The Descendants

By: Kaui Hart Hemmings

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Now a major motion picture starring George Clooney!

Matthew King was once considered one of the most fortunate men in Hawaii. His missionary ancestors who came to the islands were financially and culturally progressive - one even married a Hawaiian princess, making Matt a royal descendant and one of the state’s largest landowners. But now his luck has changed. His two daughters are out of control - 10-year-old Scottie has a smart-ass attitude and a desperate need for attention and 17-year-old Alex, a former model, is a recovering drug addict. His thrill-seeking and high-maintenance wife, Joanie, lies in a coma after a boat racing accident, and will soon be taken off life support.

The King family can hardly picture life without their charismatic mother, but as they come to terms with this tragedy, their sadness is mixed with a sense of freedom that shames them - and spurs them into surprising actions.

©2007 Kaui Hart Hemmings. All rights reserved. (P)2010 BBC America Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"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)

"[An] audaciously comic début novel.... 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)

Sad but beautiful

The Descendants is an amazing book. Very similar to the movie but if you’ve seen that this book is still a wonderful journey to go on. Love, loss and betrayal in paradise. A story of a family doing the best they can as they prepare to lose their wife/mom. It’s a meditation on grief and forgiveness that remains funny and fun. Aloha!

Try it, you'll love it!

I came to this novel through watching a trailer for the movie by the same name. We'll have to wait a bit for the movie, but in the meantime, content yourself with this read. As mentioned in the book blurbs, the movie features George Clooney, and after watching some of the scenes unfold, when reading the book, his persona infuses every scene. To the complete advantage of the entire story, I will add.

This novel has that perfectly dissonant blend of humor and grace, of sarcasm and solemnity, and brilliantly handles all those "OMG what do I do now?" moments with unbelievable delicacy and with a moment-by-moment way of working things out. The added base note and a solid character in its own right is the lush ecosystem of the Hawaiian islands and their culture, and the main character's historical and emotional connection to that environment, where his family has lived and prospered for centuries. Not just another family drama in paradise! Read this one, you won't be sorry. And I think you'll enjoy the movie all the more.

Easy listening

I'm finding it hard to write a review without divulging the story. I can say that I think the narrator does a really good job. He appropriately voices with sensitivity and humor, and even the female voices sound natural.

That being said, this might be a case where the movie is more enjoyable than the audiobook. George Clooney - just saying!

Great narration!!!

I saw the movie a while back , but enjoyed the book more. ( although who doesn't like looking at George Clooney). I thought the narrator sounded like George so it was a very enjoyable experience. Good story but darker than we expected when we saw the movie, but knowing the story , it was fun to listen to.

Depressing and sad.

Overall this is a sad story and keeps getting more and more depressing. The lack of parenting skills attributed to the father made me cringe. Once again a father tries to be a friend instead of a parent. In real life this is a recipe for failure. What we come to learn about the mother is very disappointing as well. The only reason I didn't give it a lower rating is that oddly enough, a lot of this book was well written. Too bad the author didn't pick another subject.

Many words mispronounced

So many words we're mispronounced. Couldn't someone have checked on pronunciation of Hawaiian and local words? Has anybody else noticed this?

Left me hanging

Did not like the way it ended.
Or maybe it did not download completely. Also, I did not like the way each chapter was began with a quip from the title of the book.

Not what I expected

OK story but wouldn't recommend. I wanted to hear more about the island and the "descendants " not the sad story of a family gone bad.

Realistic story, bad pronunciation/accents

I love that all the characters are kind of mean. I’m sure this would make them unlikable to some, but it felt very realistic to me. I could see the bad habits of the parents showing up in the kids. Matt is ill-equipped to repair years of programming, but he recognizes the scope and necessity of doing so.

I feel like nobody in Hawai`I acknowledges the problem of ali`i families maintaining the largess they won through ancestry (assuming their family won a war) and, in many cases, sugar cane. Essentially, they profited off the very things that hurt a lot of Hawaiians. I love that this novel sheds some light on the situation, though I doubt anyone from the mainland would understand in a lot of depth.

King seems quite stoic considering what he is going through, which honestly feels realistic. He has to hold it together, so he does to the extent that he is able.

King reflects on the ways he failed in his marriage and implicitly vows not to make the same mistake — not with his daughters and not with his land. I liked his voice.

I think the narrator did a good job of capturing King’s wry, occasionally mean sense of humor. However, he should have spoken with people who have a similar background to King. There is a very specific accent associated with Old Money Hawaiians, and this guy did not nail it. His accent for Sid is recycled from every stoner movie ever. Stoner kids don’t really sound like that on O`ahu.

Others have complained about the pronunciation of Hawaiian words, and it really is appalling. Unlike English, Hawaiian has incredibly straightforward phonetic rules. Considering Hawaiians were forced to give up their language under American rule, the least the narrator could have done is figure out how to pronounce the vowels. Maybe I should just be relieved that they don’t go to Aiea in this story.

Apart from that, the narrator is appropriately expressive and speaks at a good pace. I’m sure he does well enough on other books, but they really should have hired someone from Hawai`i for this one, or mandated accent/pronunciation lessons. Goodness knows Amazon can afford it.

It was beautifully read!

Where does The Descendants rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Well compare to the other books I have listen to this ranks right up there at the top. It matched up to the same flow as when I watched the movie. The mood of each character was brought to life and everyone once in awhile brought a smile to my face.

What does Jonathan Davis bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He really did a great flow of reading the book. I could actually hear the voice of George Clooney as he read his lines! Kudos I look forward to here other books that he has narrated.