A Legacy of Bones
In 1847, the Reverend Amyas Lathrop bought Kaumaha from King Kamehameha III, who thought it a great joke to sell a cursed island to the foreign interloper. Hawaiians subsequently settled on the island. In the present day, Amyas’s descendant Ogden Lathrop has entered into a contract to sell the island, but his family and the other inhabitants of the island aren’t in favor, and the dispute has been sent to arbitration.
The arbitration process raises issues regarding the consequences of colonialism. The sale is not the only thing that becomes the subject of arbitration; the continued presence of a statue of Amyas on top of a historical artifact predating Hawaiian settlement is also hotly contested. The novel does an excellent job of showing the complexity of the issues, and the wonderfully drawn Mrs. Te Papa, an expert on Hawaiian culture and one of the arbitrators, is a marvelous guide. The tone is never didactic, as all of the issues are grounded in the outlooks and needs of
the characters. The story takes seriously the idea of the island being inhabited by supernatural beings, as the character of Mr. Po, who opens the novel, is sensitive to their emanations, and he periodically appears to give updates about how those beings are responding to events as they unfurl. None of the action of the novel, however, takes place in the 19th century. Instead, the past is mainly illuminated by a diary kept by Amyas Lathrop. As a result, it’s hard to categorize this as a historical novel.
A Legacy of Bones is a well-written novel full of mysteries and intrigue that provides valuable insights into the settlement of Hawaii and the consequences of colonialism to families, communities, and individuals.
