Review: Brutally beautiful.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 11, 2011
Brutally beautiful. As noirishly dark as the deep depths of the Pacific Ocean that spawned them. These stories of the people, places, exploits and exploitations of the islands of the Pacific will haunt you long after you close the book. Important literature for the 21st century. They are stories of tragedy and triumph, genius and depravity. Tales of love and betrayal told in a voice at times as soft and reassuring as the whisper of the sea yet as powerful as a tsunami. There is perhaps no better, nor more important story teller alive, recounting tales of Americas fiftieth state and the people, islands and waters surrounding and embracing her shores.Assassin Orders Peking Duck - The opening story recounts the reactions and fears of Hawai'i after the events of 9/11, by the populace as well as a Navy SEAL. In prose as vivid as a sunset, it is a tale of paranoia fulfilled in a world gone mad.Mysteries Of Rapa Nui - Transports you in a time machine to 1849 when Blackbirders hunted the Pacific Islands for slaves and the means and methods a proud, dying race would go to to protect the few men left, and their way of life on Easter Island. It tells of a clash of cultures, one doomed and the other doomed in their soul.Cannibal Nights, Colonial Afternoons - Recounts the last days of the painter Paul Gauguin and how he comes to understand that it is neither love nor lust that drives him insane, but his art.These and the other stories in Cannibal Nights Pacific Stories Volume II are told in sparse realistic prose, yet the words convey a depth that is somehow poetic. You will feel the power of the sea and the power of the spirits of the people that inhabit the islands. Beautifully brutal and brutally beautiful, Kiana Davenport is a master story teller and chronicler of the deep history, beauty, spirit and emotion of the Pacific Paradise and all her peoples. I've heard Ms. Davenports work described as "Pacific Noir" yet it is so much more than that. Noir conveys a sense of souls lost, and not worth redeeming.  True, these are tales of murder, rape, lust and doomed love. They are tales of greed and exploitation, tales of theft of wealth and innocence. They are stories of loss, but not irredemption. The individuals may be irrevocably lost, a swim in a dark sea, yet their souls, their hearts and dreams are admirable and most definitely will be and are worthy of redemption. Simply put, great literature for the 21st century.