Honolulu Stories

If you're going to Left Coast Crime (or even if you're not) here is a must read. The book is Honolulu Stories:Voices of the Town Through the Years, Two Centuries of Writing.. Edited by Gavan Daws and Bennett Hymer,published by Mutual Publishing, 2008.

Honolulu Stories is over 250 stories, poems, essays and excerpts from famous and not famous writers about Honolulu. Authors include nineteenth century authors such as Mark Twain, Herman Melville, Robert Louis Stevenson and twenty-first century authors such as Maxine Hong Kingston, Paul Theroux and Susanna Moore. There are contributions from residents such as Frank De Lima and Haunani Kay-Trask and former residents such as my sister, Mary Troy.

The book is huge, over 1100 pages. This is not a book to read in bed, because if you fell asleep, its weight would crush you. It will take a long time to get through, but the journey will be worth it. For immersion into the history, literature, culture and attitude of this great city, there is nothing better except living there. For me, it brings back a lot of memories.

Obviously, no book can represent all of the writings about Honolulu, but one glaring omission is mystery. No mystery writers have been included. No Earl Derr Biggers, J.P. Marquand, or Debbie Atkinson. We can only hope they are saving those for the next volume.