When I started Moloka'i, the only thing I knew about it was that it was consistently popular when I worked at a book store. I picked it up a few months ago at a thrift store for 99 cents thinking can't go wrong with this price'.
I rarely read books like this. By this' I mean regular, popular fiction with no genre theme attached. I have always drifted towards the alternatives - science fiction, horror, sometimes fantasy. I've also loved classic literature since I picked up my first Dickens. But modern fiction has never really been my jam. And it's interesting to note that on the few times I do pick up one, like in the case of Moloka'i, I am utterly blown away and find myself falling deeply in love.
I am usually always skeptical of a man writing a girl's or woman's journey, and so when I realized this was going to be Rachel Kalama's life journey written by a white, American man, my skepticism was working overtime. Brennert writes Rachel with such a clarity and such an understanding of love and loss that it's hard to believe he didn't know the (fictional) woman personally. I guess he did, though, I mean she was born inside of his head.
Rachel's character development is so strong and so tight that you don't even miss the chunks of years of her life that Brennert skips over. It is clear from her voice and attitude exactly what those years held for her and you never feel like you've missed out. With each chapter and cluster of years of her experience, you feel more and more like you know Rachel almost as intimately as you know yourself and, in turn, you feel her hopes and her losses almost as deeply as she.
Rachel Aouli Kalama Utagawa has earned her way into my favorite all-time characters of literature.
I rarely read books like this. By this' I mean regular, popular fiction with no genre theme attached. I have always drifted towards the alternatives - science fiction, horror, sometimes fantasy. I've also loved classic literature since I picked up my first Dickens. But modern fiction has never really been my jam. And it's interesting to note that on the few times I do pick up one, like in the case of Moloka'i, I am utterly blown away and find myself falling deeply in love.
I am usually always skeptical of a man writing a girl's or woman's journey, and so when I realized this was going to be Rachel Kalama's life journey written by a white, American man, my skepticism was working overtime. Brennert writes Rachel with such a clarity and such an understanding of love and loss that it's hard to believe he didn't know the (fictional) woman personally. I guess he did, though, I mean she was born inside of his head.
Rachel's character development is so strong and so tight that you don't even miss the chunks of years of her life that Brennert skips over. It is clear from her voice and attitude exactly what those years held for her and you never feel like you've missed out. With each chapter and cluster of years of her experience, you feel more and more like you know Rachel almost as intimately as you know yourself and, in turn, you feel her hopes and her losses almost as deeply as she.
Rachel Aouli Kalama Utagawa has earned her way into my favorite all-time characters of literature.
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