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sunflowerjess's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Another short, strange, haunting book that I'm glad I read but know that some things went over my head.
ronas's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
luanndie's review against another edition
3.0
" Nada se presenciaba a solas. Nada se presenciaba en la forma `yo´... nada excepto los penes y los fantasmas.
-Yo no existe, señorita Cunningham-. Yo es nosotros ... siempre"
El lugar donde nacimos es una obra que nos habla de los duro que es crecer siendo mujer en Samoa. La historia se centra en la adolescencia de Alofa Filiga y será a través de ella que conoceremos todos los dramas y problemas de su pequeño pueblo. La violencia (física, sexual y psicológica), la pobreza, el machismo o el racismo son constantes en las vidas de estas personas y Figiel no lo edulcora o disimula. Es interesante ver como son las propias madres, tías y hermanas las que actúan como carceleras y jueces de la siguiente generación en un horrible círculo de violencia y abuso.
La trama es compleja porque aplica a la novela, estructura tradicional occidental, una forma de narrar típica de Samoa. Esto significa que la historia avanza y retrocede sin mucho respeto por la línea temporal, mezcla las historias de los vivos, con las de los muertos y las de los dioses, o pasa de prosa a poesía a canción sin previo aviso. Además, y esto creo que es un fallo de la traducción en español, se eliminó el glosario de términos en samoano que sí aparece en la versión inglesa.
¿Disfruté de la novela? Es difícil de decir. Creo que no estaba preparada para esta complejidad y mi desconocimiento de la cultura samoana hizo todavía más difícil poder entenderla. Con todo, hubo partes que me enamoraron como cuando se describe la diversidad de Apia, la capital, a través de lo que distintos personajes consideran el centro de la ciudad. Sin embargo, si os animáis a leer la novela, os recomendaría que os informarais un poco antes sobre cultura y costumbres. Sin duda la disfrutareis más.
-Yo no existe, señorita Cunningham-. Yo es nosotros ... siempre"
El lugar donde nacimos es una obra que nos habla de los duro que es crecer siendo mujer en Samoa. La historia se centra en la adolescencia de Alofa Filiga y será a través de ella que conoceremos todos los dramas y problemas de su pequeño pueblo. La violencia (física, sexual y psicológica), la pobreza, el machismo o el racismo son constantes en las vidas de estas personas y Figiel no lo edulcora o disimula. Es interesante ver como son las propias madres, tías y hermanas las que actúan como carceleras y jueces de la siguiente generación en un horrible círculo de violencia y abuso.
La trama es compleja porque aplica a la novela, estructura tradicional occidental, una forma de narrar típica de Samoa. Esto significa que la historia avanza y retrocede sin mucho respeto por la línea temporal, mezcla las historias de los vivos, con las de los muertos y las de los dioses, o pasa de prosa a poesía a canción sin previo aviso. Además, y esto creo que es un fallo de la traducción en español, se eliminó el glosario de términos en samoano que sí aparece en la versión inglesa.
¿Disfruté de la novela? Es difícil de decir. Creo que no estaba preparada para esta complejidad y mi desconocimiento de la cultura samoana hizo todavía más difícil poder entenderla. Con todo, hubo partes que me enamoraron como cuando se describe la diversidad de Apia, la capital, a través de lo que distintos personajes consideran el centro de la ciudad. Sin embargo, si os animáis a leer la novela, os recomendaría que os informarais un poco antes sobre cultura y costumbres. Sin duda la disfrutareis más.
paulap's review
fast-paced
3.0
This started feeling like a young story of some girls in Samoa, but then it started having changes of perspective, poetry, mythology, and ended up being more than what I expected. I am not sure I got all that it had to say because of cultural differences, but that is kind of the point of reading diversely, getting out of my comfort zone. I would recommend.
dlberglund's review against another edition
3.0
This is a very difficult book to rate and review. It wasn't written for me, and I had to work pretty hard to read it. It was written by a Samoan woman, about Samoan teenage girls, with liberal use of Samoan phrases, and a large cast of characters. It was challenging to hold the characters in my head, and to interpret the Samoan words and phrases without understanding the cultural context. (I only found when I got to the end that there was a glossary!) The storytelling was nonlinear, sometimes all in metaphor or poetry or Samoan songs, sometimes direct and blunt. Some descriptions were stunning, and some moments were painful. It was worth the effort, and I'd like to see more novels published from this part of the world. But for someone (like me) unfamiliar and ignorant, there was definitely effort involved to read it.
octavia_cade's review
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
The thirteen year old protagonist of this coming-of-age story, Alofa, leads an interesting life... or so it seems to me, safely removed from it. In one sense it's not at all extraordinary, as she's very much behaving as all the other girls of her community do and so she's a typical example, presumably, of what it's like for a girl to have a traditional Samoan upbringing. From an outside perspective, though, Alofa's ordinary life is very different. Or at least it's very different to me, who wasn't raised within a society as religious as this one, or with the same cultural expectations. I can't honestly say that I'm sorry. Alofa's a good kid, and the girls around her are good kids, but they still get beaten, frequently and severely, by the adults around them, in order to ensure that the girls conform to what's expected of them. That is, to be obedient and to be chaste. There's more to "good" behaviour than that, of course, but these are the qualities that seem to be brought up most, and as with many coming-of-age stories, this one explores sexuality. It's a difficult subject for Alofa, as she's meant to be wholly ignorant on the subject, but ignorance is no defense, and experimenting with a local boy leads to trouble.
All of which makes this book sound doom-and-teenage-angst, but it isn't really. There's plenty of happy moments, and the relationship between Alofa and her two best friends is well-drawn and appealing. Almost more interesting is the somewhat meandering structure, as Figiel builds up context and community around Alofa. I would have preferred, I think, a more sustained focus on that very sympathetic protagonist, but I still enjoyed the wandering.
All of which makes this book sound doom-and-teenage-angst, but it isn't really. There's plenty of happy moments, and the relationship between Alofa and her two best friends is well-drawn and appealing. Almost more interesting is the somewhat meandering structure, as Figiel builds up context and community around Alofa. I would have preferred, I think, a more sustained focus on that very sympathetic protagonist, but I still enjoyed the wandering.
gagereadsstuff's review against another edition
I enjoyed what I read overall, but I found it difficult to understand some sections. Figiel uses Samoan words and phrases throughout, and while many are listed in a glossary in the back, not all of them are. The context didn't always lend a hand either. I'm not up for this one right now, but I may come back to it.
anya_reading's review against another edition
3.0
I came into this book expecting violence, based on anonymous review, and I would say that violence factors heavily into this book. A lot of emotion factors heavily into this book: sadness, pleasure, pain. We follow a young girl as she grows up in Western Samoa, interacting with friends, family, boys, gods. Through the bits and pieces we read, the mosaic of a world comes to life.
I'm not sure if I got this correct, but throughout the novel, the main character, Alofa, is always part of a group, part of a "we" - traveling with friends, spending time with family (however fraught), always challenged by her groups to do what they want. As the book moves on to its conclusion, something in Alofa changes. I'm not sure if it's her continuing education, being kicked out to live with her aunt (does this actually happen?), or her self-defense mechanisms finally taking the forefront, but she begins to assert her will on the world by choosing to be an "I." I was a little sad to see that change happen at the end of the book with no more updates for her, but it still left a lingering wistfulness.
One caveat that lessened my enjoyment of the book was that there were many small phrases and words that were not found in the glossary - I'm sure that was an intentional choice of the author. One has to think of who this book might be written for, and sometimes the translation of a phrase doesn't do it justice. Moreover, I think the author may have left a lot untranslated to pique others' curiosity of the language (I looked up a YouTube video to see how some of the words were pronounced), or to parallel the main character's little knowledge of English (we also feel confused and lost at times, if we do not speak the language).
While this is one story, and one story does not define an entire culture, I appreciate how the author's immersive storytelling illuminated a part of Samoa for me.
I'm not sure if I got this correct, but throughout the novel, the main character, Alofa, is always part of a group, part of a "we" - traveling with friends, spending time with family (however fraught), always challenged by her groups to do what they want. As the book moves on to its conclusion, something in Alofa changes. I'm not sure if it's her continuing education, being kicked out to live with her aunt (does this actually happen?), or her self-defense mechanisms finally taking the forefront, but she begins to assert her will on the world by choosing to be an "I." I was a little sad to see that change happen at the end of the book with no more updates for her, but it still left a lingering wistfulness.
One caveat that lessened my enjoyment of the book was that there were many small phrases and words that were not found in the glossary - I'm sure that was an intentional choice of the author. One has to think of who this book might be written for, and sometimes the translation of a phrase doesn't do it justice. Moreover, I think the author may have left a lot untranslated to pique others' curiosity of the language (I looked up a YouTube video to see how some of the words were pronounced), or to parallel the main character's little knowledge of English (we also feel confused and lost at times, if we do not speak the language).
While this is one story, and one story does not define an entire culture, I appreciate how the author's immersive storytelling illuminated a part of Samoa for me.