Leaves of the Banyan Tree Book

Samoa breaks into literature

I have long been interested in Samoa, ever since I wrote a term paper on Samoan culture in my sophomore year at college, but I have still not been lucky enough to visit the country. Having read Margaret Mead's "classic" as a young scholar, I felt suspicious as to how she managed to come up with her conclusions when she couldn't speak the language. Later works proved my suspicions correct. A few years ago I read about a new Samoan movie that had come out called "The Orator". I tried to get it via interlibrary loan, only to learn that there was only one copy in the whole USA and that one was not available. I have yet to see it. I believe it was the first Samoan film made, though I could be wrong. The present volume was one of the first Samoan novels written, so I thought it would be worth reading such a landmark. Well, all this preliminary chat is to say that I have a long interest in Samoa, but reading Albert Wendt's book did not do much to boost it. Sorry, folks, it's just boring. While I will certainly not quarrel with his knowledge of his own society, he just doesn't create a very readable story. The author had the laudable aim of writing a Samoan novel that would take its place among the works of world literature; that Samoans would be literary characters as well as flesh and blood ones not often heard from in world affairs. With this goal in mind, he produced many "types", he took well-deserved swipes at colonial rule and the whites (papalagi) who dominated Samoa in the 1930s when the events in the novel take place. An ambitious younger man plans to build a plantation (named "Leaves of the Banyan Tree") and rise in Samoan society. His family, a mistress, rivals, an older mentor'friend of his late father's---a preacher, and many others appear. As in many other novels,[and in life] ambition forces you to pay a price. The next generation may reject your work totally. Wendt certainly writes well of human nature, as well as Samoan society---a society like others, anything but the romanticized South Sea island culture of Western novelists. But there are too many clunker sentences like this one, in which a ne'er-do-well addresses Tauilopepe, the main character.

"I did my best, sir, but all the men had already committed themselves to Malo and his money."
The chief character asks if Toasa, his father's old friend, knew about this.
"I don't know, sir, perhaps Toasa will put a stop to Malo's flagrant violation of customary practice if he finds out about it. Don't you think so, sir?"

Trying to introduce Samoan tradition through the mouths of characters is probably a bad idea. I realize that this novel is one of the most famous to come out of the South Pacific, but I found it hard to get through. If what we are doing here is reviewing novels and not praising people for introducing their societies through literature, I have to say that this is not a great novel.