The Stuff of Legends Delivered with Grace

Title: Sharks in the Time of Saviors

Author: Kawai Strong Washburn

 

Summer was waning, COVID was waxing, and it seemed a perfect time to sit outside and discuss this magical book. But the combo of aggressively falling leaves, bird droppings and a work crew next door sawing through concrete drove us inside almost immediately. Ours is a hearty group of diehard book-discussers and we'll talk anywhere, so next stop -- the living room. 

 

Our book club rules are strict. First, general exchange of news, not to exceed 30 minutes. Then get down to the serious business of critique and opinion exchange. No one is allowed to state whether or not they liked the book until the end of the discussion although there are some regular sinners who will launch the conversation with "I know I'm not supposed to say whether I like it, but I loved/hated this book." We spent our first 30 minutes talking about The Loft, which is how we all came to know each other in the first place. Then we sequed into who died of COVID, which is how all conversations turn at this moment.

 

About the Book

From the publisher:

"In 1995 Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, on a rare family vacation, seven-year-old Nainoa Flores falls overboard a cruise ship into the Pacific Ocean. When a shiver of sharks appears in the water, everyone fears for the worst. But instead, Noa is gingerly delivered to his mother in the jaws of a shark, marking his story as the stuff of legends.

Nainoa’s family, struggling amidst the collapse of the sugarcane industry, hails his rescue as a sign of favor from ancient Hawaiian gods—a belief that appears validated after he exhibits puzzling new abilities. But as time passes, this supposed divine favor begins to drive the family apart: Nainoa, working now as a paramedic on the streets of Portland, struggles to fathom the full measure of his expanding abilities; further north in Washington, his older brother Dean hurtles into the world of elite college athletics, obsessed with wealth and fame; while in California, risk-obsessed younger sister Kaui navigates an unforgiving academic workload in an attempt to forge her independence from the family’s legacy."

 

Insights and Opinions

+ Linda found the book compelling and thought-provoking. Although she found parts of the book gritty and sad, each character is fascinating, including the character of Hawaii itself. To quote a passage: "The kingdom of Hawaii had long been broken -- the breathing rainforests and singing green reefs crushed under the haole fists of beach resorts and skyscrapers." She agreed with the critic who described the book as "a hula of modern prose, like the gods have chosen Washburn as a vessel to cram all the glory and sadness of these islands into the story of one family." 

 

+ Overall, our group had mixed reactions to the book. We were uniformly awed by the quality of the writing, but some expressed confusion about what they saw as the unresolved message and ending. Several of those who felt this way recommended watching interviews with the author, such as this one, which is available on Facebook. (This will open in a new window, just so you know).

 

+ While Margy felt there was no real resolution, she found the changing perspectives of the four main voices to be strong and involving. All three children were extraordinary. She found herself pulling for each of them to live up to their potential, but that doesn't happen for anyone in this book.

 

+ Steve, on the other hand, expressed some discomfort with the "turbulence and disorientation of skipping from person to person. I kept thinking, this is a great novel, and then, or is it?" In many ways, Steve felt the book is a closer look at the American dream, which we have all been examining recently, and some of the fallacies surrounding that concept. He felt educated by the book.

 

+ Because of the strong opening revolving around Noa's rescue by the sharks, Liz expected this to be Noa's story. But when he disappears midway through the book, she was left wondering and kept waiting for him to come back somehow in a powerful way at the end.

 

+ Others felt differently. That Noa was personifying Hawaii itself (Lois) or that the book is more about the eco-system of the family rather than Noa as an individual (Jocey).  

+ Bottom line: This is a book well worth reading if you haven't for everything it has to offer and for introducing you to the pain and cultural uprooting of the indigenous people of Hawaii.

A Look Out of Doors

We didn't take pictures at this event due to our initial flurry of relocating, so here is a random picture of what the garden was doing at the time we met.

Marigolds, salvia and rosemary