What I am reading is historical non-fiction, about the sad history of Hawaii and it's unfortunate take over by America.
In what is described as "an orgy of imperialism" The United states Annexed Hawaii among a number of other island territories. The author, Sarah Vowell, writes about these things in her quirky often humorous accounts and personal experiences in the place she writes about.
I suppose that this type of writing would be considered first person historical or something, since Sarah does incorporate a lot of her own experiences and and funny thoughts and takes on things. For example, the first two sentences in the book go as follows: "Why is there a glop of macaroni salad next to the Japanese chicken on my plate lunch? Because the ship Thaddeus left Boston Harbor with the first boatload of New England missionaries bound for Hawaii in 1819."
She then goes on in a somewhat roundabout way to explain how so many cultures and then tourists eventually wound up there, causing a huge mish-mosh of cultures that; in the small area the Islands are; are all minorities. When a bunch of different cultures mix, the types of food do also, causing the extremely odd common cuisine mentioned in the first sentence. It isn't only Japanese Chicken and Macaroni Salad theres a bunch of other things that can be put together on a lunch plate but back to my point.
She writes things in extremely interesting ways.
In one spot on page 14 she states: "It's laughable to think that a lava rock temple--built at least a century before the Declaration of Independence was signed five thousand miles away, has much to do with the history of the United States.(Though it is entertaining to wonder what John Adams would make of the sacrificial demands of ferocious priest kings given all that fuss about Parliament taxing tea.)"
I quite enjoy her unique voice throughout the books she writes, and I plan to read several others. It makes the history less dry, which, sadly, is not something I can say about "The Invention of Murder" -and the rest of the title- at all....
In what is described as "an orgy of imperialism" The United states Annexed Hawaii among a number of other island territories. The author, Sarah Vowell, writes about these things in her quirky often humorous accounts and personal experiences in the place she writes about.
I suppose that this type of writing would be considered first person historical or something, since Sarah does incorporate a lot of her own experiences and and funny thoughts and takes on things. For example, the first two sentences in the book go as follows: "Why is there a glop of macaroni salad next to the Japanese chicken on my plate lunch? Because the ship Thaddeus left Boston Harbor with the first boatload of New England missionaries bound for Hawaii in 1819."
She then goes on in a somewhat roundabout way to explain how so many cultures and then tourists eventually wound up there, causing a huge mish-mosh of cultures that; in the small area the Islands are; are all minorities. When a bunch of different cultures mix, the types of food do also, causing the extremely odd common cuisine mentioned in the first sentence. It isn't only Japanese Chicken and Macaroni Salad theres a bunch of other things that can be put together on a lunch plate but back to my point.
She writes things in extremely interesting ways.
In one spot on page 14 she states: "It's laughable to think that a lava rock temple--built at least a century before the Declaration of Independence was signed five thousand miles away, has much to do with the history of the United States.(Though it is entertaining to wonder what John Adams would make of the sacrificial demands of ferocious priest kings given all that fuss about Parliament taxing tea.)"
I quite enjoy her unique voice throughout the books she writes, and I plan to read several others. It makes the history less dry, which, sadly, is not something I can say about "The Invention of Murder" -and the rest of the title- at all....
No comments:
Post a Comment
Any feedback, questions, or suggestions welcome!