Book Bag: Honolulu

by Alan Brennert

“Honolulu” begins in rural Korea in the years leading up to World War I. It is the story of a woman who, being considered of little value by her gentry family, goes to Honolulu as a “Picture Bride,” a common phenomenon of the time in which Asian women were sent to wed men in the United States and Hawaii.

How this woman, with the unlikely name Regret, ultimately survives and thrives is at the core of this novel. There is also an insider’s look at one of the most storied and beautiful places on earth, a Honolulu far different from what it is today.

“Honolulu” by Alan Brennert,
St. Martin’s Press, $24.95, 360 pages