kerry reviewed The Lion in the Lei Shop by Tanya Eby
Review of 'The Lion in the Lei Shop' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Picked up as an Amazon freebie. Thought the story would focus more on Honolulu immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor; instead, the events unfolded through the point of view of a few characters in an isolated military community. I was jolted by several racist comments (to be expected, I suppose, given the time period).
Events are told from the alternating perspectives of a military wife and her five-year-old daughter. This was an interesting technique to illustrate how memories of the same events are perceived by different people. It's hard to say which version was "right"; although a reader may tend to discount the child's version because of her age, the mother was so preoccupied that her version may not be completely correct either.