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)

Did not know what to expect

I mentally pictured George Cloonie during this entire book. That raised the enjoyment level quite high.
The story was limited, but the book was enjoyable and simple. Characters were predictable but charming. If you need a pleasant read....Hawaii setting did not hurt.

self reflection

Really great book. It's like looking up one day at your current state in life. Really taking stock of who you are, what you've become, what you've allowed to become and then trying to slowly begin to right the wrongs so that you ultimately end up in a place that's better than you even knew existed. However you had to loose something significant in the process.

An interesting perspective...

I saw the movie last year and have had a while to appreciate the underlying moral of this tale. Listening to the story was startling in some ways. For instance, as an old lady, I was a little shocked at Scottie's precociousness, while at the same time found it totally believable. The young people that I am around today behave much the same as this ten-year-old. Her father, Matthew King, is as shocked as I was, and constantly berates himself for being an absent father. Alex, his older daughter, is world-wise and smart-mouthed as many young teen aged girls are, and it is interesting to watch her develop into a role model for her younger sister as the story evolves.

The mother is lying comatose in Queen's Hospital and the timeline is when the doctor tells Matt that they are going to pull the plug. He has to deal with this, and with other small details, like finding out his wife was cheating on him, and his children are potty-mouthed and spoiled -- you know, the everyday stuff we all go through. But there is another story! I haven't noticed that any other reviewer mentioned this.

The most interesting aspect of the story for me was hearing Matt's turmoil regarding his family's history. We who live in Hawaii are always blaming the missionaries and land-grabbers of long ago, and even today tend to look upon their descendants as entitled S.O.B.s who don't belong here and don't deserve what they "lucked in to". As a descendant of royalty, Matt lives with some notoriety in the community, even though he is of Hawaiian blood. Although he lives only on his own earnings as a lawyer, people behave as though he has bags of cash laying around the house. His own father-in-law berates him because of this. But the truth is -- although he is the trustee of multi-million dollar real estate, he is more or less cash-poor. Now the family has offers to sell the land to out-of-state developers, and money hungry cousins are positioning themselves to receive their portion of the landfall expected by the sale. It's all in Matt's hands. He is the largest shareholder of the trust and he alone determines the disposition of the trust. Does he pave paradise or "malama the `aina" (take care of the land)?

Matt struggles with this decision, one that will surely change the face and fate of the island state. I would like to think that all the descendants of Hawaiian royalty who control lands here in the islands have the heart and soul of Matthew King - Hawaiian man.

Oh yes, and the narrator was not that bad. In fact, I only laughed once when he said, "High-low" for Hilo. It should be HEE-low". The rest of the time he was pretty good. He did his homework.

Loved this book!!!!

I have not seen the movie yet but I loved the book. The story was interesting, the narrator was great and I enjoyed the whole thing. I listened to it twice.

Well-written and funny!

I'd already seen the movie version when I read this book. I am trying to think of some ways that the book is different. It's hard to come up with any. SO, I Googled it! Here's one idea I came up with (see below), but I don't know if I agree with the part about how the movie villainizes Matt's wife. I thought she seemed pretty villainous in the book! I can't really remember how she was different in the movie, frankly. My friend who is teaching this book says that in the movie Julie, the wife, does NOT try to push that one developer as the buyer of the family land that is about to be sold off. I thought she DID do the same in the book and the movie on that point. I guess I need to review the movie!

"The loss of internal narrative always makes the transition from book to movie difficult, and this is no exception. Unlike the novel, the movie virtually villainizes Matt’s wife and paints a far more negative picture of his relationship with her. The novel allows for a much more nuanced version of this story, and this is Hemmings’s most impressive literary feat: she brings to life a character that is comatose for the entire novel. Payne chooses not to do this, and I think this is the major flaw of the film; it makes Matt’s grief a little less complex (if she was such a witch and he was so unhappy, why such a tearful goodbye?), though it makes Alexandra’s anger much more accessible.".... onthedanforth.ca

Excellant narration

I'll have to say that while I liked this book, it was a bit different from what I had expected. I am the one person who lives in a cave and had neither seen the movie, nor knew anything about it before listening to this. So my opinion is based not on seeing the movie first, but on listening to the very sensitively performed narration of Jonathon Davis (perhaps the best feature of this book).

Although there are some lighter moments, I will almost have to say that I felt that the wife's laying dying was not the only tragedy. Possibly the other one was a father having to ask his two daughters' nanny to tell him what sorts do things they liked, and finding out things about them through taking on the parenting role when they are 10 and 17.

What he finds are teens desperately in need of his parenting and attention, but is it already too late? I did not find Matt King to be likable in the beginning, though he grew on me through the book. (But that is good writing.)

The book gets its title, "The Descendants", because of his ancestors (including a Hawaiian princess) who owned some now-valuable land in Hawaii that he is trying to decide whether to sell. It could equally have been called "The Disengaged," based on how so much of the story is about his trying to step into the role of being a parent in the wife's place. To me, that was almost more of a sadness than the wife being in a coma, dying.

This is a good book, in that it totally draws the listener into these lives and conveys this family and their revelations all done through the eyes of the father, who is trying to handle more personal challenges than he has apparently been used to. Even through the first person narrative, he manages to convey his and his daughters' stories and confused lives very well.

A story you can connect with

I’m not sure what to make of this book. I found myself enjoying it despite the fact that I hate pretty much every character in it! A couple of spoiled brats, and absent father, and a stoned boyfriend don’t make for a likable bunch but the story is so well written and engaging I couldn’t help liking it and wanting to read on. The plight they find themselves in is heartbreaking but the journey they take really got me thinking more than a book has in a while.

Even better than the movie!

If you could sum up The Descendants in three words, what would they be?

Touching, Powerful, Humorous

What did you like best about this story?

The emotions it evokes in the reader as you go along on this journey.

Take a chance!

When this movie came out, I didn't think it looked very interesting. Then I came across the novel here in Audible. I had it on my wish list for a very long time, before taking the plunge and spending a credit. I am so happy that I did, because this far exceeded my expectations! I still haven't seen the movie, but I'm definitely going to look for it, as I enjoyed the book so much.

Good book, poor performance

I completely enjoyed this book. Thoughts and feelings well written. My only "spoiler" was the narrative. Several Hawaiian words were mispronounced. Having lived there many years, it didn’t sit well. A Hawaiian descendant wouldn’t do that! EVER!!