Customer Reviews

The Girl in the Moon Circle

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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.

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.

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.