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New releases by Hawaii authors
Reviewed by Burl Burlingame
bburlingame@starbulletin.com
Sparky -- Warrior, Peacemaker, Poet, Patriot, A Portrait of Senator Spark M. Matsunaga by Richard Halloran (Watermark, $16.95)
Here's a long-overdue bio of one of Hawaii's seminal heroes, who was a contradiction in many ways. Spark Matsunaga was a consumate politician who never forgot his roots, a cunning warrior who spent much of his adult life in the pursuit of peace, an equivocator and populist who demanded excellence, a shrewd dealmaker who lapsed into rhapsodic visions of a golden future. Matsunaga's legacy is one of going with the flow in order to influence its direction, and so he doesn't stand out among more self-centered politicians, and yet his influence runs deep in Hawaii's political culture. Former The New York Times reporter and Star-Bulletin editorial director Halloran's brisk, no-nonsense biography sticks to the facts without piles of aggrandizement; there isn't any deification process here. But that's not needed — Matsunaga's extraordinary career speaks for itself, now that we have a book to refer to.
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