Where We Once Belonged

by Sia Figiel

Book Overview

A bestseller in New Zealand and winner of the prestigious Commonwealth Prize, Sia Figiel's debut marks the first time a novel by a Samoan woman has been published in the United States. Figiel uses the traditional Samoan storytelling form of su'ifefiloi to talk back to Western anthropological studies of Samoan women and culture. Told in a series of linked episodes, this powerful and highly original narrative follows 13-year-old Alofa Filiga...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1885030274
• ISBN13: 9781885030276
• Release Date: November 1999
• Publisher: Kaya/Muae
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.2" x 7.2"

Customer Reviews

Wonderfully realistic!

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!

Excellent Novel: Covers Ethnic/Feminist Issues

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.

A wonderful female coming of age story

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)

Fabulous!

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.

Gripping, witty, brilliant observation, social commentary

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!!!!!