The Boundary Wall at Kana'aho
Book Details
Author(s)Eldo St. David
ISBN / ASINB00BRYF2RE
ISBN-13978B00BRYF2R0
Sales Rank824,433
MarketplaceUnited States 🇺🇸
Description
War. Peace. Tahitian Gardenias. A weed-whacker gravely misused.
Chuck Burrows, a 60-something Vietnam War veteran, is homeless, friendless, and losing his battle against PTSD-inspired nightmares on the sun-drenched back streets of tony Lahaina, the celebrated Maui tourist magnet in the Hawaiian Islands. Chuck may or may not have killed his platoon’s oppressive lieutenant in the jungle forty-odd years earlier during a heated battle. And, though the Army apparently no longer particularly cares whether Chuck actually did kill the officer or not, the grizzled veteran would certainly like to shake the war-related visions still haunting his sleep every night.
Brian, a relic hippie from Berkeley of the 1960s, full of vaguely religious aphorisms and guru-speak, shows up one day and befriends Chuck, the hapless ex-soldier. A former Black Muslim and Hare Krishna devotee, Brian is convinced he can lead Chuck to spiritual redemption. However, after one drug, alcohol and prayer-filled night ending rather badly for a Lahaina landmark, Brian mysteriously vanishes.
Fearing the loss of the only real friend he’s ever known, Chuck decides to follow the one clue Brian provided: a cryptic note scrawled in chalk on a restaurant menu board. After Chuck’s quest is temporarily sidetracked by the lure of over-flowing food court dumpsters at the airport, and then again by his self-destructive urges near a posh country club on the island’s remote north coast, more clues to Brian’s whereabouts lead Chuck literally to the End of the Road—the isolated village of Kana’aho at the far side of Maui, in the shadow of Haleakala, the sacred volcano Brian had been obsessing over before he disappeared.
Still unable to locate Brian, but convinced his friend is in the area, Chuck takes up residence in a seaside cave. Given the scarcity of restaurant scraps in the tiny hamlet, the veteran reluctantly takes on odd jobs—including the restoration of an ancient Hawaiian boundary wall at the behest of a somewhat inept gay couple, hoping to use the wall’s authenticity for promoting their small vacation rental resort. At first, tolerance prevails. But it doesn't take long for Chuck’s buttons to get pushed one too many times, and Sergeant Kalahele of Maui Homicide is soon on the case.
Chuck Burrows, a 60-something Vietnam War veteran, is homeless, friendless, and losing his battle against PTSD-inspired nightmares on the sun-drenched back streets of tony Lahaina, the celebrated Maui tourist magnet in the Hawaiian Islands. Chuck may or may not have killed his platoon’s oppressive lieutenant in the jungle forty-odd years earlier during a heated battle. And, though the Army apparently no longer particularly cares whether Chuck actually did kill the officer or not, the grizzled veteran would certainly like to shake the war-related visions still haunting his sleep every night.
Brian, a relic hippie from Berkeley of the 1960s, full of vaguely religious aphorisms and guru-speak, shows up one day and befriends Chuck, the hapless ex-soldier. A former Black Muslim and Hare Krishna devotee, Brian is convinced he can lead Chuck to spiritual redemption. However, after one drug, alcohol and prayer-filled night ending rather badly for a Lahaina landmark, Brian mysteriously vanishes.
Fearing the loss of the only real friend he’s ever known, Chuck decides to follow the one clue Brian provided: a cryptic note scrawled in chalk on a restaurant menu board. After Chuck’s quest is temporarily sidetracked by the lure of over-flowing food court dumpsters at the airport, and then again by his self-destructive urges near a posh country club on the island’s remote north coast, more clues to Brian’s whereabouts lead Chuck literally to the End of the Road—the isolated village of Kana’aho at the far side of Maui, in the shadow of Haleakala, the sacred volcano Brian had been obsessing over before he disappeared.
Still unable to locate Brian, but convinced his friend is in the area, Chuck takes up residence in a seaside cave. Given the scarcity of restaurant scraps in the tiny hamlet, the veteran reluctantly takes on odd jobs—including the restoration of an ancient Hawaiian boundary wall at the behest of a somewhat inept gay couple, hoping to use the wall’s authenticity for promoting their small vacation rental resort. At first, tolerance prevails. But it doesn't take long for Chuck’s buttons to get pushed one too many times, and Sergeant Kalahele of Maui Homicide is soon on the case.
