Hawaii, James Michener

Out of the boundless deep, the Hawaiian Islands rose to become some of the most unique in all the world. In Michener's wonderful introductory chapter, he traces their geological history, starting billions of years ago and ending at our present age. After reading it I thought, this man could have just as well been a science writer, or a poet. 

The second chapter begins a different sort of saga: that of a generation of Polynesians who first inhabited the islands. They'd migrated from Tahiti in the South Pacific sometime during the first millennium AD. It was a good story, I just wished it was longer. 

The third chapter tells the riveting adventure of a group of missionaries who sailed from New England to Hawaii in the early 1800s. They're led by Abner Hale, who's as stubborn and stalwart a missionary as there ever was. At times I wanted to punch him in the face, and couldn't figure out why the leaders of Hawaii wouldn't! Though it was difficult for me to identify with him, his wife Jerusha proved herself much more amiable, as were the rest of his friends. The part where they braved Cape Horn- some of the deadliest seas in the world- was one of the strongest segments of the book. After they arrived in Hawaii a religious "battle" seemed to begin, pitting the Gods of the islanders against their one true God of the Bible. This spiritual struggle was just one example of the many clashes between cultures that Michener sought to illustrate. Later on, this mix of cultures would come to include Chinese and Japanese laborers, who sought their own freedoms in the struggle for colonial rule. 

All these differences ultimately jumbled into a cohesive identity for Hawaii as it approached statehood in the 1950s. The book culminates in a political and economic struggle that has the Japanese and Chinese vying for land while the Americans struggle to conserve their stronghold on the economy. Unfortunately, this made for some rushed, watered-down stories (which Michener has been guilty of). In these later parts of the book, people from the same families come and go without us ever really getting to know them. Regardless, I consider the first 400 pages some of the best in historical fiction. Michener's power comes from the telling of historical events that have ramifications for multiple generations of families, such as the Chinese lepers being banished to Molokai and the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. I can't help but reward Hawaii with a 5-star review, not only for its great early tales, but for Michener's success in unifying cultures with an ambitious thousand-page saga.