Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Book Rant: Where we once belong by Sia Figiel




I have been looking for a good book to read for the longest. It was until I stumbled upon Ms Lani page that inspired me to read this book. Lani Wendt Young is an samoan author that wrote the book, Pacific Tsunami Galu Afi,which she wrote about the accounts of those who were affected by the tsunami in Samoa and American Samoa. I dont know how I stumbled upon her page but I'm glad I did because she is coming out with a new book and very anxious to read her "Telesa" series. Her first fiction novel is due out any day now. While reading about her journey on how her novel was coming along it got me thinking if there were any other pacific islander or even Samoan authors out there in the world. Thank goodness for the search engine of google, I searched " Samoan Author" and popped up Ms Sia Figiel herself and all the accomplished books she wrote as well as Albert Wendt (another well known samoan novelist) Being that I am a big advocate for Samoan anything these day, I was really excited to see what her books had to offer and boy was I not let down. Just from reading the snippets that they had online I knew I was going to be hooked. The only bad part about getting her books was that they were only available online. But I needed to stack up my library so it was worth my while to spend the money. The day it came in I read it in one night. That good , you ask? yes in my opinion.I lost sleep over this book .lol.

REVIEW:

Off the back when reading the first few pages, you are submerged head on. This book does not hide a bit and is detail to the max. My kind of book that catches the readers attention right away instead of building that character. There is a lot of character in this book. This book depicts the life of a growing samoan girl in a village that dates in the mid 60-70's who tries to find herself in a world where poverty meets the growing of western ways. The book had a lot of samoan parodies and smirky quotes and sayings that only a samoan would be used to hearing. But if I had my husband (who is not samoan) read it or any of my non samoan book enthusiast, it would be hard for them to follow even considering the book had a dictionary in the back. I really enjoyed her book and cant wait to read her continuation, "those who do not greive"

Rating:5 of 5
Recommend: Yes

2 comments:

  1. So good to find another fan of Sia Figiel - I love her writing! She has me crying and laughing from page to page. Have you read her book 'Girl in the Moon Circle'? AWESOME. I would use her books in my english classes when i teach teenagers and they would be so thrilled to read stuff written by a Samoan woman who talked about things they really experienced. Thanks for the mention as well!

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  2. I love a good book. How sad I never thought to search Samoan authors. I suck to not think of our people. Thanks for the heads up. I will have to look up her book.

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