Aggie Grey: A Samoan Saga [Paperback]

Fay Alailima (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1988

This biography of the most celebrated hotel keeper in the South Pacific is virtually a review of the tumultuous history of the two Samoas during the past century.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Every traveller in the South Pacific has heard of Aggie Grey and her famous hotel. But few know the real story of this afakasi (part-Samoan) woman, whose father was the son of a well-to-do British merchant in Fiji and whose mother was the daughter of a Samoan chief.

Aggie Grey: A Samoan Saga is the biography of this remarkable woman, at once at odds and strangely in tune with both her own and other cultures, who in the process of overcoming many life crises became a legendary figure in South Pacific lore. Reading like anovel, this biography also puts in its proper perspective the "wild woman" mythology that unjustifiably surrounded Aggie, rendering a complicated and fascinating personal history into a dignified and triumphant life achievement.

Aggie's story is also a real history. Aggie was born into a time and place where some significant history was coming to pass, and her position as innkeeper often allowed her to be the first to hear about the intrigues of local chiefs and European consuls.

About the Author

Fay Alailima was born in 1921 in upstate New York. World War II broke out while she was attending Oberlin College and, after a breif stint as a shipyard welder, she entered a program at Haverford College for post-war relief workers. This led her to working with Polish refugees in Central Mexico and later Austria with Jewish refugees.

Upon her return to the U.S., she became an organizer for the Textile Workers union, using her experience to write a dissertation at the University of Chicago on The CIO and the Democratic Party. While researching her thesis in the stacks at the Library of Congress, she met her Samoan husband, Vaiao. Her adventures adjusting to life in Samoa in a communal extended-family culture are recounted in a humorous book, My Samoan Chief.

The Alailimas moved to Hawaii in 1964 to educate their children. When their youngest daughter graduated from college in 1984, they returned for good to Samoa, where her husband took up his former role as a village chief on the small island of Manono. In April 1988, Vaiao was elected a member of parliament, drafting Fay to write his proposals. The Alailimas have two sons and four daughters.

(The Inside Flap)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Mutual Pub Co (December 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0935180796
• ISBN-13: 978-0935180794
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #603,355 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent historical summary of Samoa, October 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Aggie Grey: A Samoan Saga (Paperback)

Faletua Ala'ilima has done it again, contributing a work that provides a great deal of historical insight while captivating the reader's interest. This well-researched effort chronicles the life and changing times of one of Samoa's well known characters, weaving a rich narrative that touches on colonial times and the rise of modern Samoa. Like her other book, "My Samoan Chief," Ala'ilima's understanding of Samoan culture and her sense of humor provide a delightful treatment of indigenous life in the modern era. Her works are important in their own right and for the information they provide on Samoan culture, a topic with very little quality writing to date. This book is ideal for anyone wanting to know about Samoa specifically and the changing political and economic situation of the South Pacific generally.