I lived in Hawaii for ten years while a graduate student and grew to love the Hawaiian cultures. This was a story I could live and at the same time get a better understanding of the immigrants who worked the sugar cane fields. I bought three more books and sent one to my son, who was raised in Hawaii -- his friends were from families like Middle Son. I sent one to a dear Japanese Hawaiian woman, and we will write to each other about the meanings she sees in the story. It was a well written book, simple, but touched my heart deeply. I liked the way the Iida gave me hints into the drowning a little at a time, chapter to chapter. It is a book worthy to be next to Hemingway's short stories. I plan to read the book over again and again.

The Maui libraries as well as the Center of the Book, Maui, have chosen Deborah Iida's lyrical novel, Middle Son, for all of Maui to read and discuss during April. What a pleasure it is to have a new excuse to revisit this poignant story! I have read it three times already and each time I discover a deeper layer of satisfaction. The first time I read it, I had just moved here and it helped introduce me to local pidgin and to gain a deeper understanding of things Japanese-Hawaiian which I learned is different from Native Hawaiian, which is different from Haole-Hawaiian, Chinese-Hawaiian, Portugeuse-Hawaiian, Korean-Hawaiian, and etc! To live Hawaii is to live multiculturally. One kind of pidgin is different from all other kinds. Which adds to the uniqueness of Maui.
Ms. Iida's characters remain with you long after the book is returned to the shelf. Every time I pass a cane field, I think of the workers' lives in the camps; of Mariko undressing baby William and looking at him for the last moment he belongs to her; of cutting her hair; of Spencer, William and Taizo at the reservoir, the last moment of their childhoods, simply kids on the verge of committing an adult mistake. This book is a modern classic which we on Maui are lucky to have to share with the world.

WHAT A JOY TO READ AND REREAD SUCH A BOOK. EACH READING PROVIDES MORE INSIGHT AND A NEW LAYER NOT SEEN BEFORE. EVERY SENTENCE IS NEEDED, AN EMOTION HIDDEN WITHEN. THE CHARECTERS ARE RICHLY DEFINED AND PRESENTED AS THEY ARE. ALL JUDGEMENTS SKILLFULLY LEFT FOR THE READER TO PONDER. I, A CAUCASIAN WOMAN, FOUND MYSELF WITHEN THE PAGES. AN UNNOTICED SECRET OBSERVER OF THIS REMARKABLE FAMILY STORY. DURING THE JOY, AND SORROW, THE LIVING AND THE DYING. I CAME TO HAVE A RESPECTFUL UNDERSTANDING OF THIS STRANGE AND UNKNOWN CULTURE. A WORLD SO FAR FROM MY OWN. I HIGHLY RECCOMEND THIS BOOK. THE READER WILL GAIN A GREATER SENSE OF LIFE LESSONS IN ANOTHER TIME AND PLACE. I ANXIOUSLY AWAIT MS. IIDAS NEXT BOOK.