Issues and response1968

“Objects are closer than they appear.” Lee A. Jacobus tips his writer’s side-view mirror to reflect an intimate and unexpected view of life in paradise. Set in the islands of Hawaii, Hawaiian Tales: The Girl with Heavenly Eyes looks beyond the surface lives of tourists and retirees, natives and transplants, to the joys and mysteries within. By turns tender, amusing, and pleasantly unsettling—but always intriguing—these short stories plant us firmly in a magical tropical landscape. Hawaiian Tales: The Girl with Heavenly Eyes not only entertains and enlightens—which is what you want from stories set against the backdrop of seductive, complex Hawaii—but also provokes and mesmerizes. Readers . . . will fall in love with the characters and remember them long after they close the cover of this enchanting and original work. —Gina Barreca [A] splendid collection . . . Jacobus’s insightful examination of his characters’ lives and aspirations is matched by his evocative use of language and the deft architecture of his storytelling. I closed the book with a better understanding of the costs, as well as the dividends, of life in this exotic Pacific paradise. —Wally Lamb