SONG OF THE EXILE

In this novel about a Hawaiian-American family during WWII, author Kiana Davenport explores the way Hawaiian cultural identity clashes and melds with individual identity to guide the fortunes of the far-flung Meahuna family. The story ranges from Paris jazz clubs to Honolulu's wartime beaches to a forgotten Pacific island, where one of the characters becomes a Japanese officer's "comfort woman." Narrator McMurdo-Wallis's deep, rhythmical voice matches the sensual style of the story. Though at times her reading seems uninflected--one wants more variation in pitch during the story's crises--that may be more a quibble with the book's determinedly meditative pace than the narrator's work. McMurdo-Wallis swings with the book's slow jazz rhythm, and a listener just needs to let go and follow the riff. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC/JAN 01]