Island Books
Hawai'i over coffee

By Ann M. Sato

“HAWAI‘I’S GATHERING PLACE, The Island of O‘ahu,” by Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi, photographs by Veronica Carmona, Island Heritage, oversize hardback, $24.99. “LAND OF ALOHA, The Hawaiian Islands,” by Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi, photographs by Veronica Carmona, Ann Cecil, Ron Dohlquist and Philip Rosenberg, Island Heritage, oversize hardback, $24.99. Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser

The Island Heritage series of five books — one for each of the major islands and a fifth that covers the entire chain, composed of a "best of" selection of photos, layouts and copy from the previous four — is, indeed about image and images.

The books are unabashedly coffee-table fare, meant for idle browsing rather than gathering hard information; they contain no maps, for example, a puzzling omission.

The image they present is the one Hawai'i visitors yearn to believe in: a place of unrelenting beauty, unstinting warmth, unchanging serenity.

The irony is that this is the place we residents want to believe in, too. But it's not the Hawai'i we live in most days, with its cost of living, mounting traffic and crime, political bumbling, racial tensions and unresolved hurts from the past.

Still, all these smiling hula dancers, tranquil sunsets and inviting vistas do exist out there; paging through these books might serve as a reminder to the overly busy among us not to leave all the good stuff to the visitors.

The images, by four of the Islands' most accomplished travel photographers, are a series of perfect postcards, each one worthy of separate attention and appreciation. In the O'ahu book, "Hawai'i's Gathering Place, The Island of O'ahu," Veronica Carmona's tranquil shot of a fisherman under a startlingly bright moon, and her Chinatown montage showing produce piled up against a backdrop of Asian movie posters are just two examples of photos you want to look at again and again.

Sometimes, of course, the contrast between image and reality grates on the kama'aina consciousness.

When Chee writes that "much of O'ahu's incredible past is shared through its attractions" and dwells on the allure of the Polynesian Cultural Center and Waikiki nightlife, among other touristy haunts, the urge to sneer is strong. And why was an aerial shot of the Turtle Bay Hilton chosen to open the chapter on the North Shore? Doesn't seem to be what the North Shore is about.

Still, some effort has been made to entwine the root culture of the Islands with what another author has called "the dream that sells." Each chapter begins with a mo'olelo about a place or place name and some of these stories will be new even to lifelong residents. In the O'ahu book, for example, there is the tale of "ka puna hou," "the new spring," telling how the Punahou area of Honolulu, once barren, became verdant and rich when a couple were obedient to dreams sent them by the gods. Another story explains the source of the name Hanauma, "hand-wrestling bay."

In the interest of full disclosure, we should note that Virginia Wageman, who writes art criticism for The Advertiser, was project coordinator for this series, and her husband, Jim, carried out the rich design.

They, along with Chee and the photographers — Carmona, Ann Cecil (Kaua'i), Ron Dahlquist (Maui) and Philip Rosenberg (Big Island) — have effectively carried out the project's aim of creating a series of up-to-date, visitor-friendly souvenir books, worthy of packing up and plopping on the coffee table back home.

If only we all could live in this Hawai'i all the time.