Review
"An engaging account of a life lived in and around the South Pacific at a pivotal time in its history. Lipton's untried, sweet and sour prose weaves images that linger like the scent of ripe passion fruit on a warm August day in the Islands." --
--Ron Cox, President, Hawai'i Book Publishing Association"How can any one be mysterious, earthy and enormously curious all at once? Well, Sherée Lipton can, and has fascinated her friends for decades with tantalizing hints of stories from her past times in the Pacific. But we've never known the truth until now. Finally. After years of begging, she is telling all. And what we discover is even more than we imagined. Here is someone who does not just gaze, but interacts and becomes involved with people in the islands in ways that reveal more than Margaret Mead ever thought she knew. You won't put this book down--especially if you have ever spent any time at all in the Pacific Sea of Islands." --
--Jeannette Paulson Hereniko, Founder Hawai'i International Film Festival"...a classic [that] I have no difficulty in naming...South Pacific travel book of the year..." "Veteran photographer and traveler Sherée Lipton has published a new book, A Woman in the South Pacific, and I am impressed. Lipton began her island voyages in 1967 when she signed on as crew aboard a yacht bound for the Marquesas Islands. The yacht's captain wasn't a good navigator and the boat ended up in American Samoa. The story of their layover on Palmyra and Fanning islands is the first and I think the best chapter in the book. It's followed by Sherée's experiences with her adopted Samoan family on Aunu'u Island, and other chapters are devoted to the Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and Tonga. The book's presentation is not chronological and is sometimes a little hard to follow, but the cast of characters Lipton knew in the 1970s and 1980s is exceptional.
In her role as a journalist, she met many legendary Pacific leaders, including Albert Henry, Tom Davis, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, Francis Sanford, Chief Sir Michael Somare, Chief Virimbhat, and Tongan royalty, and her anecdotes are revealing. Sherée also introduces us to her island lovers, friends, and families. I like the photography which fills many pages with rare images of the islands and islanders as they were. Fortunately, the book has a good index making it easy to look up people and places.
Librarians take note: You need a copy in your collection. Sherée Lipton lives in... Hawaii... and she is still a frequent visitor to the islands. This isn't her first book about the South Pacific either. Fiji, I Love You Full Speed, published in 1972, has become a collector's item. A Woman in the South Pacific is just as much of a classic and I have no difficulty in naming it the South Pacific travel book of the year."
----David Stanley, Moon South Pacific guidebook author
About the Author
Travel writer and photographer Sherée Lipton has spent most of her life living and working in the islands of the Pacific. At a young age, her quest for adventure led her from her native Pennsylvania to the islands of Oceania, where she fell in love, raised her children and found her life's vocation. Her determination, energy and love of the people she encountered inspired her to unusual feats of kindness. She brought flush toilets to one island, a fire engine to another. When she saw a need she tried to fill it, whether it was church bells, oversized shoes for Tongan men, or a water tank for a remote atoll in Papua New Guinea. Sherée's first book,
Fiji I Love You Full Speed, a travel adventure saga, was published in 1972 by
Seven Seas Publications(Wellington, New Zealand). Her credits also include four awards for best self-illustrated articles from the
Pacific Asia Travel Association for assignments published in a wide variety of national and international publications. She was chosen as Global Health Photographer of the year 2002, for a collection of portraits of villagers and scenes in underdeveloped countries. The collection was exhibited by the Global Health Council in Washington, D.C.
Sherée has continued her travels, documenting development issues around the world. Her portraits acutely demonstrate the face of hope shining in the midst of poverty. Her photographs are visions of courage against impossible odds.
Author/writer and former Hawaii resident, Joe Mullins contributed a compelling chapter for this book about the Pacific island of 'Uvea, also known as Wallis Island. A green eighteen-year-old when he was shpped out in 1942, he became one of only a few among the five thousand Marines sent to the island who mastered the 'Uvean language. Joe resides in Chicago, Ilinois, today when he is not traveling. He is still in touch with descendents of the family who befriended him in 'Uvea.
