DIAMOND HEAD Paperback – March 9, 2016

This book is what I would describe as a legacy novel. It weaves in an out of the lives of all members of a large family over a long span of time. It really gives you a sense of how they and the historical events around them are woven together to create family histories.The audio book is enjoyable and read by several different people making it easier to follow along with the various characters as they present their stories.I would highly recommend this story to lovers of historical fiction, chinese and hawaiian culture, and generational stories about women throughout history. It is a great tale of love, duty, honor, circumstance, pain, happiness, and family. It covers all the bases, and while it may not make you outright laugh very often, it leaves you with a sense of warmth when it is all over.

I believe the theme is choices, secrecy and betrayal. The novel involves the three-generational saga of the wealthy Leong family. The novel begins in 1964 with Amy Chan Leong and her daughter, 19 year-old Theresa preparing to attend the funeral of her late husband, Bohai LeongThe novelist’s writing appeared uninspiring during the opening scenes concerning Bohai’s funeral. I almost lost interest. However, I suggest you not give up. Cecily Wong’s story becomes rich and powerful, as she weaves imagery throughout third person point of view. Family matriarch, Lin Leong, reveals a strong voice in first person point of view. Lin vividly and memorably describes her life prior to and during her marriage to Frank Leong, a wealthy, magnetic and spontaneous businessman. He loved Lin more than any other woman.Wong’s writing revealed Lin had deep feelings and reactions, which were sensitive and heartfelt than Amy when speaking in first person.Like Amy, Lin grew up amid poverty. Lin was an only child whose father operated a ‘greasy spoon’ in China. He often expressed disappointment that Lin was not a male child. He battered her over the slightest annoyance. And her mother chronically complained Lin had damaged her womb during childbirth. But Lin was undaunted, resilient and unafraid of her father’s threats and survived the beatings.It seemed by fate Lin met her husband Frank in her father’s restaurant. During their first meeting, her battered appearance touched internal feelings from Frank’s past. He immediately rescued her for a price. The two became deeply in love, and when Lin could not provide him a child, she elicited a concubine who bore their first son, Bohai.After the Boxers Rebellion, World I War appeared imminent. A respected, high-leveled businessman, Frank, remained neutral selling tanks and guns to the Brits and the Germans. Yet he became uncomfortable with the clouds of change on the horizon. So, he and his family, including his late brother’s wife, Hong, migrated to Oahu, Hawaii, in the early 1900s. Bohai was five years old. There, Frank built a home for Lin to her specifications, and there, in Hawaii, Lin gave birth to a son, Kapai. The Leong’s had a happy marriage and family life in Hawaii.Years later, Lin discovered Amy for her son, Bohai, a brilliant, but shy and retiring young man, with an uneventful life. A marriage contract between families than individuals was probably still in effect in mainland China, but Amy had been born in Hawaii and did not speak Chinese, nor was she interested in marrying a Leong. She believed in the red string of fate, that two people connected by the red thread are destined lovers, regardless of place, time, or circumstances; a cord that stretches or tangles, but never breaks. She was in love with her fiancé, William, an electrical engineer, who was in the U. S. Army.Amy and her 10 siblings lived with their parents in a one room basement apartment in Honolulu. Her father, a photographer, spent most of his time in his studio in Waikiki. He ignored his burgeoning family. He believed his art was not about money and provided no excuses or felt ashamed when he made no money. He escaped the family daily. Yet Amy’s mother, Iris, could not escape, and realized too late the choice she had made; her marriage was never forged, never a great bond.Amy decided not to make the same choice her mother had made. She wanted a better, more influential life, even if she sacrificed love with William for Bohai. Bohai, a shy man, loved her deeply, and expressed it in so many ways. I could not understand Amy’s lack of candidness, and how she could spend two decades with her loving and loyal husband, and never experienced emotional intimacy with him.In first person point of view, Theresa Leong, 19 years-old, pregnant and unmarried, appeared as a weak, spoiled, entitled, young woman, who disliked her mother, Amy. It was difficult to connect with Theresa, whom I dubbed inconsequential, in this family of strong women.The surprise twists and turns are revealed in the secrets and betrayal that emerge in the Leong family, which begins with Frank. His fate, death by poisoning, was uneventful.I enjoyed reading this book, which provided brief excerpts of history concerning the Boxer Rebellion, Chinese culture and superstition. My favorite character was Lin Leong.I thought the writing exceptional. I enjoyed the quote by Hong Leong: “Sometimes, we are distracted by fate. So much, sometimes, that we lose our chance at destiny.”

I probably should have known that this novel that purports to be a multi-generational family epic was going to fall a bit short when I noticed that the page count was just over 300. To really do justice to a story like the one Cecily Wong is trying to tell, she would have needed about another 200 pages at least. When we meet the Leong family in mid-1960s Hawaii, they are gathered for a funeral. Bohai, son of Frank and Lin, husband to Amy, and father to Theresa, has died. Despite the family’s wealth and glamour, things are amiss. Patriarch and shipping magnate Frank Leong is long dead, Lin hasn’t been seen in public in over a decade, Amy is withdrawn and disconnected, and teenage Theresa is heavily pregnant. Each woman’s story is told and examined through the lens of Chinese folklore around the “red string of fate” that connects lovers. Besides the relatively abbreviated page length, there are some other structural issues that set the book back, including the choice to tell the women’s stories through short alternating chapters and inconsistent use of first and third person, which can make it challenging to keep track of which narrative is which. And each of the women feels a little stock, a little flat, more “types” than people. I feel like there’s a really powerful story about generational trauma and the power of maternal love that could have come out of this, but while it’s decently-written and reasonably compelling it never gets there.

This book was by far one of the most creative and entrancing non-fiction publications I have read in a very long time. I never wanted to put Diamond Head down. A page turner and by far one of the most intelligent books I have ever had the pleasure of reading. The cultural references and respect for the Chinese culture was fascinating. The weaving of multi-generations is clever and wickedly enticing. Genius writing. Pure Genius. Highly recommended for those that want to escape into a an old Hawaiian world and time lapse through an amazing family bond. Wish I could give it more stars!

OH MY! I didn't know what to expect when I chose this book. I have always liked family sagas but this surpassed my expectations. An exceptional book that I sat up way into the night to finish and was then wishing it would continue. 4 1/2 stars would be my choice but 4 will have to do. I only give 5 stars to books that I think will survive eternity and this was not that but a very entertaining and thought provoking book. The characters spoke to me and I could feel their pain and sadness as all family members experience some time in this life.If you like family dynamics and intrigue, then this is the book worthy of the read.