This Is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakauwila

She has worked as a writer and editor for Wine Spectator, Cigar Aficionado, and Highlights for Children magazines. She earned a masters in fine arts from the University of Michigan and a bachelors degree in comparative literature from Princeton University. Altogether, a well-crafted work that compassionately treats the men and women who love and suffer in an island paradise. KRISTIANA KAHAKAUWILA, a native Hawaiian, was raised in Southern California. This is paradise by Kristiana Kahakauwila, 2013 edition, in English - First edition. Filled with an energy and outrage reminiscent of Jamaica Kincaid, Kahakauwila also gives her characters distinct voices that mix Hawaiian and mainland-American dialects. Beyond questions of identity, Kahakauwila also explores domestic life, as in “Portrait of a Good Father,” about a family torn apart by a husband’s affair and his son’s death.

Her portrayal of people whose lives have lost their centre of gravity is acute, often heartbreaking, and suffused with a deeply felt empathy.With a contemporary edginess, a mature style, and a sense of history reverberating into the present, This is. Varying in style and theme, the book’s six stories conjure up memorable characters, from a man struggling to reveal his homosexuality to his sister and dying father (“The Old Paniolo Way”) to a woman who seeks to avenge her father’s death by engaging in the gruesome business of cock-fighting (“Wanle”). Kahakauwila is a careful observer of her protagonists' actions - and, sometimes, their inaction. Elegant, brutal, and profound-this magnificent debut captures the grit and glory of modern Hawaii with breathtaking force and accuracy. The profound differences between a Hawaiian and her white boyfriend threaten their relationship in “The Road to Hana” a girl mourns her grandmother’s death in “Thirty-Nine Rules for Making a Hawaiian Funeral into a Drinking Game” and in the title piece, young Hawaiian women working at a beachside resort observe a naïve tourist’s tragic fate. This Is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakauwila. Kahakauwila’s debut short-story collection offers a stirring glimpse into the daily lives of contemporary Hawaiians torn between native traditions and the pull of mainland lifestyles. Kristiana Kahakauwila is the author of This Is Paradise, a collection of short stories about.