ALOHA

This picks up the thread of that autobiography of youth on a Hawaiian ranch, Born in Paradise (DSP and Literary Guild selection -- 1940) -- and carries on to her marriage and the mainland. With the death of her father, she and her younger brother and sister went to the states, wandered the West, lived on a Navajo Reservation -- and there she met Bill, who was to divorce his wife and marry her. The little family return to the islands and run a phenomenally successful guest ranch. And Armine -- waiting news of Bill's freedom -- teaches school in unorthodox but successful fashion, until she finds that Bill has reneged. Then, seeking escape from heartbreak, she travels, runs a stable, publishes her first book, seeks a chaperone for the ranch, and finally finds the man she eventually marries... The story has much of the quality of the earlier book, in the charm of the islands and the life there, the delight in the days and the contrast of low moments. There's not quite the freshness of Born in Paradise -- and there's the same tendency to lushness, over-effusiveness, that mars the whole.