CAPTIVE PARADISE

Though millions are drawn to the romance and multicultural richness of this island state in the central Pacific, there has never been a narrative history of Hawaii. Not since Michener's 1959 novel has the story of Hawaii been brought authentically alive. It's a true epic that weaves several compelling narrative elements - the ambitions of the sugar and pineapple magnates, the persistent evangelism of Christian missionaries, the dictates of grand naval strategy, the more broadly felt Manifest Destiny of America moving ever westward, and of course the vibrant and volatile doings of the leaders of the Hawaiian kingdom itself. In Haley, the subject has found an appropriate match.

Not only is Haley a storyteller but he is a non-academic history. He has a lively mind willing to reevaluate ideas based on evidence. "I opened research for this book with the presupposition that the American takeover of the islands was every bit as irredeemable as politically correct academia believes. The more I have studied, however, the more I have been compelled to re-examine the role of the missionaries, now so vilified, and their motives, which were rooted in the appeal for missionaries made by the early Hawaiian Christians themselves."

The currency of the subject is high. Just last year, parties who had been blocking the Hawaiian Native Government Reorganization Act reached an agreement that will allow its passage through Congress, finally opening the path for native Hawaiians to control more of their own destiny. But the self-styled purity of today's movement may come in for some lumps in Haley's telling of the whole story of the machinations of the early royalty.