Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
EAN num: 9780449207116
ISBN number: 0449207110
Label: Fawcett
Manufacturer: Fawcett
Quantity: 1
Printing Date: October 12, 1984
Publishing house: Fawcett
Release Date: October 12, 1984
Sale Popularity Level: 3058257
Studio: Fawcett
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In Hawaii, Pulitzer Prize–winning author James Michener weaves the classic saga that brought Hawaii’s epic history vividly alive to the American public on its initial publication in 1959, and continues to mesmerize even today.
The volcanic processes by which the Hawaiian Islands grew from the ocean floor were inconceivably slow, and the land remained untouched by man for countless centuries until, little more than a thousand years ago, Polynesian seafarers made the perilous journey across the Pacific and discovered their new home. They lived and flourished in this tropical paradise according to their ancient traditions and beliefs until, in the early nineteenth century, American missionaries arrived, bringing a new creed and a new way of life to a Stone Age society. The impact of the missionaries had only begun to be absorbed when other national groups, with equally different customs, began to migrate in great numbers to the islands. The story of modern Hawaii, and of this novel, is one of how disparate peoples, struggling to keep their identity yet live with one another in harmony, ultimately joined together to build America’s strong and vital fiftieth state.
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Rated by buyers 
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Mr. Michener's wonderful historical novel on the 50th state masterfully weaves together many smaller individual stories that allow the reader to appreciate this amazing and diverse island group. Hawaii was settled in waves, and book begins with the original human settlement by brave seafarers who could read the waves and locate dots of land in a vast seascape. The reader experiences the later impacts of famous explorers, Christian missionaries, far-away countries seeking to colonize, businessmen and sailors, Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos. One of the gems of the book is the amazing story of young Japanese-American men and their wartime valour on behalf of their adopted country.
Once you get past the beaches, hotels, and shops, Hawaii is an absolutely fascinating place - culturally, geologically, and historically. Despite the danger of learning facts from a historical novel that is fictional in its details, I believe Michener's research and accuracy allows the reader to acquire a good feel for the essence of Hawaii, and engender more reading on the same topic and perhaps on-site exploration. That aside, though, reading through this extensive book is a great experience. It is really a compendium of many sub-stories, each special in its own way. The book moves along at a good pace, and in the end provides a marathon of fascinating tales and images.
Rated by buyers -
I bought this for my daughter in law. I have read and re-read this book many times, my copy is so old and dog-eared that i decided to buy a new one for her.
Dorothy Harper
Rated by buyers -
Although, as with other Mitchener novels, "Hawaii" had some sections that could have been shortened, or even eliminated, I still enjoyed most of the historical adventure of this wonderful area. The fact that I had been to the Hawaiian Islands twice made it even more interesting!
Rated by buyers -
I've read almost all of Michener's books. Hawaii was the first, and I read it years ago. However, I discovered how to read the book without boredom that can set in when you're struggling through the pre-historic background. After several false starts, I finally started reading starting with the 2nd (and sometimes the 3rd) chapter. After the book was concluded, then I went back and read the very first one or two chapters. With Michener, this technique has never failed me.
Rated by buyers -
In the late sixties during the summer between 8th and 9th grades, I was gleaning through the relatively few paperback novels in my parent's library for anything interesting to read. It was my good fortune to stumble upon a copy of James Michener's "Hawaii" on an upper shelf. It looked formidable at more than an inch thick, but I fearlessly plunged in with all the confidence I had assumed from earlier tackling J.R.R. Tolkein's "Hobbit" and Lord of the Ring series. To my delight, I was also taken for a life-changing ride into what was then a truly an entirely different universe.
Not only was " Hawaii" a vivid, flowing introduction to the history, the people and promise of Hawaii, to a third-generation offspring of Japanese-American grandparents such as myself, whose entire family was interned in US government relocation centers during World War II on the mainland, Michener's book was riveting and revolutionary! I must have read and re-read it six, maybe seven times in a row. To this very date of all books I've read since, this novel stands alone.
More significantly, in the heyday of the Dick & Jane readers, "Hawaii" was the very first novel I read prior to age 21, which featured a cast of Asian-American characters as fully-fleshed out and on equal footing to those of the Caucasian-American characters, a precious and affirming detail for which I'll be eternally in this memorable and most-productive author's debt.
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