Someone left a message on Ben Cayetano's Facebook page: "Read your book ... so what's the hidden message?"

He had to laugh. "Hidden message?!"

Indeed, there isn't much vague or veiled about Cayetano's memoir "Ben: From Street Kid to Governor." In it, he takes solid hits at some of the big names in Hawai'i politics over the last 30 years. So far, no one has called to complain or false crack him in a parking lot, though he did get the cold shoulder from one prominent figure at the Waialae Country Club and the duck-and-evade move from a current legislator at a cocktail party.

"As I was writing, I was thinking, 'Here's another guy who's not going to talk to me,' " he said.

Just one example: he tells the story about a leading House Democrat busting into another legislator's office, clearing the man's desk with his arm, grabbing him by the neck and lifting him off the ground in a choke hold. It's like a scene from a cable cop drama. And Cayetano names names.

"That guy can't say anything because I got that part DOWN," Cayetano said.

Of course, Cayetano is famous for being a guy who speaks his mind no matter the consequences. That candor in the formal structure of a book makes for a compelling read. The book is long, 550 pages, but it is definitely not boring. He is stunningly candid about things people are usually so careful about, like politics and race.

"Yeah I'm race-aware," he says. "When I grew up, race was very predominant in how you were treated and what you could do. From now on, it's not the same. Today's children won't see what I did. But during my time, that's how things were."

Word has gotten around that it is a must-read.

The initial printing was a conservative 3,500 copies, which sold out in six weeks. Waiting lists are growing at local book stores and on Amazon for the second printing, which will come out the third week of April. A recent book signing at the Kahala Barnes and Nobles had a line of several hundred people snaked out the door. The book has been on the Hawai'i best-sellers list for five weeks in a row.

"The last week, I thought, 'Hey, shouldn't be on the best-sellers list because all the books are sold out,' " Cayetano said. "It has exceeded my expectations."

For a while, people were wondering if Cayetano's book would ever get finished. The release date got pushed back. Cayetano says some thought it might be a marketing ploy to drum up anticipation. But no, he was blocked. Blocked and disorganized. And then he'd power through. He put in six to eight hours a day on his laptop. It took him 3 1/2 years.

The book is juicy. It is also cleanly written and clearly organized. Some parts read like a textbook, as though the author spent weeks researching old documents to explain things just so (he did) and other parts seem like they just poured out, like when Cayetano writes of the last days of his father's life — of sitting by his father's hospital bed retelling him his favorite story.

"Sometimes I was writing and I would cry," Cayetano said. "And sometimes I would laugh, too."

Cayetano says former Gov. John Waihee called and asked him to sign a copy of the book. He says Mayor Mufi Hannemann thanked him for not saying anything bad about him. He recently ran into Republican Pat Saiki in line at Times Kahala and apologized to her for saying in the book that he and Waihee beat her and Andy Anderson in 1986. He got that wrong — she wasn't Anderson's running mate then. She was busy that year running for Congress.

"She was nice. She told me, 'Oh I don't even remember that' " Cayetano said. "I apologized for writing that she had another loss." And he fixed it in the second printing.

He read a lot of memoirs — and books about writing memoirs — to shape his concept for the project. He came to the conclusion that he had to be open about things or else nobody would care.

" 'No talk stink' is OK if you're not a public servant," he says, "But if you are in public service and you don't call somebody on something, the public doesn't know."

Still, he managed to be open without confessional, to explain without sounding defensive and to balance painful remembrances with crowing fight stories and some funny, funny moments. (Charlie Toguchi getting attacked by a monkey on the school bus is an all-time classic.)

It's hard to imagine someone putting out an effort so thorough and thoughtful and nuanced and then never writing another book again. Cayetano is thinking about it. Maybe a historical novel. But he says, "If I never write again, I'm happy with this one."

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.