Isle Pages
New releases
from Hawaii authors
"Adventuring In Hawaii, Revised Edition"
by Richard McMahon
(University of Hawaii Press, $24.95)This is an authoritative guide to getting off Hawaii's beaten track. At last, a reason to actually own an SUV! McMahon, a Hawaii trail guide of many years' standing, has been there, done that, and lets you know how to do it too. Books like this are a conundrum, however. It's astonishingly weak in maps and photographs, and written instructions aren't nearly as useful when you're out on the trail. Are you supposed to sit back in your easy chair and metaphorically hike along? McMahon is a trail guide, a mechanic of the open road, not a literary auteur. While clear and understandable, the text is not vivid, witty or insightful. The most useful sections deal with the special needs of backpacking hikes.
"Moloka'i"
by Alan Brennert
(St. Martin's Press, $24.95)Oops. The first page I opened to in this advance-proof copy of television writer Brennert's novel set in 1890s Hawaii referred to the Star-Bulletin -- although the Star and the Bulletin didn't merge until late 1912. (Turns out the scene really is later.) West Coast writer Brennert is what we call a FIV, or Frequent Island Visitor, and on a trip to Molokai, he became intrigued by the story of the leprosy settlement at Kalaupapa. Despite multiple non-fiction works, Brennert wished there was a fictional work that described the emotional fallout of the settlement. He wrote it himself, and the work is often moving and elegiac. Brennert, an Emmy winner for "LA Law," should be shopping this around Hollywood.
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