I've been remiss. Book Club met 3 weeks ago and I'm just getting around to reviewing our book, House of Many Gods by Kiana Davenport.Let the lackluster desire to comment on this book give you fair warning as to what we thought of it.
And also, to be fair - I went gallivanting off on a trip to the east coast which involved meetings with congresspeople and lots of New York pizza. Personally, I'd much rather tell you about my trip...... but, this is the Book Club blog.
We did talk for a long time about this book (sitting on Dale and Nikolai's lanai, being misted by valley rains), though as I've said before, that means we really like it, or really don't. Unfortunately for Ms. Davenport, it's the latter this time.
The numbers just don't lie
Dale - 4
Tess - 5
Nikolai - 3
Catherine 4
Sue - 4.9
Maria - 4 (I think)
Since this story is set on the island of Oahu, we were looking forward to a glimpse into a culture and place with which we are familiar. And, we all liked Ms. Davenport's previous book Shark Dialogues, so we were excited to read this one.
Ms. Davenport is a skilled writer - we all agreed she can weave the words like a gorgeous tapestry. But, the story, it was yuck!
I keep trying to write a concise prosaic summary of the story, but after more than a dozen tries, and failing miserably I gave up!! So, here goes the non-prosaic version.
Ana, protagonist has shitty little kid years. Lives on Waianae coast with large extended Hawaiian family, whose men go to war and come back destroyed. Ana hates mother because she left and created her own life in San Francisco. Ana becomes a doctor, gets cancer, meets a Russian, lets the Russian go, then chases the Russian through Russia to bring him back. End of story.
Woven through everything is the theme of radiation poisoning and the government screwing the people. Granted it was during the time of 3 Mile Island, and lots of nuclear testing; however, we agreed that it seemed like there were about 3 different books smashed into one and several members questioned the veracity of the version of the events regarding the Waianae coast and the US military.
On the good side, there were a couple of simply stunning scenes of birth. The cultural components and how the entire family became an integral part of the process were touching and rich, especially in comparison to western hospital births which are viewed more as a medical procedure.
You know, normally I go on a bit more about the book and what we thought, but I just don't want to with this one. Didn't like it, don't recommend it - that's it!
What we did like though was Dale and Nikolai's dinner. Bacon wrapped grilled teriyaki ahi bites. Delectable, delicious, divine. I'm salivating now just thinking about them. And, Ted's chocolate haupia pie for dessert. I'm sorry you non-Hawaiian folks don't have Ted's pies. They're worth a trip over here for.
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