Dangerous Diseases

The breaking news of a man who is currently being detained by the CDC due to the dangerous strain of tuberculosis he carries reminded me of one of my favorite historical fiction novels about Hawaii. Moloka’i by Alan Brennert does not deal with tuberculosis, it explores the even more stigmatizing diagnosis of leprosy, and how that had the power to destroy lives at a point not so long ago in our nation’s history. Rachel Kaluna was 7 years old when she developed odd lesions on her skin where the nerves had died. Her desperate mother consulted a Hawaiian healer in the hope that the authorities wouldn’t find out. When Rachel was betrayed by her own sister’s angry cry of “leper!” it was not long before the little girl is seized from her family and sent to Molokai, the leper colony. The novel explores not only what is was like to grow up, and fall in love on Molokai but also provides a fascinating study of the colony, and what life was like for the exiled men and women. The little community experiences all the breath taking changes of Americans entering the 20^th century as well as some unique to the isolated island. Compelling and poignant, this is a superb piece of historical fiction.