A memoir but something more, Barefoot Days examines the 50th state in the years just after statehood when the social order was turning over and Butwin found a job on Honolulu’s morning newspaper. Bulwarked by the bales of articles and hundreds of letters to family and friends, Butwin weaves a compelling narrative, peppered with his own Waikiki hijinks, sparked by a bizarre link to the Vietnam War, and spooked by a singular event he calls “my night of terror.”