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New releases by Hawaii authors

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"The Island Edge of America -- A Political History of Hawaii" by Tom Coffman (University of Hawaii Press, $16.95)

Despite the focus on the Burns-Ariyoshi years, Coffman's long-awaited book is not a "sequel" to his acclaimed "Catch a Wave," still the best single-volume study of "modern" Hawaii politics. It's more a meditation on the subsequent political fallout from his study of the Annexation period, "Nation Within." This volume is crammed full of the edgy insights and sentimental observations that make Coffman a superb observer and essayist, but not necessarily a traditional historian. For one thing, the book is completely nonlinear, moving from observation to spiritual insight to catty by-your-leaves with the breathtaking speed of a seized impulse.

Hawaii, argues Coffman (in general terms), by dint of its location, shared ethnicity and political astuteness, is not a stepchild of the United States and/or Pacific cultures, but a leader, a reagent in a kind of complex, evolving political chemistry experiment. This was largely shaped by the expeience of World War II, and of the AJA experience with healthy sprinklings of Poly- nesian philosophy, labor-union stridency and overbearing, largely haole business culture. The seductive appeal of pan-racial harmony -- even the glint of it over the horizon -- even appealed to the hard-core military and government types who came here during the war, determined to put the AJA polulation in its place, and becoming the AJA's biggest fans in the process.

The singular figures that emerge, as if gleaming out of a rough shorebreak, are Burns and Ariyoshi, the quintessential mentor/son relationship on their closely guarded surfaces, but, as Coffman deftly draws out, there were complex, roiling depths beneath their placid waters, their frozen faces.

Although Dan Boylan's straightforward biography of John Burns gives us a good accounting of the man's life, George Ariyoshi hasn't been as well served, likely due to both the fact that Ariyoshi is still alive and determinedly self-effacing -- he's a team "process" kind of guy, not a lonely figurehead -- and both of them have been eulogized into semi-mythical creatures, rank-and-filers who rose through adversity into the light and took us along for the ride.

Or so goes the Democratic catechism, and Hawaii fit neatly, if fuzzily, into America's Camelot-ian self-image of the period. Even President John F. Kennedy, visiting the islands, fell under its faux-Golden People rhetoric and blurted out that "Hawaii is what the United States is striving to be!"

At the time, we beamed under the presidential pat on the back. Now it seems the symbol of a fading dream.

Once the rosy vision of civil rights became a governmental checklist, the Vietnam War killed off all notions of fair play and the country turned sharply right, Hawaii remained a bastion of liberalism, one of the few places where the Jeffersonian ideal of an "aristocracy of talent" could be strived for, if imperfectly achieved.

This new frontier of political possibilities gave a boost to the Frenchy DeSotos of modern Hawaii, the formerly disenfranchised who become powerful voices in their own right and conviction. This is pretty much where the book winds up, in the early 1980s.

Even the cover is perfectly evocative of the period -- a vaguely generalized organic, industrial landscape in soothing tones. It was, naturally, painted by Satoru Abe, an ubiquitous public artist of the government-grant school. How Democratic!

You won't go to this history book to find out who did what to whom and when, but this is an essential and indispensible meditation on how we got from there to here -- and why we aren't there yet. This is the first must-read book of the year.

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Reviewed by Burl Burlingame
bburlingame@starbulletin.com

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Send items at least two weeks in advance of publication to 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, Honolulu 96813; or fax 529-4750.

AUTHOR SIGNINGS

"Cardinal Points: Poems on St. Louis Cardinals Baseball"

By Joseph Stanton, 4 p.m. today at Borders Ward Centre. Call 956-4050.

"Little Spring Eggs: A Lift-a-Flap Book"

By Ellie Crowe, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Thursday at Bestsellers, Bishop Square; also 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the Waialua Public Library. Call 528-2378 or 637-8286.

"KO'd in the Volcano"

By Victoria Heckman, 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Kaneohe Public Library; also 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Friday at Bestsellers, Bishop Square. Call 233-5676 or 528-2378.

"The Guide to Hawaiian Style Money Folds"

By Jodi Fukumoto, 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at Ben Franklin Mapunapuna. Call 833-3800.

"Welcome to Fred"

By Brad Whittington, noon to 2 p.m. Saturday at Logos Bookstore of Hawaii, 1050 Ala Moana. Call 596-8890.

READINGS

Poetry Reading

4 to 5 p.m. Wednesday at Hawaii Pacific University's Warmer Auditorium, 1060 Bishop St. Dawn Fraser Kawahara, winner of HPU's third annual James M. Vaughan Award for Poetry, will also be joined by musician Anthony Natividad. Free. Call 544-0200.

"The Money Dragon"

By Pam Chun, 1 to 2 p.m. Thursday at Na Mea Hawaii; also 11 a.m. to noon Saturday at BookEnds Kailua. Free. Call 548-2665 or 261-1996.

Poetry Reading

3 p.m. Thursday at UH-Manoa's Kuykendall Hall, Room 410. American Indian poet Joy Harjo, the fall 2003 Distinguished Visiting Writer for UH-Manoa's Department of English, will share a number of poems and give students a taste of what she will be offering during the upcoming fall semester. Free. Call 956-5039.

STORYTELLING

Barnes & Noble

10:30 a.m. Tuesdays; and 11 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Call 737-3323.

Borders Waikele

10:30 a.m. Tuesdays and Saturdays. Call 676-6699.

Borders Ward Centre

10:30 a.m. Wednesdays and 11 a.m. Saturdays. Call 591-8995.

Hawaii State Library

10:30 to 11 a.m. Saturdays at the library's Edna Allyn Room for Children. Keiki of all ages are welcome. Call 586-3510.

Kaimuki Public Library

10:30 to 10:50 a.m. Thursdays at the library. For toddlers and their accompanying adult; led by children's librarian Sandra Hall. No sign-up needed. Call 733-8423.

WORKSHOPS/LECTURES

"The Marianist Biography Project"

Noon to 1:15 p.m. Thursday at UH-Manoa's Center for Biographical Research, Henke Hall 325. Chaminade University of Honolulu's Koreen Nakahodo and Michael Fassiotto present "The Marianist Biography Project: Lessons Learned" in this installment of the "Brown Bag Biography" series. Free. Call 956-3774.

Horizon Sunrise Workshop

9 to 10 a.m. Saturdays through April 26 at the Waialua Public Library. Learn how to use the new Horizon Sunrise online catalog system, used to search for library materials in the Hawaii State Public Library System. Free. Call 637-8286 for reservations.

SPECIAL

Sixth Annual Authors' Night

6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the Waialua Public Library. Join Hawaii authors Diane and Mark Button, Ellie Crowe, Honolulu City Council member Donovan Dela Cruz, Alex Kane and Jim Oliver for an autograph session. A portion of every sale throughout the evening will go to the library for the purchase of new books. Call 637-4143.

CONTINUING

Bestsellers Reading Group

Meets at 7 p.m. every second Wednesday of the month at Borders Waikele; 676-6699.

Crafts and Stories: 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays at Barnes & Noble; call 737-3323.

International Women's Writing Guild

Bring your muse, pen and notebook. 7 p.m. every first and third Wednesday of the month at Borders Waikele; call 676-7820.

Poetry Writers Circle

7 p.m. every third Thursday of month at Borders Ward Centre; call 596-8194.

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calendars and events.