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The Descendants A Novel Kaui Hart Hemmings Books

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The Descendants A Novel Kaui Hart Hemmings Books

First I saw the movie, the gist of which I thought at the time to be the touching transformation of the rebellious and sullen 17 year old Alex into a surrogate mother to her blossoming 10 year old sister Scottie. George Clooney was just the right choice to portray Matt, father to the two girls. He was funny, and perplexed, and ever respectful of his unfaithful wife who lay comatose from a boating accident. I look for emotion in my movie choices.

Then I read the book. It was better than the movie because the movie missed the key reason why Matt made the decision he did in hanging on to the ancestral land that he was shepherding. In reading, I formed a deep respect for author Hemming's use of language and understanding of the teenagers in the movie, Alex and her friend Sid. I also appreciated Hemming's skill as she seamlessly glided back and forth between advancing the story while filling in the backstory, avoiding any flashbacks.

Then I listened to the audio book, and was delighted to get an even deeper appreciation for the journey that Matt made, growing into his role as father to his children. It's a thoroughly engaging story, ultimately arriving at the moment when Matt forgives his unworthy dying wife. It seems morose when I write it down here, but this is a funny, and affecting story that rings true from beginning to end.


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The Descendants A Novel Kaui Hart Hemmings Books Reviews

No wonder a super good movie was made from this book. Clean, clear writing, fabulous characters, a story of humanity during great duress and emotional pressures and trauma. The excellent film led me to read this book, and it's a total keeper. I don't loan out books unless I can live with the knowledge that I'll likely not get it back. This one would be passed around by many, I'm sure, so I keep mine on the shelf, and tell those who are curious to either go to the public library, or offer to buy them a copy.

All one can wish for is more fine work, more wonderful storytelling, to come from Kaui Hart Hemmings.
I really liked this. The movie version is one of my favorite George Clooney performances, and I wondered how the underlying novel compares.

Actually they’re very close, with a few exceptions 1.) the characters are slightly more sharply etched in the novel than in the film; 2.) a novel allows even more room for descriptive passages, many of which are consistent with—and embellish—the voiced-over narration by Clooney in the film; there is one small but significant plot detail in the tail end of the book that didn’t make it on screen.

Otherwise, they’re very similar. Having said that, I don’t think you’d be redundant to read the book after seeing the film, or visa versa. I was pleased to see how well the film seemed to capture the sport of the book (at least in my opinion), but likewise reading the book was such a pleasure because of the quality of the writing.
My wife is Hawaiian, 1/4 Native Hawaiian, and of course a number of other races, i.e. hapa (Hawaiian for mixed-race). We spend a lot of time in the Islands, usually on The Big Island, so I'm very familiar with the themes of this incredible novel. She is also descended from the Royal Family, and part of several land trusts holding title to large parcels of land. We must have seen the film five or six times; how George Clooney was denied the academy award for his rendering of Matt King is beyond me. The novel is, if anything, better than the film, richer, deeper, more moving and simply a great work. I can't recommend it strongly enough. It captures both the personal anguish of a flawed man who is only trying to do right in a very difficult and compromising world, and the unique aspects of Hawaiian culture which is at once familiar and completely unknown to our "mainland" American way-of-life. The people ring true; these are "locals" in Hawaii that I've encountered. The way they speak and act is spot on. This is a wonderful book. It's about family, the unique connection Hawaiians have for their land, their aina, and the responsibilities one has to the land and to future generations. It's about connections to our ohana, our extended family, and how those connections are the only things that are really important; the rest is just ashes on the waters.
That's the premise of this story. Mother Joannie is in a coma, on life support. She has left a Living Will so she will be taken off of life support shortly. Matt and their two daughters, 18 year old Alexa, and 10 year old Scottie, together with Alexas friend Sid, go to varioys friends and family members to let them know that they need to say goodbye now if they wish to.

In the meantime, Alexa informs her father she had seen Joannie go into a house with a man and shows him where. They happen to see a picture of the guy on a for sale sign in front of a house so they know he's a realtor. When Matt goes to tell friends of Joannies about her condition he confronts her girlfriend and discovers that not only was she having an affair, but she had planned to divorce him and marry her lover.

In the course of the story, Matt goes to let the lover know Joannie will be dead. He gets some HUGE surprises.

Matt and Joannies family had been very dysfunctional. As Matt and the girls work through Joanies deceit, his decision that keeping the huge amounts of family land and working through the debt to retain the family legacy, and the girls and Matt seeing sides of one another they could not see with Joannie in their lives, was the start of a real family forming. All three found that they loved Joannie, but their lives and family were better with her gone .

Interesting.

HIGHLY recommend. Getting where they did was a VERY interesting voyage.
First I saw the movie, the gist of which I thought at the time to be the touching transformation of the rebellious and sullen 17 year old Alex into a surrogate mother to her blossoming 10 year old sister Scottie. George Clooney was just the right choice to portray Matt, father to the two girls. He was funny, and perplexed, and ever respectful of his unfaithful wife who lay comatose from a boating accident. I look for emotion in my movie choices.

Then I read the book. It was better than the movie because the movie missed the key reason why Matt made the decision he did in hanging on to the ancestral land that he was shepherding. In reading, I formed a deep respect for author Hemming's use of language and understanding of the teenagers in the movie, Alex and her friend Sid. I also appreciated Hemming's skill as she seamlessly glided back and forth between advancing the story while filling in the backstory, avoiding any flashbacks.

Then I listened to the audio book, and was delighted to get an even deeper appreciation for the journey that Matt made, growing into his role as father to his children. It's a thoroughly engaging story, ultimately arriving at the moment when Matt forgives his unworthy dying wife. It seems morose when I write it down here, but this is a funny, and affecting story that rings true from beginning to end.