Recommended reading - The Descendants

The Descendants

by Kaui Hart Hemmings.

Filmed as The Descendants (2011), directed by Alexander Payne.

Published by Random House Trade Paperbacks.

Published 2007.

ISBN-10: 0812982959
ISBN-13: 9780812982954
 
Description:

“A Pandora’s box–style tragicomedy . . . [Kaui Hart Hemmings’s] comic sense is finely honed in this refreshingly wry debut novel.” – The New York Times Book Review.

“With beautiful and blunt prose, Hemmings explores the emotional terrain of grief, promising something far more fulfilling than paradise at its end.” – San Francisco Chronicle.

“A surprising and affecting novel, a story about death and infidelity that manages to be a finer, lighter story about life and love.” – Time Out New York.

Fortunes have changed for the King family, descendants of Hawaiian royalty and one of the state’s largest landowners. Matthew King’s daughters – Scottie, a feisty ten-year-old, and Alex, a seventeen-year-old recovering drug addict – are out of control, and their charismatic, thrill-seeking mother, Joanie, lies in a coma after a boat-racing accident. She will soon be taken off life support. As Matt gathers his wife’s friends and family to say their final goodbyes, a difficult situation is made worse by the sudden discovery that there’s one person who hasn’t been told: the man with whom Joanie had been having an affair. Forced to examine what they owe not only to the living but to the dead, Matt, Scottie, and Alex take to the road to find Joanie’s lover, on a memorable journey that leads to unforeseen humor, growth, and profound revelations.

 

On this day in movie history - The Descendants (2011)

The Descendants

directed by Alexander Payne,

written by Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash,

based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings,

released at the Telluride Film Festival in the United States on September 2, 2011.

Music by Jeff Peterson.

 

Cast:

George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Amara Miller, Nick Krause, Patricia Hastie, Grace A. Cruz, Kim Gennaula, Karen Kuioka Hironaga, Carmen Kaichi, Kaui Hart Hemmings, Beau Bridges, Matt Corboy, Matt Esecson, Michael Ontkean, Stanton Johnston, Jonathan/Jon McManus, Hugh Foster, Tiare R. Finney, Tom McTigue, Milt Kogan, Mary Birdsong, Rob Huebel, Laird Hamilton, Aileen 'Boo' Arnold, Esther Kang, Melissa Kim, Robert Forster, Barbara L. Southern, Celia Kenney, Matt Reese, Zoel Turnbull, Matthew Lillard, Judy Greer, Linda Rose Herman, Scott Michael Morgan, Darryl K. Gonzales, Koko Kanealii, Romey 'Keola' Yokotake, Fileena Bahris, Paul Edney, Dennis Falt, Morgan Freeman, Sisa Grey, Jamon Holmes, Tom Holowach, Adam Juegos, Dane Justman, Jordan Kirkwood, James Koons, Alan Seabock, John A Weaver, Larry Wegger, Joseph Wilson, Joji Yoshida.