First Impression Friday will be a meme where you talk about a book that you JUST STARTED! Maybe you’re only a chapter or two in, maybe a little farther. Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end.

Synopsis:

This sensational debut story collection follows a cast of mixed native Hawaiian and Japanese women through a contemporary landscape thick with inherited wisdom and the hosts of colonisation.

A childhood encounter with a wild pua’a (pig) on the haunted Pali highway portends one young woman’s fraught relationship with her pregnant body. An elderly widow begins seeing her deceased lover in a giant flower. A kanaka writer, mid-manuscript, feels the raw pages quaking and knocking in the briefcase.

Every Drop Is a Man’s Nightmare is both a fierce love letter to Hawaiian identity and mythology, and a searing dispatch from an occupied territory threatening to erupt with violent secrets.

Happy Friday everyone! Just like that, we are already two work weeks into 2024. To echo my officemate’s sentiment wow, it is already January 12. It still feels like it was just yesterday when we welcomed the new year. Ironically, the first day of the year feels like ages ago. Anyway, how has the year been so far? I know it is too early but how has your year been so far? I hope that it has been good. Otherwise, I hope you experience a reversal of fortune in the coming weeks. I hope that the rest of the year will be brimming with good news and blessings. I hope that everyone hits their target this year. More importantly, I hope everyone will be healthy, in body, mind, and spirit, during the rest of the year and in the coming year.

Following two prolific reading years in a row – I completed 2022 and 2023 with over 100 books each – I am looking forward to another prolific reading journey this 2024. I have several amazing titles lined up this year. There are a lot of titles I have been looking forward to that I intend and resolve to read this year. More than having another record-breaking year, I hope that 2024 will provide me a memorable and excitable journey across the world of literature. Kicking off this reading journey is a catchup of books released in 2022 and 2023 that I was not able to read in the years they were published. My current read, while published in 2023, is not one I expected to pick up.

During a random trip to the bookstore to purchase a book I could start reading, I came across Megan Kamalei Kakimoto’s Every Drop Is a Man’s Nightmare. The book’s cover and title were more than enough to capture my interest. Had I checked the synopsis, I would have known that it was a collection of short stories. You see, I have an aversion to short story collections, hence, the scarcity of short story collections in my reading list. It was only after I started reading the book did it hit me that it was a short story collection. Oh well. There is no way I am going to back out reading the book.

Another reason why I still pursued the book is because it captures a place that I rarely visited, at least in the world of literature. The setting of the stories captured my attention. The only times I can recall reading stories set in Hawaiʻi were in Hanya Yanagihara’s To Paradise and David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. However, I am pretty sure several other books I read were set in the 50th state of the United States of America. My curiosity was further piqued by the book’s opening pages which featured “A Catalogue of Kānaka Superstitions, as Told by Your Mother.” This, I felt, somehow set my expectations of the book.

Further, the first story which banners the book’s title, immediately grabbed my attention. It was heavily laced with cultural elements. Crossing the Pali highway with leftover pork – a kālua – in tow, the young Sadie caught herself a lifelong curse from a magical creature who is half man and half pig. But how could she have known? As one elder bemoans, “No one tells the old tales anymore.” The curse was akin to blood that dripped all throughout Sadie’s life until she got pregnant. However, she gave birth to a mini puaʻa. This is, in a way, the coming into full circle of Pele’s vengeance.

The first story seems to set the tone for the rest of the collection. It was laden with themes of womanhood and sexuality. Several details of mythology and culture enriched the story. I can tell that this will be the pattern in the succeeding stories. The smell of food wafted across the nearly 40-page story. Lumpia was among the several foods mentioned in the story, highlighting how the island is a melting pot of different cultures; Kakimoto, I surmise, has Japanese blood. Every Drop Is a Man’s Nightmare is a collection of idyllic and atmospheric stories and is a homage to Hawaiʻi.

Further building on the exploration of Hawaiʻian mythology was the second story, Story of Men. The titular Men is Menehune, another mythological creature. Men abruptly entered a family home and decided to stay with the occupants. Men, while an intruder, was welcomed by the family she chose to stay with. However, the occupants asked her not to hurt them. Not only was the story underlining cultural elements but it also subtly wove the subject of colonialism into the book’s lush tapestry. This is a further nod to the island’s long history with colonialism; technically, it is still a colonized island.

I am currently reading the fourth story, Madwomen. As expected, it explored similar subjects already explored in the earlier stories. I do expect that the exploration of sexuality and identity will be recurring themes, and so will the exploration of the role of women in both the traditional and modern sense. While the stories sound local – the usage of dialect reminds the readers of the stories’ setting – the messages the stories carry reverberate to a universal audience. Women dominated the stories and their plights are concerns many can relate to.

I am looking forward to finishing the other stories over the weekend. By the way, I must say that Kakimoto’s writing is riveting. It has the right amount of lyrical and magical. This makes it easier for me to appreciate the stories. How about you fellow reader? What book or books are you taking with you for the weekend? I hope you get to enjoy them. Again, happy weekend everyone!