House of Many Gods

I've becoming quite a fan of Kiana Davenport. Her themes are always about her native Hawaii. Her characters are symbolic as well as real. And her stories never fail to keep me up well past my bedtime. I read her latest book in a couple of days and just couldn't put it down. This was in spite of the fact that I generally knew what was coming. In fact, I welcomed it. Because, in the end, I knew there would be a happy resolution. And there was. This is the story of a Ana, young native Hawaiian girl born in the 1960s. She's being raised by her extended family because her mother has deserted her. It's a house full of aunties and uncles and cousins who eke out a sparse living in rural Oahu, about a two-hour bus ride from the busy and bustling Honolulu. This is Ana's story, but it is also the story an unpleasant chapter in Hawaii's history, that of nuclear testing on its beaches, with the resultant illnesses of the people and devastation of the environment. Against all odds, Ana grows up to be a doctor. She is not a happy person though. She has been shaped by the loss of her mother and is always angry. Even when she becomes ill, and her mother returns, she continues living behind emotional defenses. But there is another character in this story. And, unlike Ms. Davenport's previous books, this character is not a native Hawaiian. He comes from far-away Russia and has experienced anguishes that make Ana's story pale by comparison. When Stalin came to power, this man's father was sent to a labor camp in the frozen north. His mother followed him, living in a house of ice with other women whose husbands were in the camp. During a secret visit to his father, Nicolai was conceived and the hardships he endured as a baby made me wince in horror. Later, he becomes a street urchin, starving and abused. However, he somehow manages to become a documentary film maker. And he specializes in filming the awful results of his country's nuclear testing. Yes, he comes to Hawaii. He meets Ana. But this is not a simple love story. There are twists and turns and the reader is forced to view the unsafe world created by the Cold War and the march of progress. I loved this book and couldn't put it down. I am fascinated by books about the Hawaiian people. And I am equally fascinated by books about the frozen north. Put these both together in a fast-paced story which also has a message, and I'm hooked.

If a book can be described in a single word, lush would be the one for Davenport's novel, House of Many Gods. Her stunning gift for description of place is evident not only in the passion she infuses into writing about her green Hawaii, where the part-Hawaiian author lives, but also to the passages putting us into the faded glory of St. Petersburg and the madness of modern Moscow. She takes us from "ancient serrated valleys, green velvet cliffs, then, tiny hidden beaches like opals" to "a room that could be crossed in eleven steps, life lived on an intimate scale" while outside are "the spires of St. Basil's cathedral, like giant swirling Dairy Queens." With Davenport, you are there. For those not familiar with Hawaiian history, Davenport weaves in just enough background without slowing down the complex plot-and it is a big one, spanning generations, military presence, and several love stories in language that reaches poetry at times. Although there are several stories interwoven here, the complicated relationship between Ana, the main character, and her mother, Anahola, a single mother who left her child by choice with family and moved to San Francisco, is particularly compelling-and authentic. Davenport is a marvelous storyteller. --Lorraine Dusky

Having read both of Kiana Davenport's other books, I eagerly awaited the release of this book and immediately pre-ordered it when the option was available. When the book came, I looked at the cover and then at the premise of the story. I knew that this one was going to strike home a little bit more than the others (being set on the Wai'anae Coast...just down the hill and down the freeway in my childhood memories), so I let it sit on my shelf for a month before I read it. What do I love about this book? Like the others, it brings to my rememberance the awesome history that all Hawaiian people share. Kiana is brilliant at weaving her fictional characters within the context of Hawai'i's history and always with an unflinching view toward the rape and damage that our people and our islands have experienced from the beginning. Most importantly, it brings it to the attention of people who only see a vacationing spot in June with smiling hula girls and help staff, mahalini (newcomers) who set up residence on the island for some years and believe that this gives them the right to be called kama'aina (technically Native Hawaiian, though some will say this may also mean "long-time resident"), and those who are just plain curious about these islands whose existance holds its people captive our whole lifelong - even when we move far away to escape its hold on us.

I heard about Kiana's book, when, while doing my own book tour, I saw her interviewed on Connie Martinson Books. I was so impressed with her I bought her book that afternoon and have since devoured all of her books. Kiana is not just a fantastic fiction writer; she is a poet, a master of understanding people's deepest dreams, wildest fears, hidden motivations, and greatest moments. She covers the worst and the best of what it means to be human in her stories, and the characters come alive; I found myself thinking about them when I wasn't reading the book and had to remind myself they were not real. Hawaii is my favorite place on this earth and she has given it to me with striking details and history I would never have known. Thank you Kiana.

This is a stunningly good read -- Davenport is a great story-teller. She weaves the story in and around Hawaii and Russia, seemingly unrelated places, but pulls them together with her characters and their concern for each other and the environment. I couldn't stop reading it, waiting for the next event . . . and the next. She took me into her world and I was sorry when it was finished.