Pouliuli by Albert Wendt, 1980 (book review)

Pouliuli by Albert Wendt (1980).

University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, pp. 147, with glossary.

The title of this book can be translated (from the Samoan language) as "Darkness". I carried this book with me to southern China during a recent fieldtrip aimed at learning abut the origins of taro, but had no time to read it until my return to Japan (where taro is also a common food).

Although the protaganist, a leading village chief, is heading towards his own "Darkness", as we all are, this is a book full of the life and humour. And although it deals specifically with the modern transition from an isolated island life to one connected with the larger, outside world, the book also seems timeless.

In the end we can see a cycle of human life that is always changing but that will always be a cycle. And we can see that our lives as individuals are not independent of the life of society around us, that we are always inside a social circle, even if we sometimes succeed in escaping momentarily from inside the circle.

This book deals with the universal themes of life and death, individual and society, personal freedom and social responsibility, ethics and morality. At the same time, it is an intimate portrait of life in Samoa, a Pacific Island that in the 20th century, was the homeland of many immigrants to New Zealand, including the book's author (born 1939, migrated to New Zealand in 1952).

This is a great example of fiction rooted in historical research and understanding.

As an ethnobotanist, I enjoyed the way food and particular dishes (e.g. taro, cooked in various ways) appeared and reappeared throughout the story. Even as the book grapples with the demands and contradictions of human heart and mind, the basic physical necessities and pleasures of daily life are not forgotten.

(PJ Matthews, Kyoto, 6th May 2018)

Child playing with taro leaf, Myanmar (c. 2012).