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"delicious . . . adj. 1. Highly pleasing or agreeable to the senses, especially of taste or smell. 2. Very pleasant; delightful: a delicious revenge" (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language). By the second meaning, the title is dead on. Using a Hawaiian setting for a witty, over-the-top conflict between mainlanders (haoles) and natives, the novel is certainly a pleasant, delightful page-turner. It begins with a teaser, "The End of the Story," that recounts a little case of preparing an imu to roast two male haoles, each with a couple of bullet holes in his chest. Once the meat is well done, one of the two cooks, out of plain curiosity, can't resist sneaking a taste, while the other reflects on whether Oahu has not ceased being a paradise. From that point, off the reader goes on a maniacal and more than slightly perverted quest to discover who the dead men were, who killed them, and why. The basic conflict that propels the plot is simple. A mainland catering company wants to horn in on a native business operation. Into the resulting struggle are drawn 13 individuals, two women and 11 men. There are the three directors of the Honolulu-based catering firm: a father, son, and nephew combination. Joseph, the nephew, is becoming restive, wanting to turn his back on the islands and move to New York. His girlfriend, however, defiantly teaches the Hawaiian language and culture in an attempt to turn back the clock and regain the paradise she feels they lost. Against them come the mainland caterers, a horny old codger with a perpetual erection and his stuffy and totally asexual son, who deserts him to join the Church of the Latter Day Saints. Then there is the advance crew of a film company: a gay, who is seeking revenge through sexual one-upmanship on his two-timing mate, and his new age secretary, a wallflower who blossoms into an exotically androgynous character as the result of meeting a native pimp with a heart of gold. The other three characters are hitmen with very different personalities. Does it sound confusing? Well, the characters themselves are often befuddled by the rapid turn of events, but to the author's great credit, the reader has absolutely no trouble keeping up. The desire to know what is going to happen propels the reader along. Intermingled with the madcap events, however, are also some pretty serious topics. The power of sex produces most of the guffaws. In particular, Joseph is befuddled by his uncle's, his cousin's, and his girlfriend's insistence that he should sleep with the gay producer in order to secure the catering contract. But equally important is the question, What happens when Eden is lost? The novel observes that the infinite possibilities include changes of all sorts. Among them is death itself, as three characters discover, two of them providing the bodies with which the novel begins. Then there is the first part of the definition for "delicious." Near the very end one discovers the precise, quite unexpected, and very witty reason for the novel's title. In fact, the only mystery the author never explains is the dustjacket. I have no idea what the significance of the very red lips and tongue is. I do have a confession to make: I had to start the novel twice. But once I got to rolling along, I liked it so much that, as soon as I finished, I went online to order the author's earlier work, MOIST (published in 2002). It seems there the hero falls in love with the woman depicted in a tattoo on a severed limb that arrives at his pathology lab, an arm that a Mexican gangster is also after, while the hero's ex-girlfriend, a masturbation coach, falls for the detective in the case . . . .
Reviewed by Drewey Wayne Gunn, October 2005
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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