The Girl in the Moon Circle, like the cover drawing, shows Samoan life through the eyes of a ten-year-old girl called Samoana. Though young, Samoana is perceptive, not much escapes her analysis. She tells us about school, church, friends, family violence, having refrigerators and television for the first time, Chunky cat food, a Made-in-Taiwan, Jesus, pay day, cricket, crushes on boys, incest, legends and many other things. Her observations offer a compelling look at Samoan society. Often fiction allows authors to tell truths that otherwise would be too painful; Sia Figiel is uninhibited. Her prose, in English and Samoan, hurtles readers toward the end of the book. Sia Figiel, herself, has mesmerized audiences around the Pacific Islands with readings from The Girl in the Moon Circle.
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Sia Figiel was born in the village of Matautu Tai, Western Samoa, to a Samoan mother and a Polish-American father. Her primary education was acquired through Sunday school, the Pastor's school, fagogo tellers, the faleaitu (the house of spirits) and St Mary's schools in Western Samoa. She completed high school in Auckland, New Zealand, and earned a BA in history from Whitworth College, USA.
After tutoring in Samoa, she went to Germany and lived in Berlin, travelling also between Western and Eastern Europe. A performance-poet and a painter, she has read, exhibited, performed and discussed her work in galleries and universities in Germany and the Pacific Islands. Sia Figiel is the winner of the Polynesian Literary Competition 1994. She is the author of a novel, where we once belonged, published by Pasifika Press also in 1996. The Girl in the Moon Circle is her second work of imaginative fiction. She teaches creative writing, Samoan dance, song and story-telling in schools in American Samoa. Sia Figiel also works as a reporter.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
honest,
By Zoe Zeichner (Hurley, NY United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Girl in the Moon Circle (Paperback)
Short writings that tell the experiences of a Samoan girls,that Pacifc life isn't all what it seems. read where we once belonged next.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Samoa stripped bare through the eyes of a 10 year old,
By
This review is from: The Girl in the Moon Circle (Paperback)
Fiction from the Pacific Islands is not widely known, as indeed most of the islands are not widely known. Many Pacific works retain the feel of oral accounts (as would be expected from previously non-literate societies) rather than pieces of prepared written fiction and this adds to their appeal and authenticity. The Girl in the Moon Circle, for example, is Samoa observed through the eyes of 10 year old Samoana intercalated with Polynesian legends and poems and littered with un-translated Samoan phrases. There is no coherent structure or recognisable plot. Although the narrator is a child, the language appropriately minimalist, and many of the observations typically those of a young girl - having TV for the first time, church, friends and family, crushes on boys - she also strays into a number of themes that are distinctly adult: incest, alcohol and domestic violence, adults interfering with children, children having children, and many of the unsavoury scourges of Polynesian (and other) societies. The fact that they are related with a wide-eyed innocence makes them all the more disturbing. This book is a compelling and frank (because it is a 10 year old narrating) look at a conservative society in transition by a member of the generation that will experience the greatest changes.
Although the story is followed by an interview with the author, it could however have done with a glossary. I was able to guess a few of the words because I have some knowledge of Tahitian, a distantly-related Polynesian language, but endless incomprehensible phrases serve only to give the reader an unhappy feeling of exclusion.
3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not for children,
By Chris Delnat (West Terre Haute, IN USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Girl in the Moon Circle (Paperback)
Although this book is about a 10 year old Samoan girl the subjects the author explores are adult. The book is dark and deals with sexual issues and family violence. I'm not saying the book is without merit. It would surely have a place when studying modern polynesian cultures as an adult, but I think buyers should know that it is inappropriate for children.
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