Book Review: Honolulu

I recently had the privilege of reading an advanced copy of Alan Brennert's new historical novel, simply titled Honolulu. It is the follow-up to Brennert's Moloka`i, his first foray into Hawaiian historical fiction (I am reading this right now, and will eventually post a review of it, too).

Honolulu is a harrowing tale of overcoming one's destiny, thwarting convention and ultimately living out the dream that is at once American and Hawaiian. It is the story of Jin, a once shunned Korean girl named "Regret" by her parents for not being a boy and destined to a life decided on her behalf. She would wed a man chosen by her family, become a wife and mother, and never learn to read or leave her quarters of the house.

But Jin had other ideas. As a young girl at the turn of the century, she found a piece of a book that had blown into her yard. She made her brother read it, and she began teaching herself how to read. Constantly longing for an education and life of purpose, Jin one day learned of a place called Hawai`i, where everything was beautiful and the streets "paved with gold." She and her best friend began flirting with the notion of becoming picture brides. It was their only ticket out of Korea, to a new life. While her family frowned upon her idea and her father shunned her for learning how to read, Jin simply could not stay trapped.

Of course, Jin's journey would not be so simple as an immediate marriage into the American dream. She and the other picture brides would quickly discover that the handsome and ostensibly prosperous men who chose them were much older than their pictures would illustrate, and most were plantation workers. Worst, though, was Jin's husband's appetite for violence. After fleeing her doomed destiny in Korea, had she traveled all this way only to find a lot much more devastating?

From here, the novel finds its strongest footing, and assuredly moves through Jin's inspiring decisions that define her future, and her life. Along the way she befriends prostitutes, gets cozy with police officers, becomes an enterprising seamstress, and finds true love and fortune in a land that becomes intertwined with her new identity. One particular part of Jin's story I found moving involved her confronting her own prejudice against the Japanese, who had ripped her native country from her people. During the Depression, she befriends a Japanese woman and tentatively begins to help her, despite her own misgivings. It is a slow process, but over time, Jin comes to her own realization that it is no longer about Korea or Japan...they are all Hawaiians now.

Not without tragedy, Honolulu is a fundamental testament to the possibility of creating your own life by never extinguishing that fire crackling with dreams, determination, and resiliency.

At the end of her story, Jin reflects on her new home: "Hawai`i has often been called a melting pot, but I think of it more as a "mixed plate" -- a scoop of rice with gravy, a scoop of macaroni salad, a piece of mahi-mahi, and a side of kimchi. Many different tastes share the plate, but none of them loses its individual flavor, and together they make up a uniquely "local" cuisine. This is also, I believe, what America is at its best -- a whole great than the sum of its parts."

Jin reunites with the other picture brides in Honolulu, and they begin meeting on a regular basis, and eventually form a kye. A kye is essentially a pot of money that each member contributes to, and periodically requests to draw from it. Everyone votes, and decides if this is a reasonable use of the funds. From these funds, each of the women is able to lead a better life. Businesses are started. Real estate is purchased. Jin leaves behind her family in Korea, and with it much of the old ways. In Hawai`i, though, she makes her own family and has experiences one could only have in those great Pacific islands.

In times of unprecedented uncertainty in the world, I cannot convey enough the value in reading this novel. Jin found that in Hawai`i the roads were not paved with gold, and life would not be without major obstacles. Yet, she found a way to survive and in the end, made her own version of Paradise. The idea of 'Paradise as Possibility' should resonate with anyone still feeding that crackling fire.