Here he gives us an Englishman who was a member of the Roman Catholic priesthood for half a lifetime before he realised that he wanted more out of life, and became laicised.
He takes his aged father to Hawaii to see a dying sister at her request (the picture the author paints of modern airline travel with an obstreporous elderly parent is perfect) but their plans change drastically when the old man is involved in a car accident.
Bernard the ex-priest is on his own now trying to straighten things out between the injured parent and the dying aunt.
He does well, albeit with a large slice of luck, and just to round things out, falls in love with the driver of the offending automobile.
He is about as naïve a middle-aged bachelor as one could imagine, but no fool. He copes, even with the shocks of garish Waikiki and it’s inhabitants.
The author rounds out the history of the other tourists in the plane with the clever trick of writing postcards home as if composed by each of them, since Bernard runs into them from time to time as he sees a little of Hawaii. And then for the first time in his life he develops an intimate relationship.
The author paints a clever picture of Hawaii and its overwhelming emphasis on tourism, which is certainly accurate.
In the end he brings his now less-naïve Englishman home to his ordinary life as a tertiary teacher, and a letter which is full of the sort of news that can only make him (and the reader) happy.
A lively, enjoyable story.
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