Where We Once Belonged [Paperback]

Sia Figiel (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 1999

Edited by Sia Figiel.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

A lively debut portrays a Samoan girls coming of age through a series of linked stories, awarded the Commonwealth Prize for Best Novel (Southeast Asia/South Pacific region). Adolescence is a rich period for writers everywhere, but Samoa has been famous for little else since Margaret Mead published her famous 1928 study of it (Coming of Age in Samoa). Figiels approach is more personal than Meads, of course, and she manages to create a far clearer portrait of Samoan customs and society from the inside out. She adopts a light, impressionistic tone that nicely conveys the simultaneous confusion and excitement felt by 13-year-old Alofa as she makes her first attempts to look at her world as an adult. Many of the episodes, such as Buzzing . . . Everywhere (a prank played on a prissy classmate goes too far and lands the girl in trouble), emphasize the inexplicable tensions between guilt and cruelty felt by girls of Alofas age, while others (In the Wind, In the Dark) simply show the navet of children who are still utterly dependent on their families. Much of the overall tale is told in a sort of Anglo-Samoan patois, and though the usual teenage loves and crushes that are part of adolescence the world over make up a great part of the narrative, even these sections are tinged with a regional color (as in Poem of the Sea & Breaking Baby Promises) that tends to render the whole here more evocative of place rather than people. Figiels focus is soft and her prose rather elliptical, but even so she does provide a nice climax in which tragedy brings Alofa to an awareness that innocence is a fragile and unreliable quality to carry into the adult world. A bit too heavy on atmosphere, but finely detailed and delicately constructed: a welcome surprise from an unexpected quarter of the world. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review

"A story of Samoan PUBERTY BLUES, in which Gauguin is dead but Elvis lives on" -- Vogue Australia

"A storytelling triumph" -- Elle Australia

Product Details

• Paperback: 235 pages
• Publisher: Kaya/Muae; Kaya Press Ed edition (November 2, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1885030274
• ISBN-13: 978-1885030276
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #319,434 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Different and rewarding, October 18, 2002

By 

higa (Ku'u home o Honolulu) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Where We Once Belonged (Paperback)

All I knew about Samoa before reading Sia Figiel's novel, Where We Once Belonged was:
1) Margaret Mead made her career writing about Samoan women, and
2) Samoan men are highly recruited as linemen for college football teams.
Rectifying that ignorance of my fellow Asian/Pacific Islanders was my initial impetus for picking up the novel, but it was Figiel's stunning storytelling and humor which carried me through to the end. The rewards of Where We Once Belonged is not only a sophisticated product of the storyteller's art, but also the honest and touching portrayal of a time and culture few of us know.

From the opening sentence, "When I saw the insides of a woman's vagina for the first time I was not alone," Where We Once Belonged plunges the reader honestly and unapologetically into an adolescent girl's world of guilt, desire, cultural confusion, and budding sexuality. Carried forward in a series of linked reflections and scenes, the novel is "told" to the reader through a variety of sophisticated narrative techniques including the informal "talk story," the traditional Samoan storytelling form of su'ifefiloi and more elegiac poetic reflections on the landscape of Samoa. The playfulness of the narrative underscores Figiel's somewhat darker concerns about the difficulties faced by young women growing up in Samoa. The strong pull of the church and its mores is juxtaposed alongside the images of women offered by up Hollywood, specifically, Charlie's Angels, after whom our narrator, Alofa also known as Jill, and her friends, Lili/Kelly and Moa/Sabrina, pattern themselves after. Gender roles are discussed, explored, witnessed and even rebelled against with often violent consequences. Wives are disposed at the whim of their husband, unmarried young women are banished for their "impure" pregnancies, and even Alofa is the victim of beatings and abuse that are given as "lessons" by her partriarchal community.

And yet in the midst of these brutal events, Figiel manages to combine humor into her narrative, as in the story of Elisa, who "remained pure, until her first check-up at the hospital when a metal instrument injured her hymen...All these years and she was saving it for a piece of metal." The richness of Samoa comes alive through Figiel's liberal use of Samoan creole and her amazing ability to describe a scene not only through sight but smell as well. She describes the central marketplace through its activity and through the smells of the different tobaccos smoked by the different types of people, The pervasive juxtaposition of native Samoan and western culture plays out in the food section where fish wrapped in taro leaves competes with imported animals like lamb and turkey.

Where We Once Belonged satisfies on many different levels: It can be read as an adolescent girl's "coming of age" story, an intimate portrait of Samoa, or even a sociological examination of the lingering effects of colonization and pervasive cultural hegemony of Hollywood. But Figiel, the product of a rich storytelling culture, weaves each of these threads into a richly patterned tale, leading us to an unforgettable ending and leaving an indelible experience of Samoa in our memories.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful female coming of age story, March 17, 2000

By 

Hera Cook (Sydney) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Where We Once Belonged (Paperback)

This is a powerful and moving evocation of Samoan culture and the experience of being a young woman coming of age in that culture. It is funny and cruel, and the thread of narrative is sustained beautifully thorugh the linking stories. I found the use of Samoan words and phrases was poetic and grounded the story in the culture, as does the repitition which Fiegel also uses. The grudging surprise with which other reviewers have admitted that in spite of the unworthy subject matter the book is wonderful reflects the fact that young women's coming of age stories have not been treated with the importance of those by young men. Women's stories are important and this is not a repititive example. It is not simply an anglo culture coming of age set in unfamiliar territory. There is a wonderful exploration of very different Samoan approaches to body smells and a sense of cultures clashing that many of us who have shifted through different cultures in our lives will enjoy. (And if you are an academic reader this book is a moving counterpoint to the debates on Margaret Mead and D.Freeman)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Novel: Covers Ethnic/Feminist Issues, May 5, 2000

By 

tamamanono - See all my reviews

This review is from: Where We Once Belonged (Paperback)

Excellent book-a must read and an outstanding book for university class romms. Ms. Figiel, while touching artfully on the specifics of Samoan life, has illuminated the Human Condition with warmth and clarity.

An outstanding treatment of women, class, sexuality and ethinicity. The book is a delight to read--an amazing lyric voice for such a young writer--and a book to be shared.