Hawaii is a novel by James Michener published in 1959. Written in episodic format, like most of Michener's works, the book narrates the story of the original Hawaiians, who sailed to the islands from Bora Bora, the early American missionaries and merchants, and the Chinese and Japanese immigrants who traveled to work and seek their fortunes in Hawaii. The story begins with the creation of the islands themselves at the dawn of time and ends in the mid-1950s.
Each chapter explores the experiences of different groups of arrivals. The point-of-view changes with each chapter, although, as the novel nears its end, these points-of-view change and coalesce rapidly culminating with the "Golden Man", who Michener describes as racially and culturally the result of the millennia of immigrants to the islands.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
In 1966, the book was made into the film Hawaii, starring Max von Sydow and Julie Andrews. The movie focused only on the book's third chapter, From the Farm of Bitterness, which covered the settlement of the island kingdom by its first American missionaries. (The movie's feel-good ending is not consistent with the content of the novel.) A 1970 sequel, The Hawaiians (starring Charlton Heston), covered subsequent chapters of the book, including the arrival of the Chinese and Japanese and the growth of the plantations.
Bibliographical information
- The most recent paperback edition was released by Random House in 2002 with ISBN 0-375-76037-7.
External links
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Works by James A. Michener |
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| Novels: |
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| Non Fiction: |
The Future of the Social Studies (1939) • The Voice of Asia (1951) • Rascals in Paradise (1957) • Japanese Prints (1959) • Report of the Country Chairman (1961) • Iberia (1968) • Presidential Lottery (1969) • The Quality of Life (1970) • Kent State: What Happened and Why (1971) • Firstfruits, A Harvest of 25 Years of Israeli Writing (1973) • Sports in America (1976) • About Centennial: Some Notes on the Novel (1978) • United States of America (1982) • Collectors, Forgers - And A Writer: A Memoir (1983) • All We Did Was Fly to the Moon (1985) • Six Days in Havana (1989) • Pilgrimage: A Memoir of Poland and Rome (1990) • The Eagle and The Raven (1990) • My Lost Mexico (1992) • The World is My Home (1992) • Writer's Handbook (1992) • Creatures of the Kingdom (1993) • Literary Reflections (1993) • William Penn (1994) • Ventures in Editing (1995) • Miracle in Seville (1995) • This Noble Land (1996) • A Century of Sonnets (1997)
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| Short story collections: |
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Film, TV and
theatrical adaptations: |
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| about Michener: |
James A. Michener: A Biography (1985) • James A. Michener: A Bibliography (1996) • Michener: A Writer's Journey (2005)
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