Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating story and one not often told
Review: This is a wonderful story about a young Hawaiian girl who contracts leprosy and is then removed from her family by health authorities and forced to live out most of her life in a leper colony on the island of Moloka'i. I can't recommend it highly enough! It is one of those books that draws you in from the very first pages when Rachel's family must deal with the horrifying reality that she has contracted this disease, knowing the devastating impact that it will have on their family. This book is very moving and emotional without being sappy. It will open your eyes about a disease that is not spoken of very much these days but at one time claimed the lives of so many of its victims along with their families, who had to live with not only the loss of their loved ones to confinement but the shame that this disease brought upon them by society. A great book!!
Rating: 
Summary: An exhilarating account of an absolutely terrible disease.
Review: This is an absolutely riveting and heartbreaking account of one community's triumph over a crippling disease. Told from the point of view of Rachel Kalama, and her best friend Sister Catherine, Molokai spans two generations of Hawaiian history - from the 1890's to the 1970's - as it gradually recounts the lives of those inflicted with Hansen's disease. Totally ambitious in scope, Molokai is a real testament to human suffering, and how perseverance, family loyalties, and cultural ties can really triumph in the face of adversity. Torn from her adoring parents as a little girl, Rachel is forced to live on Molokai in the town of Kalaupapa where life is hard and disease is everywhere. Rachel and her friends are confined to a green triangle six square miles of shore rock, and that within these boundaries - the implacable geometry of their confinement - they are forced to make a life for themselves. The descriptions of the death and disfigurement at Kalaupapa are excruciatingly real yet really quite touching, as we witness the tireless people who work to help prolong lives. Leprosy is woven into the fabric of their everyday lives, "a black thread that could never be cut". The story does, at times, become a little histrionic and melodramatic as Rachel encounters one terrible situation after another, but don't let this detract from the powerfully affecting experience of reading this novel. Throughout the story some wonderful characters display their own difficulties and troubles. There's Rachel's husband Kenji, loyal, hard working and kind; her father Henry affable and easy going, who voyages the world and brings Rachel back dolls from all the wonderful places he visits; her daughter Ruth, and her "hanai" aunt Haleola who is a "healer" or "kahuna" and believes that sickness comes from the soul and from a person's past actions and state of mind. There's also Uncle Pono exiled to the Island just before Rachel herself is transported and the boisterous and funny transvestite Leilani who finally succumbs to the disease like so many of Rachel's other friends and companions. Molokai also works as a dramatic recreation of the history of the Hawaii. Brennert recounts the history of the Islands from the late 19th century, when Congress decided that Hawaii should be annexed to the United States. We witness the influx of Christianity threatening the Hawaiian values and way of life, the arrival of electricity and the advent of American domestic engineering, the first airplanes, the fatal attack on Pearl Harbour and the final cure for Hansen's disease, which literally wipes out the illness overnight. Each incident is seen through the eyes of Rachel and through her life of confinement, suffering and hardship on Molokai. This is a profound and sweeping saga - meticulously researched and beautifully written. Molokai is a must read Michael.
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put it down!
Review: This is my first review because this is the first book I've read that's compelled me to want other people reading it so I can discuss it with them. As the other reviewers are saying, "Moloka'i" is one of those novels you can't put down! It's a two-day read because you'll find yourself making time to get back to it. When a friend mentioned it's set in the leper colony of Moloka'i, I thought, "what a downer." But it's not!!! It's about a spirited, underdog heroine who wins your heart from chapter one and who you root for every step/page of the way. Great, great book!
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: What a great story! And so well-written you feel you are there. Brennert does a superb job of humanizing Rachel and her extended family. Heartbreaking and uplifting. Well worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking in its scope and humanity
Review: Wow, what a powerful story. If Oprah Winfrey's book club were still open to new novels then "Moloka'i" would rank right up there with "We Were the Mulvaneys" and "Bridges of Madison County". I could NOT put this book down - such is the story's "what happens next" factor! I read this book in a marathon, bleary-eyed two days -- something I haven't done since my mother gave me "Gone With The Wind" when I was 14 (reading under the covers late into the night with a flashlight!). Don't be put off by the fact that the primary antagonist in the story is the disease of leprosy: this is quickly relegated to the reader's subconscious as we become absorbed in the human drama of Rachel Kalama's life. Alan Brennert takes us back to Hawaii in the late 19th century and vividly recreates its unspoiled beauty. I was swept along with Rachel who, at the age of 7, is taken from her loving family and banished to the remote island of Moloka'i. Rachel finds her Uncle Pono (who preceded her there and is sadly the source of her own infection) and forges a new life with new friends in various stages of this devastating illness. As heartbreaking as her story is, it is also a story of hope, love, endurance and ultimately survival.
| 
