The difficulty that native Hawaiians experience in surviving on the expensive islands is a strong theme. Nainoa earns “shaka respect from every local that heard the shark story and felt the old gods in it.” People donate much needed money to the family. He writes with verve and laces their language with wit and Hawaiicisms.
One of the primary delights of this novel is the singular voice that Washburn creates for each of his narrators. There’s Dean, the oldest son, who distinguishes himself in basketball but little else, and Kaui, the youngest, who rivals Nainoa in intelligence and achievement even as he continually eclipses her. Besides Nainoa, there’s Malia and Augie Flores, the hardworking, financially struggling parents who conceive Nainoa outdoors on a night when they witness “the night marchers,” a supernatural troop of ancient Hawaiian royals processing along a ridge, carrying torches. Washburn tells the story in alternating perspectives from the members of the family. Greatness, as Washburn explores, has a way of dissipating. “Sharks in the Time of Saviors” incorporates magic but focuses on the real repercussions for the family of a boy tasked with an unbearable burden to use his gifts to save his home and people. Nainoa goes on to excel in all subjects, from math to ukulele, and evinces mysterious healing powers.
He fell off a boat when he was 7 but was rescued by sharks and returned to his mother, gingerly, in their jaws. The expectation for a grand destiny rests on Nainoa Flores, the youngest son in a native Hawaiian family. “Big destiny is a thing you get drunk on,” Kawai Strong Washburn writes in his sweeping, effervescent debut novel.
0 kommentar(er)
