I was watching a high speed car chase on television yesterday and something ACTUALLY HAPPENED. This is amazing, because Los Angeles probably generates about 3 high speed car chases a week and they are all INCREDIBLY BORING. This is because there is approximately 2353459845 miles of high way in Los Angeles and all of it is full of cars, all the time, making the general highest speed for a high speed car chase about, ohhhhh.... 20 mph.(I guess that technically means there's actually about 2353459845 miles of parking lot in LA, but whatever.)The point is, usually the perp pulls onto a crowded highway, runs into a barrier/off the shoulder/into thousands of stopped cars, and is immediately apprehended. You always know what is going to happen.That's pretty much how I felt about this book when I picked it up. It even felt heavy in my hands, like I knew I was holding one of those car wrecks you can't take your eyes off. Did I really want to spend the next six hour flight sniffling into my 2 ply Southwest Airlines napkin? I was hooked on the leprosy colony thing, though. Leprosy is a fascinating disease, and I'm not trying to sound like bad dialogue from one of the CSI spinoffs. It's a disease that takes away your nerve endings. Imagine breaking a toe and not being able to feel it--- so you just keep walking on it till it falls off. Whoa. Plus lepers were always running around in the Bible during my childhood sunday school lessons, and since I was a little confused on the terminology, I spent grades kindergarten through 3rd thinking lepers were people with canes who farmed "LEmon PEppER". Thanks Bobby Chris. If I ever meet you again I'm going to punch you in the face for feeding me that.Anyway, time to rectify the situation. I know the style of writing was dry for some (the term "plodding" consistently comes to mind when I try to think of a summary for the pace) but I think it served the author's purpose. He wanted to accurately represent the history of the colony and the people in it, through the eyes of one fictitious character. That's challenging. Sometimes it read like a list of death, but I understood, from the very beginning... this car wreck is involves an incurable and deforming disease, and as such, bad thing after bad thing is going to happen, till the very, inevitable, end.That's why I didn't expect so much hope from the book. It wasn't one of those, "on the edge of your seat, is she gonna find a miracle cure" type books. It simply held moments of day-to-day triumph that I found very personable, realistic, and bittersweet. The back of the cover of this book had a summary that said something like "Moloka'i proves that people find the best of life in any situation" or some bullshit like that, but I didn't find the book anywhere as overbearing in terms of beating you over the head with morals. It was refreshing in that the author was just trying to tell you one person's life story, complete with all its flaws, and in all its glory. I came away with a lot to think about. Oh, and by the way, that car chase. Dudes, you would not BELIEVE. So I turn on the TV and this red bronco is pulling off the highway into a residential area during rush hour, around a SCHOOL. I'm thinking, whoa, finally a smart car chase-person-running-from-the-law... you got off the highway, and yet will now possibly commit manslaughter of several minors. Then I'm thinking... whoa... that's... near my house. Of course I can't pull away now. He drives by schools. He drives on the wrong side of the road. You know it's going to happen (on live tv! OMG) and then... it happens! BAM! Right into a honda in the middle of an intersection... and then, this fat cholo claws his way out of the bronco! No way! Dude, are you seriously going to run into the backyard of that house while 3 dozen helicopters are tracking the light reflecting off your bald shiny head? Also, is that backyard near mine? Also, if it is, maybe the annoying rat-dog next door will get caught in the crossfire!He then proceeds to pull someone out of the car they are vacuuming in their driveway, and forces them to take off all their clothes so he can put them on! BUT HE CAN'T FIT! Seriously, where are the cops? Meanwhile the entire KCLA network is watching this guy trying to put on a black shirt and look casual, walking down the block with his arm stuck in the neck hole. It was awesome. No, seriously.Ok fine. But it was still better than "Two and A Half Men". Which, sadly resumed after they caught the guy. Which left me thinking two things: 1) If the news helicopters are following the guy better than the police, maybe we should just give the camera guys machine guns. Now that would make for much better prime time news coverage. 2) How is that show, nevertheless Charlie Sheen, STILL ON TV?!?!?!!
One of my favorite books, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, delves into the crazy idea that people don’t have to be miserable when the world around them is. Moloka’i is another such book. The message: life isn’t over until it’s over.Separated from everything dear to her, the heroine of this book, Rachel, learns at a young age that life can still provide her with simple joys—and profound fulfillment. And though she spends many moments peeking into the abyss of despair, she also spends moments rescuing others from the black chasm of regret.She encounters those who choose to allow their circumstances to define them, bitterness festering into hatred, until they are a shell of a human. She meets those who allow bitterness to overcome them despite the blessings and freedom she has longed so desperately for. This novel highlights that the human race is endowed with the ability to choose happiness…or to choose despair:“God didn’t give man wings; He gave him the brain and the spirit to give himself wings,” counsels Rachel’s friend. “Just as He gave us the capacity to laugh when we hurt, or to struggle on when we feel like giving up. I’ve come to believe that how we choose to live with pain, or injustice, or death…is the true measure of the Divine within us. Some … choose to do harm to themselves and others. Others … bear up under their pain and help others to bear it.”This historical novel chronicles the lives of those who lived on the island of Moloka’i: a colony of “lepers” who are outcast from their families, friends and the lives that were once commonplace. At times the colony is attended to and kept clean and up-to-date. At times, it is in ruins and neglected by the various governments who fly their flags on it’s shore. And mirroring the settlement are people who can choose whether they have come there to watch their life fall into ruin—or whether they have gone there to discover a new, if unexpected, life.When Rachel first lands on the shores as a young child, she turns away, sickened, from the people who greet her with smiles. Later she learns to accept and love these people. She also learns to accept herself and the trials that have been handed to her: “Friends called out to her; the surf beckoned to her; her horse, on seeing her, happily nuzzled her neck. This was life, and if some things were kapu [or forbidden], others weren’t; she had to stop regretting the ones that were and start enjoying the ones that were not.”This novel is also threaded with themes of religion, culture, family life and politics. Each piece flows together seamlessly, making this a novel that I would heartily recommend to others.First words: "Later, when memory was all she had to sustain her, she would come to cherish it: Old Honolulu as it was then, as it would never be again."Note: because of several graphic scenes, I would not recommend this book for a young audience. Although frankly, most books I read are not geared toward a young audience...
What do You think about Moloka'i (2004)?
Where I got the book: my local library. A Goodreads Effect book, meaning that I read it because I'd seen it talked about on GR.Sigh. Verdict if you want the short version: a brilliantly conceived and well researched novel that misses the mark in its execution.Long version: I was excited about this book. The premise was a premise of promise: a little Hawaiian girl is exiled to the leper colony of Moloka'i, torn from her family by the dread disease. She is befriended by a nun, who struggles with her own past and tries to reconcile her faith in God with the affliction she sees all around her. Historical fiction with heartrending human interest; oh, the tragedy! The potential for deep reflection on the nature of destiny and human resilience!Actually, Moloka'i does quite well on these counts. I frequently found it moving, and I loved the threads of loss that run through the whole story, the loss of Hawaiian statehood and ancient beliefs providing an excellent counterpart to the loss of physical identity suffered by the patients and the need to build new ways of living once their entire family structure had been ripped away from them.BUT...considering it as a novel, meh. Bring me a developmental editor, stat! I believe that the rules about point of view and structure exist to be broken, and rejoice whenever someone does it well. This wasn't done well. The POV swooped around from omniscient to intimate to somewhere out in left field until I was left quite dizzy...there is a glorious section in the last third or so where it stays firmly in the head of Rachel, the heroine, and I rejoiced, giving thanks and praise--and then mid-chapter, JUMP! we're back in choppy water. Queasiness ensued.And the research stood out all over the novel in little bumps.I would have taken this manuscript and shuffled all the chapters around like mad, ripping up the chronological treatment and putting the research/history where it belonged in separate sections, not suddenly popping up in the text like some sort of Resident Professor Narrator freezing the movie in the classroom to explain the context. Then I would have tied the rest firmly to Rachel's POV, perhaps with the end bit as some kind of epilogue because it was quite poignantly moving with the parallels between Rachel's experience and her daughter's. Or perhaps Ruth's POV could be in there from the start, actually giving the historical context...I think the problem is that the author never really committed to a novel. This reads more like a novelization of history, and sometimes like a proposal for a movie (the author's a screenwriter). It would make a pretty good movie, I think. But expecting us to swallow it as a novel implies that you give us the experience of a novel, and not something novelish.Overall, I'm happy to have learned a whole lot about this chunk of Hawaiian history, hence the three stars. Anyone got suggestions for further reading?
—Jane
Disappointing.Underwhelming.Squandered potential.Lacks "soul".These are a few of the things that immediately sprang to mind after finishing Molika'i. After reading several 2 star reviews here on Goodreads by more gifted reviewers then myself, I really can't add much more without becoming repetitive.Suffice it to say, this book had so much potential. So much possibility. And although a vast majority of readers thought it met (and exceeded) those parameters, for me it fell flat.I wanted my soul to be moved while reading this. I wanted my heart to be engaged. I wanted to feel real sympathy for these fictional characters played out against a very non-fictional aspect of history. Instead, I yawned - frequently. I looked to see how many pages were left. I got tired of the innumerable instances of "info-dumping" (and plotline wrangling in order to create the "info-dump" moment). I thought of how a writer like my favorite M.M. Kaye would have handled this scene or that situation. I got frustrated over the shallow writing and the contemporary feel of a story that was supposed to take place over 100 years ago. And finally, I closed the book and was sad that what could have been an awesome story fell flat for me (expecially since I've been on a run of mediocre reads lately).This is a minority opinion - but it's mine. Hope it's a better read for others.
—Hannah
This is the story of Rachel Kalama, a girl who got leper with 6-years old and, by consequence, was segregated from her family in O'Ahu and sent to a colony of lepers in Moloka'i. The book tells about her struggle in order to get cured from this horrible disease and have her freedom re-established. The author wrote a very touching story with a set a very special characters such as: her father who never stop to loved her and was the only family member who often visited her in Kalaupapa; Sister Catherine who became her best friend forever; her foster mother Haleola who was a healer person living among the lepers by using natural remedies in order to try to cure them; other I prefer not to mention in order to spoil the whole story.Some historical facts are also very well described such as the Pearl Harbor attack by the Japanese and how they were discriminated after that. The historical development of Hawaii is also mentioned in this book.In order to avoid spoilers, I would say: you MUST read this book!!Latest news: Hawaii's Kilauea volcano's violent eruption
—Laura
