Talk about a dysfunctional family. I swear, every character you meet in this book is a nutjob. I recently rented the movie from Amazon Instant Video, and since the service gives me 30 days to start watching it I figured that would give me plenty of time to read the book since it has been in my to-read list for a while now.
To my surprise, I really liked this. That was not what I expected when I first picked it up. The writing was so awkward, made even more jarring by the use of present tense. Not to mention the narrator, a grown man, tells his story like a child -- with short, halting sentences and a seemingly short attention span.
It took me a while to get used to it, but I did, and only after that happened was I able to start enjoying this book. Matt King, our protagonist is the heir to a lot of undeveloped land in his native home of Hawaii because his ancestor married a Hawaiian princess, and now he has to sell. However, the real story is the drama of his family life, which was what got me hooked. Matt's wife Joanie is in a coma and is taken off life support; meanwhile Matt discovers that she may have been having an affair before her accident that put her in the hospital, and together with his two troubled daughters he struggles to find closure and a way to deal with a future without the most important woman in their lives.
A very touching and heartfelt story, and at times humorous and just plain twisted.
