Honolulu Stories: Two Centuries of Writing was first published in 2008 consisting of short fiction, excerpts from novels, scenes from plays, musicals and operas, poems, chants, song lyrics, cartoons, stand-up comedy, and slam—a feast of words. It is a hefty tome of hundreds of Honolulu voices telling the story of the town over the years, from tiny village to raucous whaling port to capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom to twenty-first century multicultural metropolis.
This new abridged edition is a bold rethinking of the original and puts its lens squarely on the modern fiction coming out of Hawai‘i today. These stories come together to create a freshly focused portrait of Honolulu in flux, grappling with the waves of change we currently face in the twenty-first century from the effects of war, economic dispossession, environmental degradation, and dislocation, and how we are trying to adapt, evolve, fight, and survive for what was, what is, and what could be.
Most notably, Honolulu Stories Today includes fiction from local authors whose works were published since 2008. Interwoven with older stories from the original, readers are given a kaleidoscopic lens to view common themes such as the impact of splintering families; the definition of being Hawaiian; the importance of looking to the past to navigate the future; the dislocation of local life; the questioning of authenticity and who has a legitimate claim to culture. There are stories that look back at a small kid's time to understand the present; stories that jump to the future; stories that hold a mirror up to the present.
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