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jenbsbooks 's review for:
Molokaʻi
by Alan Brennert
I liked this - didn't love it, as many others seemed to. I'd read [book:The Second Life of Mirielle West|55841940] less than a year ago, so instead of coming in without any knowledge of leprosy, much of this was familiar after reading the other/similar book.
I had this in all three formats. Found a brand new paperback at a thrift store (the sequel too) and was able to get the library copies (Kindle ... audio on Libby and Hoopla) without much of a wait. I went with the audio, but did need to refer to the text a time or two. It was a bit of a challenge to find my spot, the chapters were looooooong! In audio, they had to break up several chapters into two parts.
There were just 22 (chronological) chapters in this 400 page book. Four parts ... Part One: Blue Vault of Heaven (the early years, starting in 1891) Part Two: The Stone Leaf. Part 3: Kapu! (starts in 1903) Part 4: 'Ohana (starting in 1928, midway it's 1943-48). The Endnote(epilogue?) is 1970. These section headers are the only things included in the Table of Contents (no dates, I had to look them up manually ... I really appreciate dates, if given in the book, to be included in the TOC). Of course, the physical book doesn't have a TOC at all. The Parts/Headers/Chapters are there IN the book, but it's helpful for me to see a TOC, see how the book is set up in one glance.
This was all third person/past tense ... mostly from focused on Rachel, she's the MC. But there were times the omniscient narrator would change focus ... to Catherine, or Haleola. There was one time shift (Haleola remembering earlier years) too ... and these shifts were pretty subtle, no header indicating a change, and I got a little lost (these were times I needed to refer to text, do some re-reading, figure out things before returning to the audio).
I don't know that I have the fascination with Hawaii that so many people do. For me, this, like Panchinko or Shantaram or Lisa See's novels, the exotic location/names/mythology is both interesting, and something I disconnect, the unfamiliarity making everything harder to remember.
As always, I skimmed through the Questions and Quotes here on Goodreads ... sometimes that jolts something in me, making me remember or appreciate things more. Didn't really happen here. There are discussion questions included in the text copies ... the physical book has two more questions than the Kindle copy. The discussion questions weren't included in audio, but the Author's Note was, which is good, as it had interesting information.
On thing with the audio that REALLY annoyed me, and small as it is, reduced my "like" for the listen, was in the digitization from CDs, the "end of disk 1" (through a dozen disks) was still here in the audio. Really? Editing couldn't have taken the time to take that out? It's just sloppy production.
Other things I note: There were a couple "songs" in the text ... early on, Rachel's father sings, and the narrator sang. Later on during a couple other songs, it was spoken/patter speak. I wondered if one song's tune was unknown (or not real?) ... the other was a LDS church hymn (Come Come Ye Saints ... All Is Well). The MoTab was even mentioned, and the "Mormon" religion had a few parts to play in the story. Words I notice: scant, sneaked, detritus.
No proFanity. Some sex, nothing really explicit/descriptive.
3.5 stars. While I was listening/reading ... I really wasn't loving it, but I felt like I should finish. Nothing wrong with the writing, I thought it was well done ... it just wasn't capturing me. I did like how things wrapped up in the end, and I might even read the sequel, we'll see.
I had this in all three formats. Found a brand new paperback at a thrift store (the sequel too) and was able to get the library copies (Kindle ... audio on Libby and Hoopla) without much of a wait. I went with the audio, but did need to refer to the text a time or two. It was a bit of a challenge to find my spot, the chapters were looooooong! In audio, they had to break up several chapters into two parts.
There were just 22 (chronological) chapters in this 400 page book. Four parts ... Part One: Blue Vault of Heaven (the early years, starting in 1891) Part Two: The Stone Leaf. Part 3: Kapu! (starts in 1903) Part 4: 'Ohana (starting in 1928, midway it's 1943-48). The Endnote(epilogue?) is 1970. These section headers are the only things included in the Table of Contents (no dates, I had to look them up manually ... I really appreciate dates, if given in the book, to be included in the TOC). Of course, the physical book doesn't have a TOC at all. The Parts/Headers/Chapters are there IN the book, but it's helpful for me to see a TOC, see how the book is set up in one glance.
This was all third person/past tense ... mostly from focused on Rachel, she's the MC. But there were times the omniscient narrator would change focus ... to Catherine, or Haleola. There was one time shift (Haleola remembering earlier years) too ... and these shifts were pretty subtle, no header indicating a change, and I got a little lost (these were times I needed to refer to text, do some re-reading, figure out things before returning to the audio).
I don't know that I have the fascination with Hawaii that so many people do. For me, this, like Panchinko or Shantaram or Lisa See's novels, the exotic location/names/mythology is both interesting, and something I disconnect, the unfamiliarity making everything harder to remember.
As always, I skimmed through the Questions and Quotes here on Goodreads ... sometimes that jolts something in me, making me remember or appreciate things more. Didn't really happen here. There are discussion questions included in the text copies ... the physical book has two more questions than the Kindle copy. The discussion questions weren't included in audio, but the Author's Note was, which is good, as it had interesting information.
On thing with the audio that REALLY annoyed me, and small as it is, reduced my "like" for the listen, was in the digitization from CDs, the "end of disk 1" (through a dozen disks) was still here in the audio. Really? Editing couldn't have taken the time to take that out? It's just sloppy production.
Other things I note: There were a couple "songs" in the text ... early on, Rachel's father sings, and the narrator sang. Later on during a couple other songs, it was spoken/patter speak. I wondered if one song's tune was unknown (or not real?) ... the other was a LDS church hymn (Come Come Ye Saints ... All Is Well). The MoTab was even mentioned, and the "Mormon" religion had a few parts to play in the story. Words I notice: scant, sneaked, detritus.
No proFanity. Some sex, nothing really explicit/descriptive.
3.5 stars. While I was listening/reading ... I really wasn't loving it, but I felt like I should finish. Nothing wrong with the writing, I thought it was well done ... it just wasn't capturing me. I did like how things wrapped up in the end, and I might even read the sequel, we'll see.