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Warwick's Reviews > Moloka'i
Moloka'i (Moloka'i, #1)
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By-the-numbers ‘exotic� historical fiction about the leper colony on the Hawaiian island of Moloka‘i at the end of the nineteenth century. The language is an ungainly mixture of anachronistic modernisms (‘she gave him the stink-eye�), boring clichés (‘harsh glare�, ‘warm glow�), and metaphorical flourishes that fall flat (‘Dorothy felt something wet fall on her leg, unexpected as a drop of rain on a sunny day�). Brennert is a veteran screenwriter for shows like L.A. Law, and much of the dialogue here performs the sort of brisk exposition that is acceptable in a well-directed TV film but which feels rather artless and clumsy in running prose. I'm sounding overly harsh here � the book isn't offensively bad, and people who generally enjoy this kind of novel will definitely get more enjoyment out of this one than I did. Brennert has done his research, I'll say that, but in my case I quickly realised that I'd rather be reading the books in the bibliography than the novel he turned them into; I bailed after a hundred pages, which is pretty unusual for me.
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Reading Progress
April 4, 2016
–
Started Reading
April 4, 2016
– Shelved
April 6, 2016
– Shelved as:
fiction
April 6, 2016
– Shelved as:
united-states
April 6, 2016
– Shelved as:
hawaii
April 6, 2016
–
Finished Reading
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Antonomasia
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Apr 06, 2016 07:42PM
Are you in Hawaii? What is it like?
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Yes! It's beautiful, although Switzerland has kind of spoiled me for beautiful places. But lovely, really � fascinating culture, lovely skies, great food, I'm enjoying it a lot (if through a fog of jetlag).
Lovely. Pictures of it always look strangely empty of people, but there must be quite a few around, really?And it must be so warm.
Too hot for me! 30 deg today, and yeah there's plenty of folks here. Actually the traffic is horrendous � I've heard that Honolulu is one of the top 10 worst cities in the US for rush hour traffic, and it seems believable.
Nice to see an American temperature in Celsius for once, and not have to look up / translate. That's too hot to work in and sit in traffic jams, yeah.
I like the plan to read only books about/set in the place you are visiting but I'm kind of glad my next trip is to Florence and not Hawaii ;-)
Heh, avoid The Descendants then...you could also listen to Jack Johnson's albums; he is the perfect guy to summon the Hawaiian spirit even when one is swamped in snow!
There is a surprising connection between the leper colony and a Catholic Church in Stowe Vermont. I will be back with links.
Went to a Mass there. With all the artwork, it felt spiritual and manic. about 100 drawing on the ceiling as well.
Too late, Dolors!Jim � yes � Damien features in the novel, though not sure about Dutton.
There are 100 of these figures overhead which feels like spirits. I have never seen any thing like it before.
30c here is classed as comfortable, but then I also have very low humidity & that makes all the difference. Glad you are enjoying Hawaii, and enduring that horrid traffic. It was bad in 1976 when I visited, so it can't have improved.
Try "Time and Chance" and please comment on my review afterwards!
Finally finished that review. /review/show... I am curious as to how you feel it compared to the rest of Brennet's work. "Time and Chance" is a fantasy / science-fiction / time-travel story.
I've actually read a number of Brennert's references which this book's based upon and the European literature on the subject - mostly older French and Norwegian monographs, but also a number of fresh research from the Journal of Asia Pacific, accounts of missionary work and modern research re-interviewing the (great-grand) children and reexamining the family archives. I liked the book, mainly because it was a less academic retelling of the facts that I already knew, maybe because it was translated into French, as well, so those anachronisms you disliked so much were washed away :) as the text floated towards an average level of literacy and vocabulary expected of translated literature and, I suspect lost its uneven "period-piece vocabulary adaptation".
Ah, well, I've never been to the US or Hawaii, so of course I'm ignoring the factuality and the correctess of all those description of Honolulu, Hilo and Maui :D
