The Happy Island, written by Darwin Teilhet, at first looked like just an enjoyable read, and I was pleasantly surprised to find it truly memorable. It's one of those books I've found by chance that meanders along, until you find at the end you are really moved and want to read it all over again.
Park Mattison appears to be a part time accountant and wandering artist, content to paint abstracts and while away his time on Happy Island, one of the Hawaiian islands you haven't heard of. His girlfriend Laina and other friends praise his art and support his shows at Kimball Galleries - indeed his profile as a collectible artist is growing in higher society. What no one knows is that Park's life is a fiction. He is really an agent for the ruling island family run by patriarch E. P. Tothic. Park's painting time, a cover for secret meetings to decide the rule, and fate the island.
From the outside Tothic appears to be a benevolent patron of the city, but his family has always run the island completely with an iron hand including the plantations, the police, the businesses, radio and newspapers, the unions - every strata of society and every decision on the island is decided by E.P. Tothic and carried out by his unseen assistants, including Park. The latest problem is the leader of the unions, who must be replaced and disgraced to prevent a strike - and so the next Tothic ''yes man' can take over. Park has been chosen to make this come about via intimidation and bribery, or any means necessary.
Under this stress, Park's relationships begin to crack, as he slowly realizes the fiction of his being an artist is more the man he really is, and the cover of a Hawaiian girlfriend is becoming a real relationship. The story builds to a climactic union vote, one that can mean only success to the Tothic family - whatever must be done, and whomever must be sacrificed.
Oddly, I felt the novel was coasting for at least three-quarters of the book. While it was interesting, I was wondering if this was just a profile of a conflicted man, or if he was actually building to a point, when the dam burst and all the loose threads came together in a violent, exciting finale, sweeping me away. I closed the book and thought 'wow'. It has stayed with me, and I'd like to read it again.
Darwin Teilhet was a businessman in San Francisco and Honolulu, and an Intelligence Officer during the war. I was lucky to find a very nice first edition hardcover with dust jacket. If you can get a copy and like a solid novel, I recommend it!
1950 / Hardcover / 309 pages
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