Heads by Harry, a novel by Lois-Ann Yamanaka,  is set in Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii. Since I spent many years living on the Big Island, I fell in love with reading the Pidgin English that this book is written in. However, this was a difficult novel to read. It was graphic, often violent and fiercely honest. These are also the things that made it a good book.

The story is about Toni, the middle child of 3, in a lower middle class local Japanese family in Hilo. Her dad Harry runs the taxidermy shop that they live above. The book centers around their lives and the lives of the other locals who share this block of downtown Hilo with them. There is a lot of brutality both in the hunting scenes depicted in the book and in the local drinking and fighting culture.

If you haven’t been to Hawaii, this book will not make you want to go there. I can’t say I enjoyed reading this novel, however I do think Yamanaka is a brave and wonderful writer showing us some painful truths, but also moments of great tenderness and beauty.