MEMORIES, WISHES AND REGRETS

A debut memoir focuses on life in Hawaii.

Lindsey breaks down this book into three sections: Memories, Wishes, and Regrets. The author’s recollections make up the bulk of the work and they arrive in lengths that range from a paragraph to a few pages. Lindsey waxes about everything from his first memory (getting a birthday cake at school) to summer camp in Haena, Kau, in the 1960s. He reflects on the many people he has met. He got to know Earl Bakken, the inventor of the pacemaker. There is his elementary school friend Johnny Hayashi, who died after being stuck under a car. Then there are the author’s ruminations on times past. Places near Lindsey’s hometown of Waimea used to be fairly empty, without the “maddening crowds” of today. Trucks hauling sugar passed through on their way to Kawaihae. The local paperboy delivered papers on horseback. As the author observes, “My how the world has changed.” The portion on Wishes ranges from the practical (“I wish I took care of my health”) to the fantastical (“I wish I could meet Queen Lili’uokalani and converse with her about the 1893 overthrow”). Regrets is the shortest section. It includes a lament that Lindsey never learned how to dance. Unlike a more traditional memoir, the book does not unfold chronologically. The sections are varied and not necessarily grouped by time or place. Readers get bits and pieces without any episode extending for too long. The prose is conversational (Mr. Morikawa “was the best teacher I ever had”) and the entire work is under 60 pages. The result is a swift, if sometimes truncated, portrait of Hawaii. The brevity can be perplexing at times. For instance, the author recalls two Japanese neighbors as “good people I will always remember.” No other specifics are provided. Yet Lindsey still offers an assortment of rich details that add up to an absorbing, personal look at a paradise that has seen many changes over the years.

An engrossing and revealing account of one man’s Hawaiian memories.