The Brown Bag group will meet at 1 pm on Wednesday March 6th at Middlebury Public Library at 199 Park Road Extension.
The book to be discussed is "Moloka'i" by Alan Brennert
"Brennert's sweeping debut novel tracks the grim struggle of a Hawaiian woman who
contracts leprosy as a child in Honolulu during the 1890s and is deported to the
island of Moloka'i, where she grows to adulthood at the quarantined settlement
of Kalaupapa. Rachel Kalama is the plucky, seven-year-old heroine whose family
is devastated when first her uncle Pono and then she develop leprous sores and
are quarantined with the disease. While Rachel's symptoms remain mild during her
youth, she watches others her age dying from the disease in near total isolation
from family and friends. Rachel finds happiness when she meets Kenji Utagawa, a
fellow leprosy victim whose illness brings shame on his Japanese family. After a
tender courtship, Rachel and Kenji marry and have a daughter, but the birth of
their healthy baby brings as much grief as joy, when they must give her up for
adoption to prevent infection. The couple cope with the loss of their daughter
and settle into a productive working life until Kenji tries to stop a
quarantined U.S. soldier from beating up his girlfriend and is tragically killed
in the subsequent fight. The poignant concluding chapters portray Rachel's final
years after sulfa drugs are discovered as a cure, leaving her free to abandon
Moloka'i and seek out her family and daughter. Brennert's compassion makes
Rachel a memorable character, and his smooth storytelling vividly brings early
20th-century Hawaii to life. Leprosy may seem a macabre subject, but Brennert
transforms the material into a touching, lovely account of a woman's journey as
she rises above the limitations of a devastating illness". Video courtesy of jackburton800
