This is the perfect book to read if you're in or around the village of Volcano, Hawaii. And I am not being facetious. I took this book with me on a trip to the Islands, knowing I would be staying about 20 miles from Volcano. The author immerses you in the environment, and you can certainly appreciate his descriptions much more if you have some familiarity with the environment yourself, its ecology and dynamic geology.

That being said, what makes this book much more interesting than a simple guidebook or textbook is that it's actually the story of a family, of the author trying to reconnect with his ancestral roots as a Japanese-American born in Hawaii. As such, there is also much humanity here. And as a poet, Garrett Hongo is able to tie family, ecology, geology, and identity all together.

It's a journey and the last words are beautiful. ( )

Hard to get into this book at first. Lots of detail, long sentences, lots of metaphor and musings included in descriptions that got me a bit lost. However, this is a fantastic book, with the heart and soul of the Big Island included. The family stories, some half-imagined and reconstructed from incomplete and evasive information, are SO hawaiian. The author has made an important contribution to hawaii's story, as one who is an 'insider' but with an outsider's perspective. ( )

Like West of Then by Tara Bray Smith, Volcano is about the author's search for something. Interestingly enough, both authors suffer from abandonment issues and both return to Hawaii for resolution. While Smith's search is more tangible (she is looking for her actual mother), Hongo's is more spiritual. He has ghosts in the form of memories he must confront in the mists of Hilo. Like Smith's story, Hongo's is meandering and seemingly without plot or purpose. However, one of the magical elements to Hongo's book is it is obvious he is a poet. His writing is lyrical and fairly dances off the page. He doesn't have to have character, drama or even plot for his writing to be beautiful and entertaining. ( )