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The Floating City
When a body mysteriously washes up on the shore of Hawaii in the 1890s, Eva Hanson, a caucasian women living among island natives, becomes embroiled in the social and political maelstrom swirling around the islands. 20,000 first printing.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
January 31, 2022
“The Floating City”, is set in Hawaii at the end of the 19th century, during the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy.
The year is 1895….
We follow a young twenty- five-year old Norwegian-caucasian woman
— recent immigrant —Eva Hanson, living along side with the natives.
Eva, is a fortuneteller, (perhaps somewhat shady one at that)…. but murderer?
She’s living under a stolen name.
She discovers the body of a dead man floating in the water along the beach.
Having few friends and no family with her, she becomes an easy scapegoat for the ‘murder’.
With no allies, Eva gets caught up in a land scheme that threatens both her and the islands themselves.
The destruction of Hawaiian monarchy is driven by greed. Corruption is rampant.
Like in James Michener’s book, Hawaii, which I read last December… “The Floating City” is a great bookend.
The whites have taken over Hawaii with the help of a United States marines —
Eva gets caught up in the rebellion of the native Hawaiians against their oppressors.
At the beginning of each chapter of the crime fiction,
the author, Pamela Ball, begins with a short vignette, revealing historical details of the turbulent period —
Politically charged with many secrets, opium addicts, drunk-smashed soldiers, prostitution, and leaper catchers…..
The history then comes alive with the main story — with our mysterious protagonist. Eva.
A haunting examination of a world that had gone mad — forgotten history— brutalized by war…..disturbing shameful history…
but Pamela Ball makes learning about these times accessible with her multifaceted characters, great dialogue, a little romance, exposing the cruelty from when one culture thrusts their will upon another.
This is a wonderfully written historical crime novel.
In just 260 pages Pamela Ball did what James Michener did in 1400 pages…..
This was my first book that I read by Pamela Ball.
Her prose is lucid, evocative, intense….
also it was very endearing having a fortuneteller as our heroine.
I liked it!
Thank you to Tara for putting this book and Pamela Ball on my radar.
4.5 rating up.
The year is 1895….
We follow a young twenty- five-year old Norwegian-caucasian woman
— recent immigrant —Eva Hanson, living along side with the natives.
Eva, is a fortuneteller, (perhaps somewhat shady one at that)…. but murderer?
She’s living under a stolen name.
She discovers the body of a dead man floating in the water along the beach.
Having few friends and no family with her, she becomes an easy scapegoat for the ‘murder’.
With no allies, Eva gets caught up in a land scheme that threatens both her and the islands themselves.
The destruction of Hawaiian monarchy is driven by greed. Corruption is rampant.
Like in James Michener’s book, Hawaii, which I read last December… “The Floating City” is a great bookend.
The whites have taken over Hawaii with the help of a United States marines —
Eva gets caught up in the rebellion of the native Hawaiians against their oppressors.
At the beginning of each chapter of the crime fiction,
the author, Pamela Ball, begins with a short vignette, revealing historical details of the turbulent period —
Politically charged with many secrets, opium addicts, drunk-smashed soldiers, prostitution, and leaper catchers…..
The history then comes alive with the main story — with our mysterious protagonist. Eva.
A haunting examination of a world that had gone mad — forgotten history— brutalized by war…..disturbing shameful history…
but Pamela Ball makes learning about these times accessible with her multifaceted characters, great dialogue, a little romance, exposing the cruelty from when one culture thrusts their will upon another.
This is a wonderfully written historical crime novel.
In just 260 pages Pamela Ball did what James Michener did in 1400 pages…..
This was my first book that I read by Pamela Ball.
Her prose is lucid, evocative, intense….
also it was very endearing having a fortuneteller as our heroine.
I liked it!
Thank you to Tara for putting this book and Pamela Ball on my radar.
4.5 rating up.
August 30, 2021
I just adore Pamela Ball's writing and both of her books, Lava and now this one. I think, in fact, I loved this one even more. Ball's sentences are a marvel, her intelligence is in evidence, and her command of the history and flora and fauna of Hawaii is remarkable. She has a way of describing people, too, which is the mark of a highly observant writer.
I think this book may have been published at the wrong time (2002). I think people would have been more open to it these days, reading about the tragedy of U.S. involvement and its overtaking of the islands and the destruction of a people and their way of life. Ball even mentions that Hawaiians have heard of what happened to the Sioux tribe in the States and are worried that they too will be put into reservations, or camps. She weaves in historical vignettes that illuminate the novel's story and structure, so that we craftily learn some history to bring us up to speed to the events happening NOW, 1895 Oahu.
Some parallels to modern times: Newspapers in the hands of the conquerors printing false news to spread what they want spread abroad; outlandish rumors spread to vilify the Hawaiian queen, such as the notion that she eats puppies; laws passed to not allow Hawaiians to own land or to vote.
The narrator is a woman fleeing Norway, who takes on the identity of another woman who dies on the ship, Eva Hanson:
"She wondered at her naivete in taking the identity of a complete stranger. . . . People are only capable of taking a few steps from the self they have so eagerly discarded."
She lands on Oahu with this stolen identity and her background in fortunetelling. Then finds a dead body, and the intrigue begins. But note this is less about mystery and suspense, and more about what we do to each other, or to indigenous people, and the ramifications it has on people and the environment.
Read this for the pure beauty of Ball's language and her insight into human behavior. Her worlds are always "off kilter," but beautifully flawed and unlike any you'll read elsewhere. I wish she had written more... :-( She's now officially one of my favorite writers.
I think this book may have been published at the wrong time (2002). I think people would have been more open to it these days, reading about the tragedy of U.S. involvement and its overtaking of the islands and the destruction of a people and their way of life. Ball even mentions that Hawaiians have heard of what happened to the Sioux tribe in the States and are worried that they too will be put into reservations, or camps. She weaves in historical vignettes that illuminate the novel's story and structure, so that we craftily learn some history to bring us up to speed to the events happening NOW, 1895 Oahu.
Some parallels to modern times: Newspapers in the hands of the conquerors printing false news to spread what they want spread abroad; outlandish rumors spread to vilify the Hawaiian queen, such as the notion that she eats puppies; laws passed to not allow Hawaiians to own land or to vote.
The narrator is a woman fleeing Norway, who takes on the identity of another woman who dies on the ship, Eva Hanson:
"She wondered at her naivete in taking the identity of a complete stranger. . . . People are only capable of taking a few steps from the self they have so eagerly discarded."
She lands on Oahu with this stolen identity and her background in fortunetelling. Then finds a dead body, and the intrigue begins. But note this is less about mystery and suspense, and more about what we do to each other, or to indigenous people, and the ramifications it has on people and the environment.
Read this for the pure beauty of Ball's language and her insight into human behavior. Her worlds are always "off kilter," but beautifully flawed and unlike any you'll read elsewhere. I wish she had written more... :-( She's now officially one of my favorite writers.
July 28, 2015
I picked this up at a library $5-a-bag book sale because, from the title, I assumed it would be either a fantasy novel or about Venice. It was neither, obviously, but an... interesting read nonetheless.
I've never been to Hawaii, but one of my good friends in college was from there. (Not 'Hawaiian', she taught me - the only people you call 'Hawaiian' are native Hawaiians, and her family was Okinawan.) From what she told me, the perception most people have of Hawaii is vastly at odds with the reality - it's a tourist destination, yes, but it's also where other states send their homeless populations, because at least there they can't die from the winter cold. There is a long history of the contiguous U.S. treating Hawaii differently because of its distance and its almost-foreign nature.
This book is about the beginning of that relationship, from the point of view of a Norwegian immigrant who is buffeted about by the outermost edges of conflict. That distance makes for the book's key flaw, I think: things happen around Eva but rarely to her, and she certainly doesn't really cause anything to happen. She is more... driftwood caught on a tide than active protagonist, and her interactions with the conflict at the core of this time period (between Hawaiian Queen Lili'uokalani and the Americans who covet the islands) are limited and brief. The book does pay them some attention, in brief descriptions of broader events between each chapter, but not much. This left me with an odd feeling, as if the more compelling story here had been deliberately avoided. Eva's story might have been interesting had its backdrop not been so much more dramatic, and had there been a stronger sense of stakes.
It's a short book - the kind that feels more like a novella than anything - so it didn't take up much of my time, but it also didn't feel like much of substance actually happened so...three stars. Dead average.
I've never been to Hawaii, but one of my good friends in college was from there. (Not 'Hawaiian', she taught me - the only people you call 'Hawaiian' are native Hawaiians, and her family was Okinawan.) From what she told me, the perception most people have of Hawaii is vastly at odds with the reality - it's a tourist destination, yes, but it's also where other states send their homeless populations, because at least there they can't die from the winter cold. There is a long history of the contiguous U.S. treating Hawaii differently because of its distance and its almost-foreign nature.
This book is about the beginning of that relationship, from the point of view of a Norwegian immigrant who is buffeted about by the outermost edges of conflict. That distance makes for the book's key flaw, I think: things happen around Eva but rarely to her, and she certainly doesn't really cause anything to happen. She is more... driftwood caught on a tide than active protagonist, and her interactions with the conflict at the core of this time period (between Hawaiian Queen Lili'uokalani and the Americans who covet the islands) are limited and brief. The book does pay them some attention, in brief descriptions of broader events between each chapter, but not much. This left me with an odd feeling, as if the more compelling story here had been deliberately avoided. Eva's story might have been interesting had its backdrop not been so much more dramatic, and had there been a stronger sense of stakes.
It's a short book - the kind that feels more like a novella than anything - so it didn't take up much of my time, but it also didn't feel like much of substance actually happened so...three stars. Dead average.
January 17, 2024
Very captivating style of writing but somehow the plot just did absolutely nothing in the end
June 15, 2019
I discovered this book in my local bookstore and picked it up on a whim but it was meant to be. It was a really interesting read. I really liked how she put historic notes of Hawaii in between the chapters. I haven't read anything like this before and I didn't know much about Hawaii so I was really enticed by this book.
May 6, 2021
I LOVED this book!
June 10, 2025
I am going through my fiction shelves on a mission to purge as I read. I have a lot of books and have long ago run out of shelf space, so now the goal is to curate to guarantee quality over quantity. I anticipated this being a read once, enjoy, and donate... but I returned it to my shelf to ruminate on it awhile before I decide. It isn't epic or grand, the main characters aren't likeable nor are they good people, the plot is not terribly riveting; but the history, the vivid images of Hawaii at the end of the 1800s, compacted into such a small book, makes me want to hold onto it a bit longer.
There are a few fade to black sexual encounters, discussion of prostitution and opium use, but I think this could still be read by a mature teen to flesh out some forgotten pieces of history with easy to read fiction. I do appreciate that the main character does seem to show signs of growth: a desire for more honesty in her life and to want to stand for something even if only for a few moments.
As a homeschool mom, I will likely keep it on the shelf but not assign it, so that a student who goes looking might find it on their own.
There are a few fade to black sexual encounters, discussion of prostitution and opium use, but I think this could still be read by a mature teen to flesh out some forgotten pieces of history with easy to read fiction. I do appreciate that the main character does seem to show signs of growth: a desire for more honesty in her life and to want to stand for something even if only for a few moments.
As a homeschool mom, I will likely keep it on the shelf but not assign it, so that a student who goes looking might find it on their own.
December 2, 2018
3.5 ⭐️ but rounding down. I loved the history of Hawaii you learn at the beginning of each chapter. The writing was very pretty and overall I liked it a lot. But parts were confusing or vague.
August 24, 2022
Murder, fortune telling, historical Hawaii, oh my!
Read
December 23, 2022OK writing, but the story seemed thin in comparison to the historical details at the beginning of each chapter.
June 21, 2011
This was a slim little novel that I picked up for the library, and I'm glad I did. The writing is beautiful and sparse, and it is full of the sea - if only in metaphor and memory. Not quite what I was expecting for a historical mystery set in Honolulu in the 1890s. I would say that it is not really even a mystery, in the end. The death is much less important than the character study of Eva and those around her, as well as the historical tidbits interspersed between each chapter. It is a tragedy, both for what was happening to Hawaii and for what was happening to Eva but it isn't a depressing read. It's actually quite lovely.
September 4, 2016
I had no idea about the "rape" of Hawaii. It is shockingly similar to the conquest of the Native American's. I am not very proud of Americans at this time and am disconsolate thinking about how much of the natives' traditions has been lost. At the same time, the writing is superlative though not enough is done to make me fall in love with Eva or McClelland. They seem to be part of the problem and would do anything to survive. I felt that the story wandered from the discovery of the dead body.
The book was sobering and I wasn't sorry to have it come to a close.
The book was sobering and I wasn't sorry to have it come to a close.
February 1, 2016
A fast read with little closure. The story takes place in Hawaii during the late 1800s. Well written but quite sad. Despite the lack of closure in the end, I did enjoy it. It sucks you in and imerses you. I found myself getting attached to and rooting for the characters. Surprising for such a short read.
September 8, 2014
I learned a lot about Hawaii from reading this, but unfortunately I learned it from the heavy-handed historical expository inserts between chapters. The action of the main story never gains momentum and never raises the stakes high enough.
October 31, 2008
enjoy reading of this time period in Hawaii's history, of a different Hawaii.although not necessarily about the haole overtaking,overpowering the Hawaiian people.didnt like the ending of this book
December 25, 2008
You can learn a lot from this book of the history of Hawaii
Read
July 25, 20112009- I had mixed feeling about this book. It was interesting to learn about the history of Hawaii, but I didn't care so much about the story of the main character.
Want to read
October 27, 2015Read in bits and pieces... Don't think i connected all the dots. But interested me enough to try to give it another chance in the future, when I can concentrate more.
April 19, 2014
Quick read as interesting for the characters and their story as for sumptuous atmosphere of the island and history of how white man once again had his way.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews