Moloka'i Nui Ahina: Summers on the Lonely Isle

by: Kirby Wright

Published by: Lemon Shark Press

Reviewed by Laura Langer

Moloka'i Nui Ahina tells the story of brothers Jeff and Ben's childhood summers with their father's mother, Julia Daniels. Younger brother Jeff looks back on their island life with their grandmother, who lives on a remote farm where her ex-husband maintains a small life estate, and outsize island characters come to visit every month of every summer.

The boys are quickly drawn into the hard work of a farm from the first day of the first summer they spend there. They haul manure for the garden, tend horses, fish, swim, defend their property, and meet the remnants of old Hawai'ian culture as well as most of the main players in their grandmother's colorful life. In a decade or more of summers they experience a way of life on the sparsely populated island that is sometimes harsh and always fascinating.

Wright's style is as natural as the most appealing of memoirs, giving the reader finely drawn characters and a sense of place that is immediate, detailed and immensely appealing. We see Jeff's love of the old Moloka'i of his childhood, which is slipping away to condo developments--including one being built by his father. Old dirt tracks are now paved and the colorful characters that his grandmother befriends are disappearing. They are being replaced, not by new versions of themselves, but by tourists and vacationers.

Wright's style is fluid and engaging. His characters are strongly drawn, including the character of the place and the land itself. The action moves quickly, and the language clean and clear, letting the characters and the place reveal themselves naturally. It's a coming-of-age novel that helps the reader remember what coming of age feels both at the time and in reflection. Sometimes those we love recede from us in time, in place, in memory. Accepting that is, after all, what coming of age is all about

If you're looking for a superbly written coming-of-age novel with engaging characters and a magnificent landscape, then Moloka'i Nui Ahina: Summers on the Lonely Isle is for you.

Armchair Interviews says: Kirby Wright was born and raised in Hawaii. His poetry and literary fiction have received many honors.

Web site: http://www.writers.net/writers/2465