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Moloka'i
August 2024: 5 Stars
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Molokai 4.5 up to 5!
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Susan
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rated it 5 stars
Aug 07, 2024 10:06AM
I really enjoyed this story of Rachael, a young Hawaiian girl who has the misfortune to develop leprosy around the early 1900s, when she was 6 years old, many years before there was effective treatment. She was taken from her family and sent to Molokai. I often avoid books in a leprosy setting because I’m so annoyed by the medically inaccurate bits, the reliance on sensationalism, and the general lack of humanity granted to the victims themselves. (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) But this was a book club choice, so I read it and I’m glad I did. Not only did the author do an excellent job with medical details and descriptions but he showed the people of Molokai as the human beings they were, with the full range of personalities, foibles and failings, merits and strengths, that any group of people would have. What they all had in common was being cast out of society, shunned and feared, living constantly with the knowledge that they would most likely become deformed and lose abilities we all take for granted. It’s a tribute to the human spirit, that, reduced to this most humble state, the vast majority went on about life, accepting what they had to in their constrained living arrangements. I found that inspirational. Plus, the descriptions of the beauty of Molokai were vivid. The character, Rachael, was an extraordinary fighter and I was fully engaged, wanting to see how her life unrolled. I’m rounding up a 4.5.
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I'm glad you liked this so much; I can't bring myself to read another tragic story about leprosy.
It was tragic in the past - but multidrug therapy has been miraculous and really changed the situation. But I get your reluctance.
Susan wrote: "It was tragic in the past - but multidrug therapy has been miraculous and really changed the situation. But I get your reluctance."Yes, of course, but this book will be tragic given when it is set. The last novel I read about someone with leprosy ended shortly after there was treatment so the leper colony ended up closing.
This is a book I’ve always meant to read, and your review makes me want to bump it up! I really liked Sweet Bean Paste, a Japanese book that included a character with Hansen’s disease. Long after the cure there was still a lot of stigma. It was sad in parts but it was a moving story.
