Book

George Kahumoku, Jr. is well known as a Grammy Award winning musician. He’s also legendary for his stories, often based on the fine line between his very traditional Hawaiian upbringing and modern Western cultural values. Never afraid to take a crazy risk for something important to him, he’s led a life filled with incidents always interesting, sometimes exciting, and quite often outrageously funny. In this second book of stories, we learn more about what makes him who he is.

A HAWAIIAN LIFE

“Sometimes it’s hard for the native Hawaiian to live in the regular world” – but not for George!

Author George Kahumoku, Jr. offers one of the most sensitive and entertaining memoirs of his life that not only explores his Hawaiian heritage and pathway to fame as a musician, but also shares his life crises and resilience that invites the reader to reflect and grow. This radiant book is presented in stories, accompanied by the author’s own drawings, that trace his childhood (his near death drowning as an infant), the early years of discovery of music performance as a career, and all the sidebars of surviving testicular cancer and an aneurysm that threatened his ability to return to the guitar!

The rhythmical quality of the author’s prose is well suggested in the following excerpt from one of his stories: “Eventually I got over the asthma, but by then I had found out about the world outside of the islands, other peoples, other cultures. Each book I read would take me to a whole new place. I knew there was a vast and different world out there. I especially like some of the old Japanese art books. They taught my mind to be creative….In learning the ways of the old language, I learned also of the rest of the world. It was the beginning of a long journey that would take me to the Americas, Asia, Europe and Australia…”

While the world knows well of George’s musical career, bringing the joys of Hawaiian music universally, in this fascinating collection of memories we learn of the depth of his impact on understanding Hawaiian traditions and beliefs and the importance of understanding others. For example, in accepting both chemotherapy and native Hawaiian healing traditions, “I believe that just as I’m a product of two different cultures, I can be influenced and cured by both.”

George Kahumoku now fulfills a life dream of teaching children, and fortunate are those who encounter his gifts as an artist, a musician, a champion of resilience, and a moderator of world cultures. Highly recommended

Grady Harp, Top 100 Hall of Fame Amazon Reviewer