Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Kuleana:
Even paradise has taxes.
Quick synopsis:
The story of a woman dealing with family, legacy, heritage, and paradise (almost) lost.
Fact for Non-History People:
Hawai’i is the only state completely within a tropical climate.
Fact for History Nerds:
Hawai’i is the most isolated population center on Earth, located over 2,000 miles from the U.S. mainland.
My Take on Kuleana:
It is important in any book to make sure the reader is on your side. Finding something universal to say can make a great immediate impression. Sara Kehaulani Goo does that in her book, Kuleana. That universal truth is… everyone hates taxes.
Oh, it is also about family and tradition, but we all hate taxes. The impetus for this book is a skyrocketing tax bill. Goo’s family was given a plot of land on Maui by the king(!) before America decided that Hawai’i didn’t want to govern itself anymore. After that, there was a concerted effort to eradicate Hawaiian culture and recently, billionaires began gobbling up land and driving housing prices through the stratosphere. (For shame Oprah, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Ellison, and I can’t keep going. The list is super long.)
However, that is just the setup, and the heart of the narrative is family and tradition. This part of the story truly shines because Goo is not afraid to ask hard questions of herself. She is descended from various cultures, but the Hawaiian in her is where she wants to truly identify. You’ll notice I used “wants.” Goo is the first to point out that she is not a native to the islands and has spent most of her life on the mainland. When she goes to Hawaii, she would not be considered native. It would be the same thing if I went to Ireland and said I am Irish. I would be promptly thrown out of the bar.
Goo’s attempts to connect with her roots are a huge part of the story. Goo does her best to make that connection to Hawai’i while passing it on to the next generation. Anyone who has a happy place (looking at you, Cape Cod) knows that feeling of relief when you arrive. Goo gets that feeling every time she steps off that (ungodly) long flight. She wants to truly belong and wants to earn it.
The final aspect is the messiness of family. Passing down plots of land is complicated. Within generations, a parcel of land can have dozens of people who can lay claim to it. Getting that many people on the same page is difficult even when there isn’t remote Maui property at stake.
Goo looks at all of these factors and is honest about them. Asking people to shell out thousands of dollars for land they might never see is understandable even though holding on to the property is a spiritual quest for the author. She also doesn’t fall prey to navel gazing. I can’t even count how many memoirs make the mistake of being completely self-centered and myopic (yes, I needed to check and make sure I was using the right word). Instead, when Goo takes the time to leave her family behind on a fact finding mission on the islands, she takes the time to voice how guilty she felt leaving her husband and kids behind for the (relatively) short trip. It is a very small moment among many that let me know as a reader that Goo took the time to consider all sides of this story. I guess you can take the journalist out of D.C., but she’ll still be a journalist.
(This book was provided as a review copy by Flatiron Books.)
Verdict:
Get ready for all the emotions. Buy it here!
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