Customer Reviews

Where We Once Belonged

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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.

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)

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.

Sia Figiel's novel had me *gripped* from start to finish, and not just beacuse it is set in The Exotic South Pacific. Technically, I suppose, one would call it a childhood & adolescence memoir of sorts, but, as always, it is impossible to make any such pithy remark. While Figiel does tell the reader quite a lot about growing up female and not terribly wealthy in non-Apia Westen Samoa, the book does not make any heavy-handed Comments about the state of The World, or Men, or Colonialism. Any views on any such "larger" subjects are deeply imbricated in the fabric of the book.

The writing, which includes straight ahead "prose", the occasional poem, what might be termed "stream of consciousness"/ " very-very-personal associations" vignettes flows unbelivably well, is deft and very very accomplished.

Though the choice of subject might seem juvenile nd typical of a first novel, there is very little stigma in this case. I cannot praise this book enough. I get the feeling that it does not matter if Ms. Figiel had been malay or german and written this way, it would not have taken away any of the lustre, any of the wild wit, any of the extrememly perspiciacious commentary on life no matter where it is lived. She could, I imagine, make life even in wolverhapmton or boise seem utterly interesting and accessible without ever losing its edge, its uniqueness. It is not mere geography that makes this book a compelling read you will want to go back to over and over again (oh alright, it might be a bit of that too!), but teh sense you get while reading it, that there is poetry of an amazingly intelligent, unmaudlin sort in everyday life.

It tells one that a novel can be about something as potentially annoying as the coming of age of young women (think sweet valley high with a better vocabulary and less sap, judy blume with more polish) and still manage to be brilliantly written (there is something brilliant about the putting together of the narrative - i hate the word "structure" - someone please write about it), make exteremly astute, historically, socially and culturally relevant comments and never once be heavy- handed or even - horrors! - "light" . rk narayan with balls and a sex-change operation.

If anyone is interested in gossip - Ms. Figiel is all of 29 years old, and is the writer-in-residence and teaching creative writing at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji. Where... has won a bunch of awards. Ms. Figiel is *fantastic* reader. Reportedly, she even made the "I-am-intense-I-refuse-to-smile-Arundhati-Roy" fall about on the floor laughing. Ms. Roy duly signed her own book (GOST) "To Sia, for making me laugh". Ms. Figiel, with her booming voice and wild black hair and kohl-rimmed eyes, is often heard in the bars, cafes adn restaurants of Suva loudly declaiming from her new work in progress. Which promises to be a trip!!!!!

This book is beautifully written! Sia Figiel's style is unique and fresh. The issues addressed in this book were universal but the Samoan flare was also what made this novel amazing.

While this is a fine first effort, it's not the great Samoan novel that the other reviewers seem to think it is. It's definitely written for a Samoan audience--much of the cultural and linguistic info is not adequately explained for palagis (that's Samoan for white folk). I'm a palagi who lived in Samoa for two years, so I was able to follow and understand some of the fa'aSamoa aspects of the book, but I think most non-Samoans would find much of the novel baffling. That said, it is nicely written, and the fairly predictable coming-of-age story rings true. I look forward to reading future works by the author, who will no doubt mature into a better Samoan writer than the grand old man of Samoan lit, Albert Wendt. As a palagi observer of Polynesia, I'm happy to see that a new generation of Samoan authors are continuing to add to the written tradition of what was once a purely oral culture.

Where We Once Belonged by Sia Figiel is a novel set in Samoa, a novel that won the Commonwealth Writers Prize. At one level it is a simple story of one girl's journey through childhood and adolescence. Alofa tells us about her school life, her church, her favourite television programmes, and her family. She tells us of local practices, customs and mores. She describes what she eats and how it is cooked. She details her relationships with her friends, parents and teachers. And in this way she builds for us a picture and sensation of growing up in Samoa.

Alofa is quite a late developer. Long after her friends have succumbed to the moon sickness, she has not begun to menstruate. It troubles her. She worries that she is not like other people, that she might be destined for a life that is different from theirs.

But she discovers what all adolescents discover, and delights in telling the minute detail of every encounter. There are older men, younger men, and girls, mothers and boys. She has her share of experiences and learns that sometimes people are not what they seem.

Through Where We Once Belonged the reader thus experiences Samoan life, how it once was, and how it is changing. It is not a rich life, for sure, but the poverty, both material and personal, never grinds down either the community or the individual. Like everywhere else in human existence, some can cope with apparent ease, whilst others find the process of life more taxing.

The true beauty of Sia Figiel's novel, however, is that it provides a foil to external, Western interpretations of Samoan life. Mention of this contrast with 'official' views of the culture come late in the book, because the perspective is consistently that of the young girl narrator. In some ways this is unfortunate, since the book has real direction once this is understood. Until then, a casual reader may not develop this informative and rewarding overview.

An uncommitted reader might also find the book a difficult read. There is extensive use of Samoan words, whole sentences in places. Though there is a glossary, it is far from complete. There is a temptation not to refer to it and thus to gloss over some of the detail, and it is in this detail that the book's real richness lies. Eventually, it is a rewarding read, in its particularistic, individual way.

The story as vignettes was effective and it helped the reader understand the nuances of a culture so different from that of the U.S. and especially as world changes effects the culture, from the viewpoint of a girl becoming a woman, but showing the experiences of men too. I would have liked the glossary to be a bit more extensive, but you could guess reasonably the meaning of words not defined by the context.

This book really let me into the life of the character. It is undeniably realistic. As a student, I am planning on studying in Samoa for a semsester and this book did a great job with portraying yet another perspective on the Samoan way of life. And the perspective of a teenage girl going through adolescent confusion is always fascinating!