A captivating trove of ideas about the mysterious settlers of Samoa.
A debut nonfiction work explores the history of Samoan settlement.
The settling of Polynesia is perhaps the greatest achievement in human migration—and also one of its greatest mysteries. The timeline and manner in which people came to inhabit the scattered islands of the Pacific Ocean remain subjects for debate, even with the advent of modern research. “The story of the Polynesian’s great migration is a mystery that scientists have been trying to unravel for the last two hundred years,” writes Levi. “The Polynesian migration presents a narrative which, to be complete, must include why, where, how, and when it began. It has to answer the question of motivation.” With this book, the author focuses on the settlement of Samoa, particularly the Manu’a Islands—islands that the French explorer Louis-Antoine Bougainville referred to as the “Archipelago of the Navigators.” Levi seeks to document the ways in which the culture of Samoa and Manu’a was shaped by its remote geography and the various places its settlers may have stopped along the way. A Samoan Orator Chief, Levi is tasked with keeping and propagating the history, laws, language, genealogy, customs, and mythology of his people. The volume augments that traditional knowledge with historical accounts from other cultures—both ancient and modern—as well as scientific studies into the archaeology, genetics, and linguistics of Polynesia. The result is what the author refers to as an “aerial survey,” a bird’s-eye view that attempts to present a broad picture by taking all possible knowledge into account. (When discussing tiny islands surrounded by a vast expanse of ocean, it’s really the only view that makes sense.) The story that emerges is one of human movement: migration that did not end 3,000 years ago but rather continues among Samoans to this day.
Levi’s prose is balanced and engaging, as one might expect from a professional orator. He adeptly weaves together various threads of information, as here where he introduces a local tradition into questions about the presence of Lapita pottery across Polynesia: “Samoan legends frequently mention that ‘dark skin people with their bow and arrows and spears are frightful enemies,’ also mentioning different methods of fishing….Just when you think a discovery is going to clear up the puzzle, instead it adds another layer of complexity.” The book is not a purely scholastic one. Indeed, the author argues that theories of history that concentrate too myopically on scientific evidence may miss clues hiding in traditional knowledge. His argument is meandering and at times idiosyncratic, revealing his affinity for the ideas of James George Frazer and Joseph Campbell as well as Levi’s own Christian faith. This, coupled with his oratorical flair, sometimes leads to digressions. (For instance, his conclusion name-checks Beethoven, Croesus, and the Bible.) That said, the volume contains a great deal of insightful writing on Samoan traditions, mythology, and language as well as a number of potential theories about the “Navigators” and their motivations. For those interested in Polynesian history, this work has much to offer. Levi is the perfect teller of this tale, and it is a story worth hearing.
A captivating trove of ideas about the mysterious settlers of Samoa.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-95-407603-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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