Blue Skin of the Sea

by Graham Salisbury

        This first novel, which takes place on Hawaii between 1953 and 1966, strings together a collection of short stories to form a rare and exquisite narrative necklace. At its center sits Sonny Mendoza, descendant of Portuguese fishermen living in the tiny village of Kailua-Kona. As the book begins, Sonny lives with his aunt, uncle and cousin Keo, since his widowed father is too busy to look after a young son. The book’s eleven tales follow Sonny and his cousin through a world of dazzling beauty, powerful family ties, and vivid characters: Aunty Pearl, a full blooded Hawaiian as regal as the queens of old; cool Jack, from L.A., who starts a gang and dares Sonny to be brave enough, cruel enough, to join; mysterious Melanie, who steals his heart; and Deeps, the shark hunter.

        But the most memorable character is the sea itself: inviting, unpredictable, deadly. Mendoza men are brave men, but Sonny's courage is of a different kind. Indeed, the unifying thread running through Sonny's youth is his inexplicable fear of the sea, which is finally resolved when he confronts a buried memory of near-drowning. Learning to swim, seeing death firsthand, exchanging a short-lived but passionate series of love letters, facing a bully--Sonny's adventures defy encapsulation without sounding diminished. The incidents together, however, create an extraordinary mood, distilling the most powerful and universal experiences of adolescence. Salisbury draws on his own youth in the Hawaiian islands to locate these seminal moments in a landscape that, even as the action progresses, disappears in the face of encroaching resort development.

Links:

Author's Site: http://www.grahamsalisbury.com/

NoveList Page: http://web.ebscohost.com.oh0248.oplin.org/novelist/detail?vid=14&hid=106&sid=73b655e0-0a9e-4aeb-8e01-55d69645e355%40sessionmgr108&bdata=JnNpdGU9bm92ZWxpc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d

Other Sites: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/627829.Blue_Skin_of_the_Sea

                    http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/lit_resources/authors/interviews/GrahamSalisbury.html