Leaves of The Banyan Tree - Softcover

Albert Wendt

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140054731 ISBN 13: 9780140054736

Publisher: Penguin Books, 1981

Synopsis

An epic spanning three generations, Leaves of the Banyan Tree tells the story of a family and community in Western Samoa, exploring on a grand scale such universal themes as greed, corruption, colonialism, exploitation, and revenge. Winner of the 1980 New Zealand Wattie Book of the Year Award, it is considered a classic work of Pacific literature.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

An epic spanning three generations, Leaves of the Banyan Tree tells the story of a family and community in Western Samoa, exploring on a grand scale such universal themes as greed, corruption, colonialism, exploitation, and revenge. Winner of the 1980 New Zealand Wattie Book of the Year Award, it is considered a classic work of Pacific literature.|An epic spanning three generations, 'Leaves of the Banyan Tree' tells the story of a family and community in Western Samoa, exploring on a grand scale such universal themes as greed, corruption, colonialism, exploitation, and revenge.

From Kirkus Reviews:

This novel by the Samoan-born Wendt (The Birth and Death of the Miracle Man, 1986, etc.), first published in 1979, is a family saga that contrasts three generations of Western Samoans as a way of exploring the effects of colonialism before and after the country's independence from New Zealand. Tauilopepe, the grandfather, who lives on his family's plantation in a farming village, wages a 30-year struggle in the face of European encroachment to extend his family's lands and acquire wealth, power, and prestige. ``God, Money, and Success'' is his credo. His rebellious son, Pepe, winds up doing hard labor after being expelled from the town school and helping to torch a Protestant church hall ``because God does not live in it.'' He soon dies of tuberculosis and leaves behind a son, Lalolagi, who is taken away from his mother by Tauilopepe and sent to a New Zealand boarding school where he is groomed for success and consequently rejects the Samoan language in favor of English. Later, Lalolagi falls in with businessmen and con men of Samoan and European backgrounds, apparently newly united in their determination to exploit the independent country's resources. This book dramatically illustrates the dilemma of a family caught between holding onto old values as everything changes around them and compromising those values in order to survive. But while the reasons for Tauilopepe's single-minded behavior are clear and comprehensible from a historical perspective, they are, narratively, less convincing: His character and emotional motivation aren't fully explored. Disappointingly, women don't have a voice in this story, which is told from male points of view. And the glossary is not as complete as it could be for those unfamiliar with Samoan terms. These flaws combine to make this a less-than-satisfying read. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 1981
• ISBN 10: 0140054731
• ISBN 13: 9780140054736
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 432