Kiana DavenportHouse of Many Gods: A Novel

Hawaii looms in my mind as a beautiful, serene land, the result of years of viewing advertising meant for tourists. But I know there has to be another side to this land of perfect sandy beaches and swaying palm trees. In rich, evocative prose, Kiana Davenport takes us into the world tourists never see, into the three-generation home of Ana, native Hawaiian, and her extended family in the town of Nanakuli, on the western coast of O'ahu. Abandoned by her mother, Ana struggles to find her place, to understand the heritage passed on by her aunts and uncles, and come to grips with the destruction of sacred land by the US military. Supported by her family, Ana heads to medical school.During a rare hurricane raking the island, Ana meets a Russian filmmaker, and her life changes once more. He too knows first hand the damage from unrestrained testing and industrialization. Her journey from Nanakuli to St. Petersburg and Moscow is also her journey into her deepest self. Deeply imagined and searingly told, this novel takes us into a world known only by those born to it. Each character is vividly brought to life, and his or her story honored in the telling. This is a remarkable story, and a memorable book.

I grew up on Oahu and left when I was 14, during the 70s and early 80s. I'm in my late 40s now. Kiana Davenport captured life there so perfectly - the people, the place, the wind, the water ... the way people talk, everything. The soil. Anyone I've met who has lived in Hawaii now usually went there as an adult and got there via military, and their experiences are not like mine at all. They have no idea what I'm talking about to the point that I've felt like I was crazy or just had an overactive imagination, but this author has brought my heart back to me with this book. There are things I forgot that came rushing back. Even outside of all that, the writing is so beautiful - she paints her characters so vividly by how they interact with each other.

Very moving. It took me a while to get into this book, but by halfway through I was totally hooked. Kiana Davenport is an excellent writer and the research that must have gone into this, especially the Russian history, is quite astounding. Not as enjoyable as The Shark Dialogues but still a very good read and I would highly recommend it. Both this book and The Shark Dialogues were an eye opener for me when it comes to what indigenous people have gone through historically and also in recent times. I find that I have a new appreciation for indigenous people and their culture.

Kiana Davenport's book House of Many Gods is a wonderful generational novel, beginning in the mid-Sixties and running to present day, along the Wai'anae coast of Oahu, a neighborhood largely unknown to the outside world. It houses the third-largest homeless population in the United States, made up of mostly ghettoized native Hawaiians. In this novel, set in a house shared by many and various mothers, their children and the occasional father, a story about a young girl takes place. Abandoned by her mother, she struggles within a culture clash within the only home she's ever known, her expectations, the outside world, and how to love. During the book she finds a way through much of the tragedy and poverty around her to become a doctor, eventually connect the pieces of her life, and travels halfway around the world to rescue a man, also struggling in his native culture, that she'd refused to love. At least as important as the story she tells, Kiana's descriptions and narrative, as lush and rich as a tropical rainforest, brings along the deep abiding spiritualism of a Hawaiian spirit subjugated by a profusion of foreign influences, from the missionaries to the more recent intrusions of Asian, and most of all, the United States, influences. It's as if Kaui Hart Hemmings (The Descendants) meets Gregory David Roberts (Shantaram) in Hawaii. I rank Kiana Davenport alongside my favorite authors, Hemmings, Donna Tart, Marisa Pessl, and Dennis Lehane. This will be a read you cannot put down and will never forget.

I have read all of Ms. Davenport's novels. They never disappoint. She speaks with an authentic Hawaiian voice, which I may not even have standing to assert, being a haole who only lived in the Islands for a few short years, to my sorrow. But I lived there in the early years of her novel, and while I was quite uncomfortable reading it at times (yes, as a teenage haole guy, you can bet I knew to stay away from the West side of Oahu, especially Waianae and Nanakuli, and recognized everything of which she wrote, from the places to the kinds of people and the political and cultural issues. The story of the survival, and ultimate success of a strong island girl in a bizarre family wary of her, and her love for a strange Russian refugee as out of place as she was, I found totally compelling and credible. Not an easy book to read, not something for folks looking for pleasant or casual fare, but if you want something real, and want to get a feel for the real kanaka maoli, I highly recommend this novel.

The history and culture of Hawaii is beautifully available here, but unfortunately for me, so was the author. I was too aware of her mission to teach. So much so that she seemed to become for me another, though minor, character in the book. Also, I felt the Russians were almost characatures at times, more vehicles for comparison to the Hawaiians than richly intriguing in their own right. I've enjoyed her other books, especially Shark Diaries, but this one was a bit of a plow through for me.

Loved this novel! Was sometimes tough growing up on the Waianae coast in the mid to late 50's for a haole girl. Know Nanakuli well as my mother taught first grade at the school there and we had many friends in the homesteads. I live on the mainland now and just was so captured by the Hawaiian words and customs I grew up with. Hawaii is a culture unto its own and sometimes feel like I just don't fit in here. Only my family and close friends understand my sentences which are part English, part Hawaiian. Thank you, Ms. Davenport!

Great novel written from an Hawaiian perspective. Interweaves the concept of ohana with the trials and tribulations of what has, and continues to happen, to the Hawaiian people. The historical research adds substance to the story.

I met this author at first through 'The Spy Lover' so was curious about her work. This is a great story of a woman's life, dwelling a lot on themes the author is obviously fascinated by: roots and the potential alienation of those who leave them behind, and the traditional beliefs of Hawaii.

Great read!