FOUR YEARS AT THE KAHALA

Hung recollects the years he spent working his way through college employed at the famous Kahala Hotel in Hawaii.

The author grew up in Hong Kong and Malaysia, the son of two teachers who were far too poor to pay for his college education. When he began studying at the University of Hawaii in 1965, he needed to find work fast and landed some jobs—first as a cook at a popular snack bar on campus, and then at the Kahala Hotel, which had only been built the year before his arrival. He was astonished by the elegance of the iconic hotel, which housed the rich and famous, as well as by the hospitality with which he was received. Hung worked his way through college there as a houseboy, busboy, and parking attendant, all the while harboring an aspiration to become a doctor, a dream that often seemed profoundly unrealizable. In this endearingly fond remembrance of this time at the Kahala—he describes his relationship to the place as a “long love affair”—the author portrays the staff of the hotel as his substitute family. (“The Kahala Hotel was my home; and I still feel a sense of homecoming to this day whenever I walk through its familiar, welcoming doors.”) Hung reflects lucidly on the history of Hawaii, particularly the racial tensions between Asians and Caucasians, and on the ways in which his own experience living in colonies of the British Empire imbued him, as a Chinese man, with a sense of inferiority. However, the author’s reflections are too eclectic, and often meandering—he supplies commentary on his favorite Hawaiian books, movies, and flowers, as well as observations about the hotel’s most distinguished guests, like millionaire Barbara Hutton. Hung’s story is an inspirational one (he does in fact realize his dream of becoming a doctor), and thoughtfully conveyed. Nevertheless, the scope of his story is likely too circumscribed to resonate deeply with a broad readership.

A memoir unfortunately too narrowly focused to appeal broadly.