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Sto caricando le informazioni... Hula: A Novel (edizione 2024)di Jasmin Iolani Hakes (Autore)
Informazioni sull'operaHula di Jasmin Iolani Hakes
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Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher of HarperCollins, and the author Jasmin Iolani Hakes for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Iolani manages to weave in-between historical events and the personal and how they intersect with one another. Iolani's usage of historical events contextualizes the reader's understanding of Hawaii and the lives of the character. Iolani shows a thorough historical understanding to the reader. Besides the historical context, Iolani crafts a family saga between Laka, Hi'i, and later Hi'i's daughters. Iolani creates a pathos between Laka and Hi'i's relationship. In general, the mother and daughter relationships stand out as the strongest within the novel. If nothing else, the work is a testatement to the relationships between women, mother and daughters, and Hawaii. Even while Iolani's focus is on women and mothers and daughters, Iolani's characterization of men, fathers, and male partners is still worth mentioning. I enjoyed reading Iolani's usage of pidgin and the fact that the novel doesn't provide a glossary either. A glossary could be present in the final copy edition, but I sincerely hope that it doesn't. This is also the first Native/Indigenous Hawaiian novel that I've read. While there's non-fiction Native/Indigenous Hawaiian work that I'm familiar with, stories and fiction remain important. Fiction and books as a form have advantages over non-fiction and can introduce readers to perspectives they otherwise would be ignorant of. Iolani engages in the family saga form and elliptical storytelling and time period skip. While sometimes effective and necessary, I wondered if the form should have remained more focused at certain time periods than others and if spending more time in those time periods would have fleshed out the plot and characters more. A lot of things that make Hula by Jasmin Iolani Hakes interesting also make it a challenging read — the Hawaiian language and speech used throughout the story, the change in POV, and the back-and-forth timeline. Hakes explores the women of the Naupaka family through multiple generations and their connection to their homeland and each other through hula. At times she also moves from the narrative into a third-person omniscient point of view to give historical notes and perspectives. Overall, a well-written novel for readers who enjoy multi-generational stories and want to learn about Hawaii. nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
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"A full-throated chant for Hawai'i. Part coming-of-age story, part historical family epic, all love. . . . It's impossible to come away unchanged." -KAWAI STRONG WASHBURN, author of the PEN/Hemingway award-winning Sharks in the Times of Saviors Set in Hilo, Hawai'i, a sweeping saga of tradition, culture, family, history, and connection that unfolds through the lives of three generations of women-a brilliant blend of There, There and Sharks in the Time of Saviors that is a tale of mothers and daughters, dance and destiny. "There's no running away on an island. Soon enough, you end up where you started." Hi'i is proud to be a Naupaka, a family renowned for its contributions to hula and her hometown of Hilo, Hawaii, but there's a lot she doesn't understand. She's never met her legendary grandmother and her mother has never revealed the identity of her father. Worse, unspoken divides within her tight-knit community have started to grow, creating fractures whose origins are somehow entangled with her own family history. In hula, Hi'i sees a chance to live up to her name and solidify her place within her family legacy. But in order to win the next Miss Aloha Hula competition, she will have to turn her back on everything she had ever been taught, and maybe even lose the very thing she was fighting for. Told in part in the collective voice of a community fighting for its survival Hula is a spellbinding debut that offers a rare glimpse into a forgotten kingdom that still exists in the heart of its people. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyClassificazione LCVotoMedia:
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If it wasn’t for our book group, I probably wouldn’t have finished this. The short reason for that is it was a confusing mixture of Hawaii’s history and fight for independence combined with the personal and dramatic story of a dysfunctional multi-generational family. The story’s timeline was fluid, at times making it difficult to recall who and what and when.
On a positive note, I learned a lot about Hawaii’s history and heritage, the US colonization of Hawaii, and the country’s complex relationship with tourism. But after perusing the story’s summary found on the inside book flap prior to reading the book, I thought this was primarily going to be a novel about three women, their relationship with each other and the importance of hula in their lives. Yes, it was about tradition, culture, and family, but these issues were nearly buried by the topic of the Kingdom’s history and a militant effort by the community to redeem the land for native Hawaiians. That story was tragic, and similar to the Black Americans’ civil rights struggles, but sadly dragged down the family narrative.
Maybe the author tried to do too much or should have organized the novel differently. And another element that created a difficulty for me was that many of the characters spoke in Hawaiian slang (pidgin). This vernacular or dialect was similar to the distraction I had when reading “Their Eyes Were Watching God.”
In summary, this novel had too many things going on for me to be totally engaged in any one topic. Not sure I would recommend it. ( )