Behold the Many

by Lois-Ann Yamanaka

Book Overview

In 1913, stricken by tuberculosis, young Anah, Aki, and Leah are sent away from their family for treatment at St. Joseph's, an orphanage in Hawai'i's Kalihi Valley. Of the three, two will die there, and only Anah, the eldest, will survive. But the ghosts of the dead sisters will haunt Anah as she prepares to begin married life away from the orphanage. Desperate for the love of their sister, but jealous of her ability to live in the physical world,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312426542
• ISBN13: 9780312426545
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 341 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

(4.5) "Where is home when no one is home?"

In a melding of harsh reality and the world of the spirit, Behold the Many is a novel of love and loss that reaches beyond the grave, the brittle fingers of the dead clutching at the living. Only one sister of three survives her isolation in a TB hospital-orphanage in the secluded Kalihi Valley in Hawaii, three little girls sent away when they develop tuberculosis, one after another, banished so that they will not infect their family, five-year old Leah, then Aki, then Anah. Leah is terrified; Aki is angry. Only Anah will survive, her sisters dying one after the other, Anah left alone in a place where there is little solace and much despair. Lonely, she reaches to the spirit world and the companionship of her sisters. Leah calls out to Anah; Aki curses her living sister and attacks her mercilessly; and Seth, a boy who died before they came, waits for them all. At the family home, their Hawaiian mother goes mad with grief, their Portuguese father demanding she forget those worthless daughters and give him sons. Anah endures much at the orphanage, the relentless jibes of Sister Bernadine a burden from which she can never escape, her only solace Leah, Aki and Seth. Seth's older brother, Ezroh, is Anah's salvation. It is he who cures her from the cuts and bruises inflicted by Aki that no one at the orphanage can explain, he who offers release with his unconditional love. On her eighteenth birthday, Anah is finally released, leaving behind her sorrows and her sisters in hopes of a better life with Ezroh. Cruel words follow even here, this time from Ezroh's Portuguese aunt, bitter remarks that infect the difficult births of Anah's four daughters: Hosanah, the first-born, disfigured by a careless midwife; Elizabeth thought slow because she refuses to speak; Tori a perfect replica of Anah's beautiful mother; and the frail but spirited Miriam who fights for life against all odds. Through her children, Anah recovers her family, yet she never forgets her siblings or the curse they have laid upon her. She will pay a price for her freedom, though she never imagines how staggering this price will be. Anah has an indomitable spirit and a generous heart, reaching through the world of the living and the dead, yearning for a lost mother and the sisters she could not save. In a story of stark beauty and brutal reality, Anah's life is painted in the bright red blood of tuberculosis and of childbirth, the yellow dress Leah wears even in death, the dark, dank closets of the orphanage and the blue sky of her marriage to Ezroh. In this extraordinary tale, Yamanaka weaves truth from dreams and breathes life into the spirit world through a girl become woman and mother who embraces all, joy, pain and love, her heart the repository of all their hopes. Luan Gaines/ 2006.

deep historical tale

In 1939 Anah's daughter Hosana dies; though she mourns her loss, Anah prays that the death will lift the curse. In 1913 Hawaii, young Leah comes down with Tuberculosis; her mother tries to hide the illness, but is caught. The child is sent to a remote orphanage in the Kalihi Valley in the Ko'olau Mountains. One year later her sister Aki joins her and not long afterward another sibling Anah is sent there. In 1916 Leah dies and subsequently so does Aki. Anah vows to stay there forever and the ghosts of the children who have died there including her two sisters communicate with her. In 1924, Anah marries Ezroh with plans to finally leave the orphanage. However, the ghosts are angry and jealous that she is able to go anywhere while they cannot. They try to stop her marriage, but fail; however she and her family are cursed by one of the spirits. Over the years Anah has several children, but never overcame the guilt of surviving nor of leaving. In some ways BEHOLD THE MANY is a deep historical tale with plenty of insight into Hawaii and how tuberculosis victims were treated. However, it is the relationship when they lived and after they died between the surviving sister and her two deceased siblings that make for an eerie ghost story. Anah's beliefs that she communicates with all the dead children at the isolated clinic seems very real though some skeptics will say she compensated for her losses. Though time moves too fast making it somewhat difficult to follow, fans will relish this strong ghost story. Harriet Klausner