"Kilometer 99," by Tyler McMahon (St. Martin’s Press, $15.99)
This suspenseful novel set in El Salvador in 2001 opens with a Hawaii-born engineer, Malia, tucking into a long barrel. In a nice touch, the wave closes up on her, foreshadowing the more violent events to come.
Nicknamed "Chinita" by the locals because "I’m small, Asian and female," Malia is in love with fellow Peace Corps volunteer Ben. After a devastating earthquake strikes, Ben wants to bail and go on a surf safari. Malia asks herself, "What’s a decent person supposed to do when confronted with a fallen world?"
Further conflict arrives when her ex-boyfriend Alex shows up, his commitment as a Red Cross worker strengthened by the quake. But Alex has a dark side.
McMahon’s characters are realistically rife with contradictions and reminiscent of the idealistic, hapless Norteamericanos in novels by the late great Robert Stone.
"What You Will on Capitol Hill," by Richard Tillotson (Arlington Avenue Books, $14.95)
A lively ensemble — a professor, a billionaire, a slam poet, a Hungarian diplomat, an actress and others — pursues political agendas and one another in this entertaining novel patterned after Shakespeare’s comedies with echoes of "Gilligan’s Island."
It opens with a staging of "Twelfth Night" in which actor Jonathan performs for an influential crowd that includes members of Congress such as "Senator Connor, discreetly passing gas in C-8."
Rollicking adventures ensue as Jonathan falls in love with Karen, a peace activist, and together with the help of the professor (a Shakespeare scholar), they recruit a motley crew to get legislation cutting the military budget past the senator.
Bravo to this much ado about something.
"An Aura of Greatness: A Reflection on Governor John A. Burns," by Brendan P. Burns (Aignos Publishing, $15.95)
A timely and touching revisiting of the legacy of the former Hawaii congressman and governor, written by his grandson, salutes not only the visionary John A. Burns, but how he felt about the state and its people.
To Burns, achieving equal social and economic opportunity required not only political and educational, but individual attitudinal change. A champion of the political aims of Japanese-American veterans of World War II, Burns in his 1969 State of the State speech famously asked all Hawaii citizens to reject the "subtle inferiority of the spirit" fostered by the plantation system.
The former policeman and military officer, born in Montana and raised in Kalihi, had made the upward climb he encouraged in others.
Brendan Burns, principal of Aina Haina Elementary School, reminds us that the late governor had a dream of Hawaii as the Athens of the Pacific governed by its diverse people.
With a foreword by former Gov. George Ariyoshi, "An Aura of Greatness" includes many photos of Burns with his family and other political leaders.
