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Releases from Hawaii authors, reviewed by Burl Burlingame:
"Honor Killing"
By David E. Stannard
Viking, $25.95
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The subtitle promises a work about "How the infamous Massie Affair transformed Hawaii," but the vast majority of the book is taken up with a pedestrian and thorough retelling of the appallingly racist incident. It's been done. What's new here is Stannard's guilty take on how the world reacted to the unpleasant news of racism in Hawaii.
"The Magic Whip"
By Wang Ping
Coffee House, $15
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Ping has one foot in modern New York and the other in ancient China -- often in the same sentence -- and the adult work here reflects the duality of cultures. The title refers, for example, both to Qing era men's queues and women's ponytails.
"The Old Broom Road, Tahiti -- 100 Years of Nature and Adventure Writings from Tahiti, 1829-1929"
Edited by Fran Dieudonne and Ann Kuhns
Neptune House, $11
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Excellent timing -- 1929 is right about the time the included writers (Melville, Stevenson, Gauguin, etc) entered public domain. That noted, the essays and letters here illuminate these enchanted outsiders' views of this spectacular Pacific island.
