Research Catalog

This is paradise : stories / Kristiana Kahakauwila.

Title
This is paradise : stories / Kristiana Kahakauwila.
Author
Kahakauwila, Kristiana
Publication
New York : Hogarth, [2013]

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextRequest in advance PS3611.A3455 T48 2013Off-site

Details

Description
238 pages; 21 cm
Summary
"A visceral, poignant, and elegantly gritty work of debut fiction set in Hawaii, in the vein of Junot Diaz's Drown and Danielle Evans's Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self This is the real Hawai'i: life is not the paradisical adventure that honeymooners or movie-goers see. Danger lurks on beautiful beaches, violence bubbles under the smooth surf, and characters come face to face with the inevitability of change and the need to define who they are against the forces of tradition and expectation. In these stories, a young woman decides to take revenge on the man who had her father murdered - only to find that her father wasn't who she thought he was. Three different groups of Hawaiian women observe and comment on the progress of an American tourist through one day and one night in Honolulu. And a young couple have an encounter with a stray dog that shakes their relationship to the core. Intimately tied to the Hawaiian Islands, This is Paradise explores the relationships among native Hawaiians, local citizens, and emigrants from (and to) the contiguous forty-eight states. There is tension between locals and tourists, between locals and the military men that populate their communities, between local Hawaiian girls who never leave, and those who do so for higher education and then return. Kahakauwila is a careful observer of her protagonists' actions - and, sometimes, their inaction. Her portrayal of people whose lives have lost their centre of gravity is acute, often heartbreaking, and suffused with a deeply felt empathy.With a contemporary edginess, a mature style, and a sense of history reverberating into the present, This is Paradise is an incredible debut"--
Subject
  • 2000 - 2099
  • FICTION / Short Stories (single author)
  • FICTION / Literary
  • FICTION / Cultural Heritage
  • Hawaii > Social life and customs > 21st century > Fiction
Genre/Form
Short stories
Processing Action (note)
  • committed to retain
Contents
This is paradise -- Wanle -- The road to Hana -- Thirty-nine rules for making a Hawaiian funeral into a drinking game -- Portrait of a Good Father -- The old Paniolo way.
ISBN
  • 9780770436254 (paperback)
  • 0770436250 (paperback)
LCCN
^^2012040063
OCLC
  • 818293022
  • SCSB-11489090
Owning Institutions
Harvard Library