Sons for the Return Home

Wendt's first published book, I believe, and not bad for a first effort but not comparable to The Banyan or to the better stories of the Miracle Man anthology. Coming-of-age story of a Samoan young man in a relationship with a European New Zealander young woman and fairly conventional on the interracial romance.

Albert Wendt explores the issue of identity for Samoans living in New Zealand in his novel. Some of the story, I expect, is autobiographical and this provides a strong, authentic narrative voice. I became aware that at no time do we know the names of any of the characters. The boy arrives in New Zealand from Samoa with his parents in the 1960's. His father wants to provide his youngest son with opportunities of education so that he can return to Samoa as a doctor to help his people. The grandfather was a traditional healer and the father hoped his son would continue in this field, as he himself had failed to do so.The boy is a good scholar and athlete, becoming successful in both fields, although does not reveal to his father that he show more pursues history rather than science at university. Also he never feels fully accepted by his peers or New Zealand society. He experiences racism and bigotry, especially when he becomes involved with a papalagi, a white girl. Their relationship causes both of them to step beyond the comforts of their own cultures. They are determined to overcome these prejudices, however, they make a regrettable decision which changes the course of their future.
The dutiful son returns to Samoa with his family only to find himself stifled by the lifestyle and close living arrangements of village life. He longs to return to the cities of New Zealand and to find self- fulfillment.
This is a brutally honest account and not always comfortable to read of prevailing attitudes during the sixties and seventies in New Zealand. It also explores the difficulties of being accepted in a different culture from the Samoan perspective. This is the first book by a Pacific Island writer that I have read and I highly recommend it. I can see why it became a classic and also a movie. show less

"In exile you acquired the gift he had - the gift, the curse that stops you from belonging to anybody or anything"
By sally tarbox TOP 500 REVIEWER on 19 July 2015
Format: Paperback
The story of a Samoan boy growing up in 60s/ 70s New Zealand. At university he begins dating a well-to-do white girl, but both find difficulties in a mixed-race relationship. Her friends show casual contempt for an 'Islander', but she too feels alien at an all-Samoan social event:
' "They all looked the same to me - a wall of staring faces stripping me like an insect put under a microscope. Couldn't you have warned me just a little?" "No one warned me", he said.'
The boy's (we never learn his name) family are working to eventually return to Samoa. In the final show more third of the book we see him trying to take up a very different lifestyle there, and finding out about his long-dead grandfather, a celebrated healer whom his father had hoped he would emulate by studying medicine, besides coming to some conclusions about himself.
An interesting subject for a novel; I felt that (apart from the sex scenes) it was probably aimed at the YA audience. An OK read, nothing special. show less