The Other Side of Paradise

I just returned from spending some time in Hawaii. And while there, I discovered the work of Chris McKinney. While browsing through the bookstore, I picked up his novel The Tattoo. Originally published by Soho Press, the version I bought was released by local Hawaiian company Mutual Publishing. In The Tattoo, Ken Hideyoshi tells his life's story while getting a large tattoo from his cellmate in Halawa Prison. His life is about violence and crime and destructive behaviors and all kinds of things that the tourist boards don't ever publicize. Most notable about the book is McKinney's recording of the local dialects and pidgin speech patterns.

Waiting for an inter-island flight, I found myself in a bookstore again. I picked up a book called Bolohead Row and was suprised to see the author was once again Chris McKinney. This time, McKinney returns to the hostess bars, strip joints, and massage parlors of Honolulu to focus on a troubled family. Charlie works at a local convenient store, Mark supports himself selling characters and weapons from an online game on eBay, and Winnie is fresh out of prison and causing trouble.

Both books are enjoyable, engaging reads about a way of life that isn't shown in the postcards and hotel commercials.