Recent Reads

I’m very pleased to relaunch Barrie’s Blog with this “Recent Reading” page.

Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell can hopefully be found in the non-fiction section of your local public library (Dewey Decimal category: 996.9). It is a history of the Hawaiian Islands from the arrival of the first New England missionaries in 1823 until the annexation of the islands by the United States in 1898.

Ms Vowell is a vocal performer. She frequently can be heard on National Public Radio. In this side of her career she is witty, an excellent story-teller, engaging and intelligent. This is the second of her books I have read and I can report that her writing - in book form - demonstrates all her qualities as a performer plus an ability to convey empathy for both her heroes and villains alike. In Unfamiliar Fishes the “hero” is Hawaii itself. Her villains, as I see it, are human greed, xenophobia and many other “base” qualities of those who have inhabited, visited and lived on these islands from the mists of its early history until now.

Ms Vowell is unafraid of revealing her personal bias but she is also unafraid of empathizing with both people and ideas that are obviously not her cup of tea.

She shows us that she has researched widely and deeply to write this story but she tells us the story not in a staid scholarly manner, but as if she and her reader were having a delicious tropical drink in a cafe on one of Hawaii’s beaches and just chit-chatting away the time.

I’ll say no more. I don’t want to spoil the pleasure of reading this book for you. I’m sure you have already guessed that I am a huge fan of Ms Vowell’s performing and writing!