School For Hawaiian Girls
Reviews
School for Hawaiian Girls"The 1922 murder of a beloved sister anchors this absorbing debut set vividly in Hawaii. . . . McMillen brings her characters to life with compelling immediacy . . ."
"Tales of trouble in paradise always make for compelling reading, and McMillen's debut novel deservedly takes its place in that league."
". . . McMillen keeps ambivalence and ambiguity central in her depictions. Her smart and confident Hawaiians are as cynical and hard as they are sensitive and generous, her misguided and brutal whites (haole) as pathetically desperate as they are arrogant and vicious. . . . Remarkable for its authenticity . . . and for its unflinching honesty in exploring sad truths behind stereotypes, Hawaiian and Western, School for Hawaiian Girls can also lay claim to being beautifully evocative of a place that still haunts Western imaginations as paradise on earth."
"This is a story of paradise lost-lost to the Hawaiians whose kingdom has been overthrown, leaving them little more than alcohol and cigarettes. . . McMillen poses the question: is it possible to overcome a horrific loss, or must it color everything infinitely? This haunting work, one of few by native Hawaiian authors, belongs in most public libraries."
" The murder investigation is fraught with errors and sloppy policework, so the family copes by not speaking of the murder, or of the daughter they lost. But their silence and denial takes a toll on them, and they must grapple with the price of forgetting and what it means to remember, in this charged and emotional tale of the human psyche."
"They say naming something gives it power. But sometimes not speaking of something lends it even more weight. This is one of the themes explored in . . .McMillen's believable and deftly paced first novel . . . which begins with an event that will ripple through four generations of the Kaluhi family. . . There is pleasure in the reading of a book wherein the characters are so well drawn, the language so well chosen, the action so flowing."
". . . the strength of this novel is not only its native Hawaiian culture ... but the relations between the characters . . . they are never stereotypes. If you are into discovering gems of stories that are overlooked by the publishing industry, I highly recommend that you try this one."
". . . some books will haunt you. Memorable characters invade your dreams, and weeks later, you will find yourself still turning over plot twists in your mind. School for Hawaiian Girls is like that."
". . . book is both a traditional mystery and an affecting saga of deeply troubled families. Adding to the novel's kick: The tale ends with the reader knowing the full story but with the characters still in partial ignorance. McMillen's unflinching realism informs every page of this essentially gloomy but completely readable debut."