pecking order of the plantation camps. A quick, simple read on the subject, very personal, from a quiet nonpublic person.
“Tall, green sugarcane surrounded our homes as far as my eyes could see. Our camps were separated from one another until harvest time when the fields were completely burned and the clusters of wooden homes appeared naked against the red dirt.
My father and the other men came home after work with dust-covered faces and clothing; only their eyes, protected by plastic goggles, were clean. Thoughts to themselves, they walked silently home on the dirt trail that started from the Bell House up to the stonewall that overlooked a basketball court and Cagasan’s corn patch.
One by one, they peeled off from the trail to roads that led to their homes. They were too tired to talk, or maybe bored, or possibly they missed their families in the Philippines.”
—from Spirit of the Village: A Maui Memoir by Jackie Pias Carlin
https://www.mauimagazine.net/wp-conte...
“Tall, green sugarcane surrounded our homes as far as my eyes could see. Our camps were separated from one another until harvest time when the fields were completely burned and the clusters of wooden homes appeared naked against the red dirt.
My father and the other men came home after work with dust-covered faces and clothing; only their eyes, protected by plastic goggles, were clean. Thoughts to themselves, they walked silently home on the dirt trail that started from the Bell House up to the stonewall that overlooked a basketball court and Cagasan’s corn patch.
One by one, they peeled off from the trail to roads that led to their homes. They were too tired to talk, or maybe bored, or possibly they missed their families in the Philippines.”
—from Spirit of the Village: A Maui Memoir by Jackie Pias Carlin
https://www.mauimagazine.net/wp-conte...
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews