Customer Reviews: Read 75 more reviews...
 Fascinating history with modern parallels June 24, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
"The Colony" was greeted with rave reviews on the U.S. Mainland. Yet, it is not even sold in the National Park Service's bookstore at the settlement site on Molokai. Indeed, the book so upset one of its leading characters, storyteller Makia Malo, that he will not even utter the author's name.
The Amazon reviews hint at the range and breadth of opinion this book has generated; I recommend browsing both the glowing reviews and some of the less favorable 3-star and 1-star reviews. For the New York Times article on the controversy, you can Google this search term: "Book on Leprosy Settlement Draws Fire."
For what it's worth, here is my own brief take:
This is an amazing history, told in impressive detail. In chronicling the story of leprosy on the Hawaiian islands, Tayman even-handedly presents the good and the bad: Both grotesque medical experimentation and heroic service, devastating tragedy and human resilience. The scientific information was interspersed throughout the personal and political stories, making it more easily digestible.
The history of leprosy is not only fascinating in its own right, but it has important parallels today. Tayman briefly mentions the parallel with AIDS, especially in the early years of AIDS when exile was being proposed. I also found it relevant to the current treatment of another shunned group - sex offenders. As with lepers back in the day, policy makers attempt to banish all sex offenders as pariahs despite the fact that, like lepers, only a small minority are dangerous.
The negatives: As other Amazon reviewers have pointed out, the narration is choppy. We learn a lot of facts about a lot of people, but it is hard to keep the characters straight. And the editing is quite poor, something I am seeing a lot of these days. As for Tayman's apparent disrespect or arrogance toward the very people he was trying to honor - you decide.
If you are interested in this topic, Jeff Talarigo's haunting debut novel, The Pearl Diver, provides a good contrast. Although it is fiction, it seems historically accurate and you can contrast the treatment of lepers in Japan, where there seems to have been even more shame and prejudice, with that in Hawaii, where nearly every family had a member who was afflicted.
 Poorly edited... May 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I found the writing of this book mediocre and the editing poor. There are many unclear passages where the author will say something like "10 people were diagnosed... all eight died..." Or "Four men were killed...the three bodies were buried..." Very annoying. And don't get me started on his requent use of word SNUCK, which makes my blood run cold. I found the latter chapters of the book to be full of minutiae of the lives of a few older residents, that was of little interest or poinancy. Seemed like filler. Overall, the topic is very interesting, and parts are well-rendered, but the writing is somewhat jerky and overwrought.
 Overall a good read January 2, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Overall I liked this book. I think the author largely achieved what he set out to, which was to tell the story of the lepers of Molokai and tell it in a way that could hold your attention throughout the book.
This book was not however perfect. My main criticism was the constant flow of characters coming in/out of the story, especially all the outsiders (IE members of the board of health). I was often left with questions such as "who was this person again?". I must admit I read this somewhat sporadically over a months time, so that could have had some to do with it, but I did find the sheer number of people presented a bit over the top. This criticism aside, I still found it to be an enjoyable read and would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in this kind of story.
 "Unclean! Unclean!" June 5, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I suppose that the government officials in Hawaii in the 1860s assumed that they were doing the right thing by isolating lepers on an almost uninhabited island. Compared to the biblical era of rags, bells, and calls of "unclean, unclean!", they may have been somewhat correct. What they didn't realize, however, was the human toll living on that island would take on those people. It's actually amazing that so many surivied for a long time, considering the conditions. Of course, eveyone has heard of Father Damien, but the story doesn't begin, or end, with him.There were those who dedicated their lives to helping these people, and were successful , mostly. It's a grim and harrowing tale that this well-written book tells, but it should always remind us that even the best of intentions don't always turn our the way that we had intended them.
 I Plead for Caution June 2, 2007
13 out of 20 found this review helpful
I am little more than 100 pages into this book and already I can find more than a dozen cases where I question the author's over-dramatization and/or artistic license. I caution everyone who may read this and--goodness forbid, choose take it as a definative work of "history"--to approach the book with the skepticism it deserves. From the first pages of the preface--where the author quotes Jack London entirely out of context and leads the reader to believe London believed something he did not--to the blinding acceptance of newpaper accounts of the time as entirely factual (when, in fact, newspapers were notoriously biased in the days of the haole-controlled government), this book is already riddle with enough suspect material to make me shy away from it entirely. I'm certain Mr. Tayman did much research, but whether he has distilled it into a factual account is highly suspect to me at this point. It reeks of sensationism and I implore those who choose to read it to keep that in mind. This may indeed be more fiction than substative fact.
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