The Descendants
Kaui Hart Hemmings, 2007
Random House
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780812977820
Summary
Fortunes have changed for the King family, descendants of Hawaiian royalty and one of the state’s largest landowners.
Matthew King’s daughters—Scottie, a feisty ten-year-old, and Alex, a seventeen-year-old recovering drug addict—are out of control, and their charismatic, thrill-seeking mother, Joanie, lies in a coma after a boat-racing accident. She will soon be taken off life support.
As Matt gathers his wife’s friends and family to say their final goodbyes, a difficult situation is made worse by the sudden discovery that there’s one person who hasn’t been told: the man with whom Joanie had been having an affair.
Forced to examine what they owe not only to the living but to the dead, Matt, Scottie, and Alex take to the road to find Joanie’s lover, on a memorable journey that leads to unforeseen humor, growth, and profound revelations. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1975
• Where—Hawaii, USA
• Education—B.A., Colordo College; Sarah Lawrence
• Currently—lives in San Fransisco, California
Kaui Hart was born and raised in Hawaii. She attended Colorado College, earning a B.A., and later, Sarah Lawrence College. She was also awarded a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University.
Hemmings first novel, The Descendants, released in 2007, was an expanded version of a story from her 2005 collection, House of Thieves. The novel became a New York Times bestseller, was published in twenty-two other countries and adapted in 2011 as an Oscar-winning film, starring George Clooney.
Her second novel, Possibilities came out in 2014. Her third, the young adult novel Juniors, was published in 2015 and her fourth (adult) novel, How to Party with an Infant, in 2016. Hemmings lives in San Francisco, California. (Adapted from the publisher.)
Book Reviews
The narrator of this audaciously comic debut novel, the scion of the last Hawaiian landowning clan, has floated through his privileged life: marriage to a model given to "speedboats, motorcycles, alcoholism"; children getting into trouble (cocaine, bullying) at elite schools; membership at a century-old beach club that rejects those with "unfavorable pedigrees." But when a catamaran accident leaves his wife in a coma he must wake from his own "prolonged unconsciousness," reacquaint himself with his neglected daughters, and track down his wife’s lover. Meanwhile, his cousins are urging him to sell the family’s vast landholdings for development—to relinquish, in his eyes, the final vestige of their native Hawaiian ancestry. Hemmings channels the voice of her befuddled middle-aged hero with virtuosity, as he teeters between acerbic and sentimental, scoffing at himself even as he grasps for redemption.
The New Yorker
[B]ittersweet.... Matt's journey with his girls forms the emotional core of this sharply observed, frequently hilarious and intermittently heartbreaking look at a well-meaning but confused father trying to hold together his unconventional family.
Publishers Weekly
As smart, perceptive, and evocative as Hemmings' premiere literary offering was, (the superlative short story collection House of Thieves, 2005), her irresistible debut novel is light years beyond.... Evincing a sublimely mature style and beguiling command of theme and setting, Hemmings' virtuoso performance offers a piquantly tender and winsomely comic portrait of a singular family's revealing response to tragedy. —Carol Haggas
Booklist
Hemming's first novel expands on a short story...about a self-consciously privileged Hawaiian family in crisis.... Hemmings pulls off a remarkable feat in making the Kings' sense of loss all the more wrenching for being directed at a woman who was neither a good wife nor a good mother.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. What do you think of Joanie? Is she a harmless thrill-seeker or a well-meaning but self-absorbed mother?
2. At first Matt struggles to engage his daughters in a meaningful way; the family’s shared tragedy eventually brings him closer. How are father-daughter relationships different than those between mothers and daughters?
3. What role does Sid play in this novel? Do you think he impedes or facilitates Matt King’s renewed relationship with his daughters?
4. What do you think of Scottie’s journal? How can you analyze her strange behavior—why do you think she acts out the ways she does?
5. How would you describe Matt as a father? Do you think it’s irresponsible of him to include his kids on the journey to find the man that his wife was having an affair with? How does he evolve over the course of The Descendants?
6. In what ways is the depiction of Alex realistic in terms of the ways teenagers cope with crisis? Were you surprised she was aware of her mother’s infidelity? Do you think young adults more aware of the adult world around them than we give them credit for?
7. Who is at fault for Joanie and Matt’s marriage falling apart?
8. What was unique about the Hawaiian setting of the book and how did it enhance or take away from the story?
9. What specific themes did the author emphasize throughout the novel? What do you think she is trying to get across to the reader?
10. Do the characters seem real and believable to you? Can you relate to their predicaments?
11. Do you believe the Kings will have a better life without Joanie? How do you feel about the ending of this book? How do you picture the family’s future?
12. Did certain parts of the book make you uncomfortable? If so, why did you feel that way? Did this lead to a new understanding or awareness of some aspect of your life you might not have thought about before?
13. In what ways is The Descendants a survival story? A love story? An adventure story?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)