MOLOKAI NUI AHINA, Summers on the Lonely Isle

by Kirby Wright

Overview

Julia Daniels, a Moloka'i pioneer woman of mixed blood, invites her grandsons Jeff and Ben to spend summers with her at her ranch on the east end. She shares the ranch with Chipper, an alcoholic war hero with a life estate bordering the swamp. The brothers roam a paradise of fishponds, waterfalls, pristine valleys, and mountains with herds of deer. Jeff meets the Kahuna Woman who freezes pictures of her enemies, the TS who seduces the Chief of Police, the man who refs cock fights in Kaunakakai, the sexy divorcee who lives in the Saddle Room, and the prodigal grandfather who returns to woo Julia. These characters help shape Jeff's sensibilities as he discovers the secrets of his grandmother's wild past in Honolulu and the intensity of her struggles on the Lonely Isle.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940011828331
Publisher:	Lemon Shark Press
Publication date:	09/29/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	333
File size:	197 KB

About the Author

Kirby Wright was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is a graduate of Punahou School in Honolulu and the University of California at San Diego. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Wright has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes and is a past recipient of the Ann Fields Poetry Prize, the Academy of American Poets Award, the Browning Society Award for Dramatic Monologue, and Arts Council Silicon Valley Fellowships in Poetry and The Novel. BEFORE THE CITY, his first book of poetry, took First Place at the 2003 San Diego Book Awards. Wright is also the author of the companion novels PUNAHOU BLUES and MOLOKA’I NUI AHINA, both set in Hawaii. He was a Visiting Writer at the 2009 International Writers Conference in Hong Kong, where he lectured with poet Gary Snyder.

Editorial Reviews

Two brothers from urbanized Oahu encounter a motley cast of rustics during school breaks on their eccentric grandmother's dilapidated ranch on Molokai island.

Jeanne Cooper

Gramma's past loves are three very different men. Her sometimes-help around the house is a collection of local transsexuals. Characters in her life include women with daughters the age of her grandsons, a Hawaiian Kahuna Woman, and her ever-shouting memories. Oh, and ghosts the boys don't see because, as Sarah the Kahuna tells them, "Haole no can see." When Wright's PUNAHOU BLUES came out, I called it, "The best novel of Hawai'i I've read...ever." MOLOKA'I NUI AHINA is more powerful.

Joseph Bean

The rough and tumble east end of Molokai island is the setting for this coming-of-age novel. Cast as a first-person childhood memoir, MOLOKA'I NUI AHINA successfully continues the story of Jeff and Ben Gill, introduced in Wright's first coming-of-age novel, PUNAHOU BLUES (2005). MOLOKA'I NUI AHINA, narrated by young Jeff (aka "Peanut"), describes the long summers the two brothers spend in family exile, year after year, on Molokai with their grandmother, the formidable Grandma Daniels.

Michael Egan