Diamond Head

Summary (from the publisher): At the turn of the nineteenth-century, Frank Leong, a fabulously wealthy shipping industrialist, moves his family from China to the island of Oahu. But something ancient follows the Leongs to Hawaii, haunting them. The parable of the red string of fate, the cord which binds one intended beloved to her perfect match, also punishes for mistakes in love, passing a destructive knot down the family line.

When Frank is murdered, his family is thrown into a perilous downward spiral. Left to rebuild in their patriarch’s shadow, the surviving members of the Leong family try their hand at a new, ordinary life, vowing to bury their gilded past. Still, the island continues to whisper—fragmented pieces of truth and chatter, until a letter arrives two decades later, carrying a confession that shatters the family even further.

Now the Leong’s survival rests with young Theresa, Frank Leong’s only grandchild, eighteen and pregnant, the heir apparent to her ancestors’ punishing knots.

Told through the eyes of the Leong’s secret-keeping daughters and wives and spanning The Boxer Rebellion to Pearl Harbor to 1960s Hawaii, Diamond Head is a breathtakingly powerful tale of tragic love, shocking lies, poignant compromise, aching loss, heroic acts of sacrifice and, miraculous hope.

 

Review: I received an uncorrected proof copy of this novel from HarperCollins.

 

Diamond Head is the story of the Leong family from 1900 to 1964. Frank Leon, grown wealthy from the shipping industry, decides to move his family from China to Hawaii for a fresh start. The title of the novel comes from their new home on the island of Oahu: "There's an ancient volcano unlike anything I've ever seen before, Diamond Head they call it. It's magnificent. An old home to the Hawaiian gods, and soon it will be our home as well" (58). This novel is told through the females of the family, including Frank's wife Lin, Lin's sister-in-law Hong, her daughter-in-law Amy and her granddaughter Theresa.

 

 The family is brought together in 1964 by the death of Frank's son, Bohai, which sparks a series of memories from the different women in the family. Thus the novel is told not in chronological order but in interweaving chapters tracing different members. Each of the women has a different regret. Lin regrets her inability to have children for so many years and her husband's secrets, Amy is haunted by her marriage, and Theresa by her selfish childhood and stupid choices that led to her pregnancy. Although it was difficult to keep up with the chronology of the family's story and at times in the beginning to keep the characters separate, the author does a good job of giving the characters distinct personalities. Additionally, the characters' personalities and concerns reflect the times in which they are living and the historical context well; there's a definite sense that their characters reflect differences between the early years of the twentieth century versus later the 1960s. 

 

A central theme of the novel is the idea that each individual has a destined match and failure to meet this individual has far-reaching consequences. "He says that every man is connected to his destined match by an invisible red string, tied around both their ankles. This string, he says, connects destined lovers, despite time or place or circumstance. It can stretch and tangle, but never can it break" (25). This idea shapes the choices different family members make, and is the answer they find for the cause for their bad luck - knots in the red string of fate.

 

I enjoyed this work of historical fiction, which focuses on a time and place that is more unusual than most historical novels. Death of some characters means a lack of resolution for some issues in the novel, but that seems to mirror life in a realistic manner. I do wish the publishers had picked a less "chick lit" cover art for this novel and had given it something to reflect the high quality writing of this novel.

 

Stars: 4