Folks You Meet in Longs

By Lee Cataluna

Folks You Meet in Longs and Other Stories is a collection of short, dramatic monologues by award-winning playwright and columnist Lee Cataluna. Originally written for the stage, these character sketches read like overheard conversations from the aisles and glimpses into the private lives of public people. Some are laugh-out-loud funny. Others are disarming in their honesty. All are rooted in the community, language, and layered identities of Hawai'i.

First published by Bamboo Ridge Press and honored with the Ka Palapala Po'okela Award for Excellence in Literature, Folks You Meet in Longs has become a local classic. The characters are fictional, but they feel real and recognizable. Their voices are relatable and richly drawn. They are aunties and exes, co-workers and customers, each carrying a mix of judgment, joy, and heartache. Cataluna's monologues do not romanticize or flatten local life. Instead, they celebrate its contradictions, humor, and everyday dramas with emotional insight and compassion.

Perfect for fans of character-driven short fiction, dramatic monologue, and slice-of-life literature, this book is widely taught, frequently performed, and deeply beloved across Hawai'i's schools and stages. Whether you live in the islands or are simply curious about everyday life in Hawai'i, Folks You Meet in Longs offers a reading experience that is both entertaining and thoughtful.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 091004371X
• ISBN13: 9780910043717
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Bamboo Ridge Press
• Length: 142 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Fun, Local Style

_Folks You Meet in Longs_ is a wonderfully poetic, humorously palatable book, full of local wit and reality. The book is divided into several sections encompassing about thirty or so short stories focusing on the diverse people who call Hawaii home. The characters described in each story, such as the gossipy auntie, lonely old man, and bitter secretary, range from the hilarious to the pathetic. Yet at the same time, these are all people to whom we can relate, all finding themselves at Longs for the same reasons that we go there. I would recommend this book to anyone who lives in Hawaii (or has in the past) and can relate to the local phenomenon of visiting Longs and running into tons of people you know there. Its large font and short story format also make the book fun and accessible even for people who aren't bookworms. Nonetheless, parents should be aware that the book does contain some situations that may be inappropriate for young children (i.e. teen girls talking about hickies, a middle-aged woman that tries to expose herself to car wash attendants, etc.). Overall, though, these scenes are relatively mild and depicted in ways that don't necessarily encourage those behaviors. _Folks You Meet in Longs_ would make a great gift for a college student living on the mainland!