 |
| Kristiana Kahakauwila, photo by Katty Wu |
Kristiana Kahakauwila is the author of the story collection This Is Paradise. She is an assistant professor of creative writing at Western Washington University, and she lives in Bellingham, Washington, and in Hawaii.
Q: Why did you select This Is Paradise for the title of your story collection?
A: The title of my collection
came from one of the stories. In the story “This is Paradise” a young tourist
woman, Susan, is observed by three groups of women-- local surfer girls,
Micronesian hotel workers, and Hawaiian career women.
When, just before the story’s
climax, Susan proclaims that this is paradise-- the clubs in Waikiki, the city
streets, the beaches that local surfers find dull-- the reader understands that
the notion of paradise, and of Hawai'i, is complicated.
The stories that follow,
which include “Wanle,” about a young woman who inherits her father’s legacy in
the cockfighting world, and “The Road to Hana,” where a pair of lovers
discover, on a visit to Maui, that their relationship is not what they thought,
all contribute to the remaking of the idea of paradise.
Q: What are the most common
images of Hawaii, and how realistic are they?
A: I don’t want to negate the
idea of the beauty of the islands. In so many ways Hawai'i is a paradise, with its
lush mountains and ocean life, but it’s also a place where real people live and
work and struggle to survive.
Another part of this paradise
myth is that Hawai'i is a land where beauty is for sale. Think of the image of
the hula girl, her skin lightly tanned, her waist whittled, her breasts plump.
This image sexualizes
Hawai'i, and its women, and one of its most sacred forms of storytelling (the
hula), all in the name of commercialization.
I have a moment in “This is
Paradise” that reflects upon this stereotypical hula girl image, but I also
have moments in the other stories where Hawaiian families enjoy watching a
child or tutu (grandma) dance and share the art. I wanted to contrast the
stereotype against what’s real for me.
Other images of Hawai'i might
include palm trees, beaches, and surfboards. I’m always worried when a place is
seen through only a few images. Hawai'i isn’t all beaches and surfing.
For me, it’s about family,
friends, talking story, gathering together to eat some really good smoked boar
or fresh fish, sharing time together... and surfing. So, in the book, I wanted
to offer that sense of fullness, how Hawai'i might start with some of these
images, but it’s so much more.
Q: Which writers have
particularly inspired you?
A: I read a lot of Hawaiian
writers and history, and certainly this history peeks out at the edges of my
stories. Queen Liliuokalani’s Hawai'i’s Story by Hawai'i’s Queen is very
moving to me, and I love Waves of Resistance: Surfing and History in Twentieth-Century Hawai'i by Isaiah Walker, both of which are nonfiction.
Fiction writers I turn to
include Amy Hempel, whose minimalist style inspired “The Road to Hana,” and
Alice Munro, who is a master of creating deep, thoughtful characters and whose
storytelling influenced “The Old Paniolo Way.”
Q: What are you working on
now?
A: Now, after reading all
that history, I’m working on a historical novel. The backdrop is a real water
rights lawsuit on the island of Maui. But the heart of the story is a fictional
Hawaiian family whose adult children must come to terms with the secrets of
their childhood.
I’m always thinking of inheritance and legacy, what we carry
from our parents and grandparents and ancestors. So this current project is a way
for me to imagine that coming into the present time.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
No comments:
Post a Comment