Leaves of the Banyan Tree (Talanoa: contemporary Pacific literature) |
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Albert Wendt
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Pages: 428 (Paperback)
ISBN: 082481584X
Pub: University of Hawai'i Press
Pub date: 1994-01-31
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 40862
Reader Reviews:
Few novels have better depicted the corruptive nature of power and the ultimate hollowness of materialism (0/0 people found this helpful)
Leaves of the Banyan Tree is not just THE epic of the Pacific but surely one of the epics of world literature. There can be no higher praise for a novel that encompasses the full spectrum of human hopes, weaknesses and failings as we follow three generations of a family in mid-century Samoa as they get sucked into a vortex of destructive greed and vanity.
It begins when young Tauilopepe brings disgrace to his family by being expelled from theological college. In an attempt to atone for his humiliation he sets about making his clan the dominant economic and political force in the district. As internecine strife intensifies into outright hostility he manages eventually to outmanoeuvre and to exile his chief rival leaving the way clear to amass great power and influence. The title refers to the plantation that makes him rich. Sucking up to his colonial overseers and denigrating Samoans and their way of life he maintains control of his wealth and position through a combination of physical presence, corruption and duplicity. But things start to change when his son Pepe grows to detest all that his father is and stands for and in anger departs for the city where he falls prey to its temptations. And then Pepe has a son...and independence looms...
I doubt if there have been many novels that have better depicted the corruptive nature of power (albeit at a parochial level) and the ultimate hollowness of the blind pursuit of a materialistic life. Although set in Samoa in the South Pacific where an arch-conservative local culture and a fervent and puritanical missionary-led Christianity underpin rigid hierarchies, Leaves of the Banyan Tree nevertheless deals with a great sweep of universal human themes and social experiences: burning personal ambition, lust for power, egotism, corruption, avarice, alcoholism, betrayal, exploitation and revenge. A superb suite of unique characters develop and mature and then succeed or fail, rise or self-destruct. I wish there was some way of making the reading public more aware of a book that for once genuinely deserves the accolade of masterpiece.
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