Hawaii
James Michener, 1959
★ 4.22 from 82.8k ratings on Goodreads
Michener follows Hawaii from undersea geology to plantation politics, asking who gets to call the islands home. A long sweep of time and geology, told in plain, aphoristic prose that makes the islands feel vast and unsettled.
Feels like awe, curiosity and wonder. About time, nature and memory.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you want a broad historical novel that moves from undersea rock to plantation politics with curiosity and awe. Be ready for slow pacing and a treatment of social issues and characters that some readers found uneven.
Why read it
It gives you the long view of Hawaii as a place shaped by geology, migration and power, so the islands' present feels less accidental.
A page from the book
What every newcomer to the islands had to bring, or perish.
Therefore, men of Polynesia and Boston and China and Mount Fuji and the barrios of the Philippines, do not come to these islands empty-handed, or craven in spirit, or afraid to starve. There is no food here. In these islands there is no certainty. Bring your own food, your own gods, your own flowers and fruits and concepts. For if you come without resources to these islands you will perish... On these harsh terms the islands waited. What readers say
Readers found the book an epic and educational journey through Hawaiian history and nature. While many praised its scope and detail, others criticized the slow pacing and the portrayal of social issues and characters.
James Michener.Michener served as a Navy historian in the South Pacific during WWII; his Tales of the South Pacific won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize.
Books that feel like this
More by James Michener
Centennial
James Michener, 1956
A scholar’s journey through the massive changes of a rapidly modernizing America, tracking ambition, history, and the sheer scale of cultural transformation.
The Covenant
James Michener, 1980
A sweeping novel of South Africa, from a prehistoric clan beside a dying lake to the modern state, told through the people who claimed the land.
Chesapeake
James Michener, 1978
Four centuries on Maryland's Eastern Shore, told through the families, canoes, storms and wars that shaped the bay.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is Hawaii for me?
- You may like it if you want a broad historical novel that moves from undersea rock to plantation politics with curiosity and awe. Be ready for slow pacing and a treatment of social issues and characters that some readers found uneven.
- What is Hawaii like?
- A long sweep of time and geology, told in plain, aphoristic prose that makes the islands feel vast and unsettled. Feels like awe, curiosity and wonder. About time, nature and memory.
- What should I read after Hawaii?
- If you liked Hawaii, try The Martian (Andy Weir), The Art of War (Sun Tzu) and The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway).
A taste of the feed
The moment a suit breach becomes a race against your own escaping air.
Our main communications dish, which relayed signals from the Hab to Hermes, acted like a parachute, getting torn from its foundation and carried with the torrent. Along the way, it crashed through the reception antenna array. Then one of those long thin antennae slammed into me end-first. It tore through my suit like a bullet through butter, and I felt the worst pain of my life as it ripped open my side. I vaguely remember having the wind knocked out of me (pulled out of me, really) and my ears popping painfully as the pressure of my suit escaped.
The Martian · Andy Weir
The most counterintuitive military idea in history: win with the enemy intact, not destroyed.
Sun Tzǔ said: In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy’s country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to capture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them.
The Art of War · Sun Tzu
The case for trusting the salt on your skin.
“A hundred years from now, people will look back on us and laugh. They’ll say, ‘You know what people used to believe? They believed in photons and electrons. Can you imagine anything so silly?’ They’ll have a good laugh, because by then there will be newer and better fantasies. And meanwhile, you feel the way the boat moves? That’s the sea. That’s real. You smell the salt in the air? You feel the sunlight on your skin? That’s all real. You see all of us together? That’s real. Life is wonderful. It’s a gift to be alive, to see the sun and breathe the air. And there isn’t really anything else.”
The Lost World · Michael Crichton
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