The book does seem like another verson of Eat Sleep Pray, incredibly self centered western woman who thinks nonwhite people exist just to be purty super spirchul examples to make her feel good about herself.
There's some more of those Amazon reviews that are relevant.
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....The grandmothers voice Inette claims appear to be a portion of her own self, speaking in desperation to rationalize all that is happening to her. To convince herself. To keep going in the face of desperate poverty -- drained of every resource, including her son's college and bar mitzvah funds. And how can you argue with a man that leaves whenever the going is getting tough, and announces with flair that the "grandmothers" have told him to go. She in turn, in this crazed dance, "hears" the grandmothers and comes up with a rationale. All the while, they both are dependent on the kindness of others while proclaiming they will never take charity from the government. No, only from others who must find compassion to take her in, her child, and sometime Iokepa. He has no trouble finding support -- there are always women and susceptible men looking for a powerful, charismatic man to glom onto. Groupies in any other vernacular -- who support him and the fantasy he weaves.
Why, I was left to wonder, doesn't this ex-construction magnate teach his people how to live off the grid, for instance? Create sustainable housing in line with the land, the aina? Why, doesn't he teach independence with alternative energies and ways of living -- using his skill? Instead, he creates constant drama by a juvenile kind of confrontation with local police and government over camping rights and a constant state of drama, chaos and just plain crazy seems to be the only fruit.
Then suddenly fast forward. These two finally marry. Giant gaps appear in the story then, and we are to believe what? Everything turned hunky dory? How do they now live? Years later? All we are given is that once married, they did not have these separations any more. But what have they been doing? How have they been living? And what is the "fruit" -- the results, of Iokepa's mission?
Sorry, I'm not buying this. I believe I just read a book by a woman in the grip of Folie a Deux: [...] delusional disorder shared by two.
There are some true keepers of the indigenous wisdom in Hawaii. I do not believe Iokepa is anything other than a narcissistic con artist with a devotee.
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This is also not the first time Miller has written this story. She had a virtually identical abusive relationship 20 years earlier. From another amazon review.
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The first time Inette Miller gave up everything for a man and wrote a book about it was 20+ years ago. She wrote "Burning Bridges: A True Story of Passion and Self-Discovery" (later made into a TV movie) about her affair with a sexy doctor when she was married and the mother of a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old. He refused to leave his marriage for her after she divorced her husband for him, which propelled her into a mental breakdown. Her children were uprooted and traumatized for her passion then also, just as happens to her younger son in "Grandmothers Whisper". This time around, instead of "personal growth", she cloaks her self-centeredness in "spirituality". But it is the same old thing -- sexual attention from a charismatic man makes her brain and conscience switch off, no matter how he treats her.
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Anyone Hawaiian or even with a slight knowledge of Hawaiian history would find IHI incredibly ignorant. Hawaii had multiple kingdoms until the early 19th century who often fought each other. Then Kamehameha united all of Hawaii by war. It was a pretty brutal series of wars also, involving tens of thousands of warriors and guns brought in by Americans and Europeans.
The reason for his ignorance is pretty obvious. He didn't grow up in the Hawaiian culture at all. Except for the silly fluffy idea of no war, there doesn't seem to be much that's actually presented as his Hawaiian beliefs at all. There's talking to your ancestors, but lots of people practice that. And mostly he seems to use "my ancestors told me to do this" as an excuse for erratic behavior.
This article also points out how incredibly abusive he was to his new wife, forcing her into homelessness, and her two children. One left her and went to college in the mainland. The other, it says, was still a minor and kept going to public school in Hawaii. So was the child sleeping on the beach and then going to school by day?
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2193296/Former-star-journalist-quit-job-gave-possessions-to-Hawaii-spiritual-lover-talked-dead.html....That man was Iokepa Hanalei 'Imaikalani, a half-native Hawaiian construction worker raised in the American Northwest who regularly communicated with his long-dead grandmothers.
He had recently given up a lucrative job in Washington State, his home and seven cars after a conversation with his deceased grandmothers, who urged him to return to his native land to help restore the aboriginal Hawaiian culture....
Miller and her two sons, aged 14 and 17, moved to Hawaii and slept illegally on public beaches and lived out of tents with 'Imaikalani. Her youngest son enrolled in a local school while her eldest soon left Hawaii to go to college....
