An astute dramatization of historical intrigue.
Historically based fiction that follows the fevered push to annex Hawaii.
In the last throes of the 19th century, powerful sugar-plantation owners based in Hawaii enjoy a free-trade treaty with the U.S. that allows them to export unrefined sugar to the States sans tax. This treaty keeps that industry afloat amid competition by the Philippines and Caribbean countries, as well as burgeoning U.S. growers. However, the unpredictable Hawaiian king is against the renewal of the treaty. Jack Powers, a senior partner at a premier U.S. law firm that represents the main sugar-plantation owners, decides that the only permanent solution to this recurring problem is to overthrow the king and force the absorption of Hawaii by the U.S. government. He intimidates the head of a local bank to manufacture evidence that the king has been embezzling money from a foundation established to distribute health care to the people of Hawaii. The king suddenly dies while on a diplomatic mission to California, leaving his sister as heir to the throne. As a result, Powers must switch course and contrive to charge the queen with treason after she announces a plan to rewrite the constitution. Meanwhile, the young attorney who admires Powers, David Coe, a man with familial roots in Hawaii, begins to feel queasy about Powers’ Machiavellian plan and disregard for the rule of law. Debut author Radakovich shows a deep understanding of the history and culture of Hawaii as well as an abiding affection for it. While he dramatizes historical events with some narrative license, he does an impressive job of remaining true to the documented facts. Also, the character of David Coe captures an ambivalence that seemed to run through some of Hawaii at the time: many were enamored of commercial progress and the advantages brought by a special relationship with the U.S. but also loath to sacrifice cultural and political autonomy. This is both a thriller and a lesson in political imperialism.
An astute dramatization of historical intrigue.Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-9907286-1-0
Page Count: 302
Publisher: Nautical Technologies LLC
Review Posted Online: July 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
An unusual and mesmerizing novel, gracefully written and deeply disturbing.
In her first novel to be published in English, South Korean writer Han divides a story about strange obsessions and metamorphosis into three parts, each with a distinct voice.
Yeong-hye and her husband drift through calm, unexceptional lives devoid of passion or anything that might disrupt their domestic routine until the day that Yeong-hye takes every piece of meat from the refrigerator, throws it away, and announces that she's become a vegetarian. Her decision is sudden and rigid, inexplicable to her family and a society where unconventional choices elicit distaste and concern that borders on fear. Yeong-hye tries to explain that she had a dream, a horrifying nightmare of bloody, intimate violence, and that's why she won't eat meat, but her husband and family remain perplexed and disturbed. As Yeong-hye sinks further into both nightmares and the conviction that she must transform herself into a different kind of being, her condition alters the lives of three members of her family—her husband, brother-in-law, and sister—forcing them to confront unsettling desires and the alarming possibility that even with the closest familiarity, people remain strangers. Each of these relatives claims a section of the novel, and each section is strikingly written, equally absorbing whether lush or emotionally bleak. The book insists on a reader’s attention, with an almost hypnotically serene atmosphere interrupted by surreal images and frighteningly recognizable moments of ordinary despair. Han writes convincingly of the disruptive power of longing and the choice to either embrace or deny it, using details that are nearly fantastical in their strangeness to cut to the heart of the very human experience of discovering that one is no longer content with life as it is.
An unusual and mesmerizing novel, gracefully written and deeply disturbing.Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-553-44818-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Hogarth
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015
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