Two Realities of Honolulu

During my recent visit to Hawaii, I read the 2009 award-winning book Honolulu by Alan Brennert. Two different friends recommended this book to me before I left for Hawaii; the day before my departure, my husband plunked the trade paperback down on my desk and said, “I think you’ll like this.”

Indeed, I did enjoy it. Honolulu is a fictionalized historic romantic tale of a Korean woman who comes to Honolulu in 1914 as a “picture bride” (equivalent of a mail-order bride) to escape her life as a second-class citizen. The main character, Jin (she changed her Korean name, Regret, which pretty much sums up her status in her family) and her three friends (other picture brides she met during the journey from Korea) face incredible obstacles throughout their lives. The characters are so very real and engaging that I found myself emotionally involved with the story--enmeshed in feelings of outrage, shame, compassion and empathy.

Brennert paints a wonderfully accurate picture of life in Hawaii at the turn of the 20th century. Of course, Honolulu today is different than it was almost a hundred years ago; but I thoroughly enjoyed walking the streets Nuuanu and Beretania as well as identifying the various venues where Jin lived, worked and socialized. I could very well picture in my mind the Liliha Café in Buckle Lane in the Liliha District, although there are no more stables, and the rice paddies are long since gone at the intersection of King and Kapiolani. Dole Cannery is now a theater complex across the huge lot from Costco.

Honolulu is a captivating, engaging read and I'm looking forward to diving into another of Brennert's books:  Moloka'i which is the story of the challenges and triumphs of a young Hawaiian girl with leprosy in the early 20th century.