Helen's Book Blog: Review: The Color of Air by Gail Tsukiyama

Title: The Color of Air

Author: Gail Tsukiyama

Year published: 2021

Category: Adult fiction

Pages: 320 pages

Rating: 4 out of 5

Location: (my 2025 Google Reading map): USA (HI)

Summary: Daniel Abe, a young doctor in Chicago, is finally coming back to Hawai'i. He has his own reason for returning to his childhood home, but it is not to revisit the past, unlike his Uncle Koji. Koji lives with the memories of Daniel’s mother, Mariko, the love of his life, and the scars of a life hard-lived. He can’t wait to see Daniel, who he’s always thought of as a son, but he knows the time has come to tell him the truth about his mother, and his father. But Daniel’s arrival coincides with the awakening of the Mauna Loa volcano, and its dangerous path toward their village stirs both new and long-ago passions in their community.

Review: I am a fan of Gail Tsukiyama's books (see my reviews: The Language of Threads; Women of the Silk; The Street of a Thousand Blossoms; Night of Many Dreams), and her novel The Samurai's Garden is one of my all-time favorites.

This one was good, but I am giving it a 4, not the 4.5 or 5 that I usually rate her novels. What worked for me was the setting: Hilo, Hawai'i, the beach, the sugar plantations, and the volcano all create a vivid picture under Tsukiyama's prose. I could feel the humidity and the smoke from the erupting volcano.

The characters were also well done and I liked them. Daniel is so caring and kind, it's obvious that coming home is the right decision even if it brings up long-burried questions. Koji is someone that my heart goes out to as he helps all those around him while not fulfilling his own dreams. The women are the connecting threads between these two men, keeping them in their place, loving them, and ensuring that they are not forgotten.

So why a 4? Plot. I needed more. But that's on me. If you like a character-driven novel, you'll really enjoy this one.

Challenges for which this counts: