![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The risk and extremities of romantic relationships, the search for a lost homeland, and the violence of families trying to protect their children, are recurring themes in the 720 page tome, which spans three centuries and takes place in an alternate reality, where people are free to love whoever they choose, men can marry men and women can marry women, but racial and class differences still prevail.ĭavid narrates his experience of living in a projected paradise, Lipo-wao-nahele, in a letter to his son, who is named after him and also called the Hawaiian version of the name, Kawika. In Hanya Yanagihara’s To Paradise, David, the forgotten king of Hawaii, seeks refuge in a make-believe paradise, a slip of useless land on the edge of the blue ocean, where “the waves lapped against the shore, and withdrew, again and again.” The land is a respite from the stagnancy and trauma of David’s life, the circular stillness of provincial existence on the island, but most of all, it is the chance to be with Edward, a companion who is never clearly defined as a lover or a friend, and is the only person outside of David’s family with whom he has had a lasting, formative relationship. ‘To Paradise’ by Hanya Yanagihara Penguin Random House ![]()
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