Red Wind

In The Red Wind, Ian MacMillan writes vividly of Hawaiian family life on windward Oahu in postwar Hawaii. The story centers in the poignant irony of Kenika, a haole of unknown parentage and background who adopts the ways of the Hawaiian, becoming a Hawaiian himself and marries into a Hawaiian family. His children, however, move outward into Western American culture. His daughters marry haoles and move to the mainland while his son becomes caught in the drug culture and ultimately loses his Hawaiian identity in homelessness. At the center of the novel is Kenika's learning how to build canoes in the old way, immersing himself in the intricacies of the craft and the religious spirit which attends it. MacMillan takes us into the rich physical and emotional life of his characters in this remarkable novel which transcends four generations and takes us from Hawaii just after World War II to the nineties.