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I Myself Have Seen It: The Myth of Hawai'i
I Myself Have Seen It The Myth of Hawai'i Author:Susanna Moore The Hawaii of the travel brochures is a lush tropical destination for millions of visitors every year. But the familiar image of a Pacific paradise barely scratches the surface of the rich history and fascinating culture of the real HawaiIand in this evocative, eclectic, and unfailingly engaging book, novelist Susanna Moore sho... more »ws us a hidden realm no tourist is likely to see. She interweaves her own memories of growing up in Honolulu in the 1950s and 60s with a concise chronicle of HawaiIs two-hundred-year encounter with the Westfrom the great explorer Captain Cook to the American missionaries who followed in his wake to the nineteenth-century haole landowners whose enormous plantations and close-knit society reshaped island life. By turns a sweeping, romantic tale of native kings and ancient ritual and a vividly drawn, personal memoir of a world that is now all but gone, I Myself Have Seen It unfolds against a fascinating backdrop of Polynesian myth whose ocean spirits and fire gods still cast powerful spells.« less