The Color of Air

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I enjoyed this one and got me out of my reading slum!

It‘s a historical fiction based in Hilo Town in Hawaii. We follow the stories of the people there that have immigrated from Japan to work on the sugarcane plantation. The narrative is told from few peoples perspective with emphasise on Koji and Daniel.

The book really encompasses the notion of community in the face of erupting volcano.

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mackelie

The Color of Air | Gail Tsukiyama

Our current read from #Shelterboxbookclub is set in Hawaii. It‘s a historical fiction of members of Hilo town community facing Mauna Lao volcano eruption.

It‘s also sad to see that Hawaii and it‘s people are experiencing real tragical events. I have never visited the islands but hope I can one day.

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Hooked_on_books

The Color of Air | Gail Tsukiyama

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Initially, this book seemed like an affecting story of Japanese immigrants to Hawaii working in sugarcane. How cool, since it‘s set on the island where I live! But it quickly became clear that it was poorly researched and shamelessly steeped in cultural appropriation of the Native Hawaiian people with zero attribution. I expect better from a book published in 2020.

Texreader How terribly disappointing!! 4y

Hooked_on_books @Texreader Right?!? And telling the stories of ethnically Japanese sugarcane workers is such a cool idea. Even some very basic stuff you could google to find out she got wrong. So sloppy! 4y

Texreader @Hooked_on_books geez!! And I probably would‘ve stacked it. 4y

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vivastory Oof, big disappointment! I noticed this was a recent Indispensable and planned on reading it. 4y

Hooked_on_books @vivastory Yeah, I hate it when this stuff happens. There‘s such great material to work with and she really missed the mark. 4y

Hazel2019 I‘m curious where it went wrong. I really liked it but definitely don‘t have the background or perspective to recognize the problems you mentioned. 4y

Hooked_on_books @Hazel2019 There‘s several issues. She mentions a character in the 1930s stopping to listen to the coqui frogs. Those were accidentally imported in the late 1980s. She describes the saddle road that they take to go see the lava in a way that it didn‘t exist then. And she‘s having brand new immigrants from Japan using a Hawaiian patois, and an inaccurate one, and native words and myths. This would not have been incorporated at this point. š‘‡š¸¼ 4y

Hooked_on_books She writes about her characters, who are of Japanese heritage, as though they are native Hawaiian, and actually only mentions the native Hawaiians once in the entire book. Attributing all the aspects of native Hawaiians on brand new transplants is wrong and erases the native population entirely. And it‘s a shame, because I think it would be fabulous to tell the story of immigrant cane workers. 4y

Hazel2019 Thank you for sharing this š (edited) 4y

Hazel2019 I do wonder how it ended up part of the indiespensable subscription then š¤” if you were able to spot all this so quickly... 4y

Hooked_on_books @Hazel2019 I haven‘t lived here long, but I live on the island of Hawaii. So some of that stuff is clear to me because I always try to learn a bit about the places I live. I also think we‘re at the point where we‘re primed to see racial prejudice and cultural appropriation perpetrated by white people but it‘s not as visible to us when there‘s no white person involved. I don‘t know that I would have seen these things if I didn‘t live here. 4y

Hooked_on_books @Hazel2019 The culture here is quite interesting. It‘s a real mix, though native Hawaiians actually comprise a relatively small minority. And there are definitely resentments held by some, and I understand their origin. There‘s a book I read recently that illustrates that well in one of the characters.

Sharks in the Time of Saviors: A Novel

Hazel2019 @Hooked_on_books I have that one of my shelf just haven‘t read it yet. It‘ll have to make its way to the top of my TBR. 4y

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Cathyloves2read

The Color of Air | Gail Tsukiyama

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Why is it that the books that I keep putting off reading are always the best?I didnt want to read this.I‘ll admit, I was judging it by its cover. This was a beautifully written story about Japanese workers at the Hawaii sugar cane plantations. For me, it wasn‘t just entertainment,it was a history lesson.This author writes so beautifully.I feel like I know the characters in this book personally.I was sad when this story came to an end.TY Goodreads.

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