Moloka'i

I just finished reading Moloka'i, by Alan Brennert. Never in my life have I become so engrossed in a story. This was not the kind of engrossed that keeps you reading until 3am (even if you have to get up for work at 6) and then before you know it you've finished the book. No, I took my time with this book.

By engrossed, I mean I was a part of this book. My emotions were completely exposed as I read and I could feel everything. By engrossed I mean that this story will stay with me forever. It also doesn't hurt my opinion of the book that I found part of my middle name in it. Ali'i, royalty. :)

Moloka'i is about a young Hawaiian girl living in Honolulu in the late 1800's. At the young age of 7, Rachel Kalama is discovered to have Leprosy and is sent to the Leper colony on Moloka'i (still a relatively new settlement). She is torn from her family and everything she loves, forbidden from any further physical contact with her mother and father. She must, at such a young age, learn to live a new life in exile.

The book itself is set at such a time period that it spans several world events, beginning with the fall of the Hawaiian royalty and ending in the prosperity of the 50's. Isolated from the world, the residents of Moloka'i understand little of the change going on, but as the reader, you are privy to knowledge that only enhances your reading experience and further allows you to feel deeply for the characters. You are shocked as a reader in such a PC culture of the tolerance for hatred in the United States and you rejoice with each character's triumphs small and large and mourn their losses. Instead of people to be pitied, they each become champions and inspirations to the reader.

This book reads a bit slower because it is more of a day-to-day novel about Rachel's life but that is part of the beauty of the book as it give you time to absorb everything. Descriptions are never wanting without being too wordy (*cough* Tolkein *cough cough*) so as to easily transport you to a new time and place.

When I closed the book, I cried tears of joy and sadness (yes, I'm a sucker and yes, I cried. Ask Andrew). This story is one I will not forget.

If you read no other books in your life, read this one.