Unfamiliar Fishes

A history of Hawaii's "annexation" interspersed with Vowell's sometimes snarky commentary. Her delivery on audio is distinctive and, for me at least, adds to the enjoyment. She always leaves me wanting to know more about the subjects she writes about. ( )

This was selected by our book club. Slight but unformative. Nothing much to recommend it from a literary standpoint. If collecting historical facts in a bloodless, sort of Rain Man-esque sort of way, this may be your bag.

Relates the invasion of Hawaii by American missionaries, then businessmen, then the U.S. government.

Two thumbs meh.
( )

Unfamiliar Fishes is the fun, smart and entertaining history of Hawaii, the focus being on the nineteenth century when New England missionaries came to the islands and introduced Christianity, literacy, infectious diseases and, Western ideas like democracy, entrepreneurship and, marginalization. The topics may be heavy; but Sarah Vowell's wry style of delivery makes this a relatively digestible lesson in history that probably wasn't covered in your classroom.

Ms Vowell herself is funny and smart; but the novelty of having her narrate her own book wears thin after a little while. Because she includes personal memories or thoughts in the book, she is perhaps the best narrator for her own material; but her shuttered, neurotic clip and even a mispronunciation ("forecastle" should be pronounced "FŌK-sull") may cause the listener to reflexively tune out as a defensive mechanism. The other voices listed as narrators occasionally pop in with a quote; but nothing substantive or consistent. Sometimes Sarah Vowell reads a quote, sometimes someone else. The celebrity guest roster of contributing narrators is impressive; but really no more than a gimmick and the intrusive edit-ins of their lines is disruptive to the listening experience, as is the music that signals the end of each chapter.

These comments were redacted from a blog review originally posted at dogearedcopy on 03/30/2011 ( )

Not as good as her previous but I was interested in the topic very much after visiting Hawaii this last January and falling in love. Much like the missionaries Vowell writes about. ( )

Among the handful of Christian missionaries to arrive in Hawaii in 1820 were Asa and Lucy Thurston. Seventy years later, their grandchild Lorrin Thurston helped to overthrow the islands’ monarch, Queen Liliuokalani and annex the territory to the United States. Unfamiliar Fishes traces the intervening years: the end of an independent Hawaii and the loss of much of her native culture.

Like Sarah Vowell’s previous couple books, [b:Assassination Vacation|3110|Assassination Vacation|Sarah Vowell|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1162323680s/3110.jpg|824686] and [b:The Wordy Shipmates|2845287|The Wordy Shipmates|Sarah Vowell|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1256066727s/2845287.jpg|3093704], it’s a blend of historical narrative and travel memoir but, like The Wordy Shipmates, leans more towards the historical; the personal stuff is downplayed. Sarah Vowell certainly has her own unique style, mixing the flippant and the deadly serious, jokes with sadness. I like it a great deal (though if someone were to tell me he or she found it annoying—I wouldn’t be too totally surprised.)

What I’ve always admired particularly about her is how closely and widely she reads primary sources, reconstructing and breathing life into crumbled daguerreotypes. A good atheist (hail, sister) she brings a great deal of empathy when discussing the deeply religious motivations of her characters. And someone like, say, Grover Cleveland, about whom all I knew was his non- consecutiveness, is rendered as having actual thoughts, opinions, and politics (I know! I was like “what?”). (As an example of the opposite, when I stopped by the McKinley Center in Ohio a couple years ago, all the animatronic McKinley could say was that he loved his wife and he was looking forward to attending the Pan-American Exposition.)

Unfamiliar Fishes does lose its narrative thrust somewhere in the middle. Not divided into chapters, the book wanders into the economics of the whaling industry. While very interesting, we’re not sure where the characters are left or where we’ll encounter them when the story resumes. (Shipmates hit a similar shoal in my opinion.) It’s a small criticism.

Unfamiliar Fishes is at its strongest at its conclusion when Sarah revisits the themes of Spanish-American War imperialism at the close of the 19th century from Assassination Vacation. Someday soon, Cuba will open back up to tourists. When it does, look for one kick-ass Sarah Vowell book. ( )