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Sharks in the Time of Saviors: A Novel por…
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Sharks in the Time of Saviors: A Novel (2020 original; edición 2020)

por Kawai Strong Washburn (Autor)

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6873733,152 (3.86)93
Fiction. Literature. Sharks in the Time of Saviors is a groundbreaking debut novel that folds the legends of Hawai'ian gods into an engrossing family saga; a story of exile and the pursuit of salvation from Kawai Strong Washburn. In 1995 Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, on a rare family vacation, seven-year-old Nainoa Flores falls overboard a cruise ship into the Pacific Ocean. When a shiver of sharks appears in the water, everyone fears for the worst. But instead, Noa is gingerly delivered to his mother in the jaws of a shark, marking his story as the stuff of legends. Nainoa's family, struggling amidst the collapse of the sugarcane industry, hails his rescue as a sign of favor from ancient Hawaiian gods?a belief that appears validated after he exhibits puzzling new abilities. But as time passes, this supposed divine favor begins to drive the family apart: Nainoa, working now as a paramedic on the streets of Portland, struggles to fathom the full measure of his expanding abilities; further north in Washington, his older brother Dean hurtles into the world of elite college athletics, obsessed with wealth and fame; while in California, risk-obsessed younger sister Kaui navigates an unforgiving academic workload in an attempt to forge her independence from the family's legacy. When supernatural events revisit the Flores family in Hawai'i?with tragic consequences?they are all forced to reckon with the bonds of family, the meaning of heritage, and the cost of survival.… (más)
Miembro:burritapal
Título:Sharks in the Time of Saviors: A Novel
Autores:Kawai Strong Washburn (Autor)
Información:MCD (2020), Edition: 1st, 384 pages
Colecciones:Tu biblioteca, Actualmente leyendo
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Etiquetas:to-read

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Sharks in the Time of Saviors por Kawai Strong Washburn (2020)

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» Ver también 93 menciones

Mostrando 1-5 de 37 (siguiente | mostrar todos)
For me this novel is doing two main things, one of which worked better than the other.

What worked is its examination of familial dynamics, especially amongst siblings. Though they naturally love all their three children, Malia and Augie view their middle child, son Nainoa, as something a bit special. To be fair they have a good reason: early on in his life he fell overboard during a family cruise and was gently cradled in the mouth of a shark as it swam to return him to the boat, and from childhood he seems to have something of a miraculous ability to heal people of illness. It was always going to be a challenge for his parents not to treat him a bit differently than they do their other son and daughter. But from the specifics of a particular case one can pull back to see a generalizable set of attitudes and feelings present in many families, whatever the specific details in any one of them.

The apparent favoritism of their parents for their brother has a corrosive effect on older brother Dean and younger sister Kaui; how could it not? They struggle with resentment towards their parents and towards Nainoa, with feelings of lesser self-worth, with envy and anger and depression and guilt all in an inner roil. There's a heartbreaking scene where Kaui asks her mother if she would miss her as much as Nainoa if she were dead, told from Malia's viewpoint:

"What do you think?" I ask her.
"I don't think you would," she says.
Sadness rings through me, sudden and clear. I ask her if she really believes that, and she says of course she does, that she's believed it since she was young, at Kehana, invisible, she says.
"Oh, Kaui," I say. "It's not like that at all. Of course we'd miss you."
She keeps her eyes away from me, looking at the floor or the wall. One arm crossed over her chest and grabbing the other shoulder. She mm-hmms my answer, softly.
"Did you ever think," she says, "maybe he wasn't what you thought he was?"...
I shrug. "He was special," I say. "Don't you think so?"
She doesn't answer. After a few quiet breaths, she leaves the doorway.


The other big thing this novel is doing, which I didn't appreciate as much, is incorporating indigenous Hawaiian mysticism. This surprised me because I generally have a lot of time for elements of magical realism, folklore, the supernatural, and so on, and thought ahead of time that I would enjoy that aspect of this novel. Unfortunately for me however it read as woo-woo. It is particularly egregious near the end of the novel. Augie has been in mental and physical decline for some time, appearing to suffer from advanced dementia. Turns out he just needed to stick his head into some native plants on an ecologically conscious small farm Kaui is working at (here told from Malia's viewpoint):

"Babe," he says again. As if we'd never missed each other all this time. "I gotta show you something."
I want to speak but say nothing. I step closer to him. His hand grasps my arm just above the elbow and pulls me into the kalo - and when my forehead touches the leaves I feel it...
Where I touch the leaves and stalks, I feel a thousand voices, chanting. Yes. I grasp the stalks, I bury my face with Augie. The chanting and the singing. I know the language even if this is the first time I hear it this way, a language of righteousness and cycles, giving and taking, aloha in the rawest form. Pure love. The chant grows in numbers, the way talk at a large gathering of people shifts from individual conversations into a babbling hum, so that what I'm touching now is more than voices, more than a chant, it's a hum of energy, and I can feel the hum extending into everything around us..."
Auguie's rough hand pulls me back from the leaves. There he is, examining me, his eyes gentle and full, the way they used to be. All of him is there.


This just doesn't work for me. I get that Washburn is working on themes of colonization and expropriation and indigenous alienation from native land and traditions in the modern world and the power of native wisdom still there for rediscovery by its genetic inheritors, but as literature I'm not into this part of the novel. Turns out I think I would have liked the novel better as a work of straight up realism.

There are other positive aspects of this novel not yet touched on in which it engages with important issues, including: economic oppression of the working class, particularly among racial minorities; the common lack of a support network for first generation college students, again particularly among racial minorities; sexual orientation and related prejudices; and fireworks safety. Ok, that last one is maybe a bit of a stretch. ( )
  lelandleslie | Feb 24, 2024 |
AAAAAHHHHHHH FIVE STARS OUT OF FIVE. A brave, moving, sorrowful, lyrical, joyful, brilliant novel about a Hawaiian-Filipino family and the aftermath of a miracle, in which a boy is saved by sharks from drowning. I was left speechless when I finished this debut (!) novel, and I’m similarly at a loss for words here. ( )
  thewilyf | Dec 25, 2023 |
Het begint allemaal met haaien. Die mogen dan geen al te sympathieke reputatie hebben, in ‘Sharks in the Time of Saviours’, de debuutroman van de Amerikaanse schrijver Kawai Strong Washburn, tonen ze zich van hun meest empathische kant. Ze redden namelijk de kleine Nainoa Flores uit zee en bezorgen hem terug bij zijn ouders. Deze scene aan het begin van het boek én de titel, waarin Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ ‘Liefde in tijden van cholera’ nagalmt, maken meteen duidelijk dat dit een magisch realistisch verhaal gaat worden. Het boek won in 2021 de PEN/Hemingway Award voor beste debuutroman en werd gepromoot door de boekenclub van Barack Obama. Het is niet in het Nederlands vertaald.

Het boek draait om het Hawaiiaanse gezin Flores, dat naast de miraculeus geredde Nainoa bestaat uit moeder, vader en twee andere kinderen. Het incident met de haaien, dat plaatsvindt in 1995, heeft een vergaand effect op het gezin en hun onderlinge relaties. Nainoa’s ouders - die in armoede leven - zien in het incident een teken van de voorouders en verwachten dat hun zoon zal uitgroeien tot een redder. Niet alleen van hun gezin, maar ook van het Hawaiiaanse volk als geheel. Dit legt een grote druk op Nainoa en maakt tegelijk dat de andere kinderen in zijn schaduw komen te staan. Welke gevolgen dat heeft, ook in de verdere toekomst, vertellen de gezinsleden elk in hun eigen hoofdstukken, waarbij overigens niet alle personages even uitgebreid aan bod komen. De vraag die lang open blijft staan is of de ouders van Nainoa de boodschap van de voorouders wel goed begrepen hebben.

Kawai Strong Washburn werd geboren in Hawaii en groeide daar ook op. Hoewel zijn ouders van elders komen, is duidelijk dat hij goed bekend is met de oorspronkelijke Hawaiiaanse cultuur en mythologie. De magische elementen in het boek leunen sterk op die mythologie. Bijvoorbeeld worden er 'Night Marchers' ten tonele gevoerd (geesten van overleden strijders die ‘s nachts rondmarcheren met brandende fakkels) en voorouders die in de vorm van dieren boodschappen doorgeven aan de levenden. Maar stel het je allemaal vooral niet al te sprookjesachtig voor, want Washburn heeft juist ook veel aandacht voor realistische aspecten van het leven van de oorspronkelijke bevolking in het moderne Hawaii. Dat gaat niet over zonvakanties, zee, surf en gezellige cocktails, maar juist over schrijnende sociale kwesties, zoals armoede, werkloosheid en door armoede ingegeven migratie.

Die mix van lokale mythologie en de harde realiteit maakt dit in de eerste plaats een interessant boek. Het opent de deur naar een heel ander soort Hawaii dan het clichébeeld ervan en doet je nadenken over de parallellen tussen het lot van de oorspronkelijke bevolking daar en dat van de Native Americans in het vasteland van de VS. Ook is het boek afwisselend om te lezen, door het schakelen tussen de vertellers met hun verschillende karakters en visies.

Tegelijk zijn er ook wel wat dingen op aan te merken. Zo zijn er een paar wispelturige plotwendingen, bijvoorbeeld als het gaat om de basketbalcarrière van de oudste zoon (het ene moment gaat het slechter dan ooit, maar in een volgend hoofdstuk heeft hij ineens een beurs) of de relatie tussen de jongste dochter en haar vriendin. Bij al die uitwijdingen over het studentenleven van die kinderen verdwijnt het centrale thema - de relatie tussen de Hawaiianen en hun geboortegrond - af en toe wel heel ver naar de achtergrond. Dat gezegd hebbend is dit een boek dat zeker aan te bevelen is aan iedereen die op zoek is naar een nieuw en origineel perspectief op een schijnbaar bekend stukje van de wereld. ( )
  Tinwara | Sep 8, 2023 |
So good! ( )
  Kiramke | Jun 27, 2023 |
This was a ponderous read for me and I'm not exactly sure why. It had all the makings for a brilliant story that should have been right up my street but it dragged for me. And it's frustrating because even now, having just put it down, I ( )
  Jess.Stetson | Apr 4, 2023 |
Mostrando 1-5 de 37 (siguiente | mostrar todos)
Noa is haunted by the suffering of the islands, especially the animals, and all the while he’s bursting with visions of the strings that tie reality together backstage. It sounds far out, but much like J.D. Salinger’s “Franny and Zooey,” it’s the ordinariness of the characters’ fears and desires that makes their spiritual connections believable and makes you cheer and weep for them.
 
From its opening pages, this debut novel juxtaposes the realities of life for a working-class Hawaiian family and the mysticism of the Native culture that shapes them, with surprising results.
añadido por karenb | editarKirkus Reviews (Dec 23, 2019)
 

» Añade otros autores (1 posible)

Nombre del autorRolTipo de autor¿Obra?Estado
Kawai Strong Washburnautor principaltodas las edicionescalculado
Buck, MattArtista de Cubiertaautor secundarioalgunas edicionesconfirmado
Corral, RodrigoDiseñador de cubiertaautor secundarioalgunas edicionesconfirmado
Kim, NaCover lettererautor secundarioalgunas edicionesconfirmado
Oriolo, RichardDiseñadorautor secundarioalgunas edicionesconfirmado

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Fiction. Literature. Sharks in the Time of Saviors is a groundbreaking debut novel that folds the legends of Hawai'ian gods into an engrossing family saga; a story of exile and the pursuit of salvation from Kawai Strong Washburn. In 1995 Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, on a rare family vacation, seven-year-old Nainoa Flores falls overboard a cruise ship into the Pacific Ocean. When a shiver of sharks appears in the water, everyone fears for the worst. But instead, Noa is gingerly delivered to his mother in the jaws of a shark, marking his story as the stuff of legends. Nainoa's family, struggling amidst the collapse of the sugarcane industry, hails his rescue as a sign of favor from ancient Hawaiian gods?a belief that appears validated after he exhibits puzzling new abilities. But as time passes, this supposed divine favor begins to drive the family apart: Nainoa, working now as a paramedic on the streets of Portland, struggles to fathom the full measure of his expanding abilities; further north in Washington, his older brother Dean hurtles into the world of elite college athletics, obsessed with wealth and fame; while in California, risk-obsessed younger sister Kaui navigates an unforgiving academic workload in an attempt to forge her independence from the family's legacy. When supernatural events revisit the Flores family in Hawai'i?with tragic consequences?they are all forced to reckon with the bonds of family, the meaning of heritage, and the cost of survival.

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