In Good Company

“See, I don’t know, I was like a part of our whatchamacallit, group, but in a way, I wasn’t. Like the guy at the ball game who doesn’t cheer. I’m just the guy Rudy or Regan calls up. The more the merrier, you know? It really wouldn’t make that much of a difference if I showed up or not. Really. I’ve never been real good with talking or conversation. I mean, all the guys joke around and laugh while I sit back and smile every now and then. It’s like I’m watching a movie. Just watching everything going on around me. I’m not like the other guys. I can’t come out with neat things to say that will make everybody laugh at the drop of a hat. I mean, I can go the whole night sometimes without saying a damn word.” —from “The Sand Island Drive-In Anthem”

In Good Company is a celebration of life in Hawai‘i, beyond Waikiki and Diamond Head. Its characters work sixteen-hour-shifts at airport drive-ins, play pool with cursed hitmen, wrestle their high school sweethearts in Chinatown bars. From Manoa to Waianae to the author’s hometown of Kalihi, men and women seek love, dignity, and a place to belong. At the heart of In Good Company are the mysterious—and often wonderful—things that can happen to the human spirit when one life intersects with another.

Collected here for the first time are eight of Cedric Yamanaka’s best short stories.

• Cedric Yamanaka, Author