A simple, uniquely intimate gateway resource into the early history of American Samoa as well as the influences of...
A recovered family photo album showcases the early days of American Samoa under a naval administration from 1907 to 1913.
Wheat’s debut collection is a passionate combination of the personal and historical, culminating in her investigations into a family album of 52 black-and-white photographs and tales of an “Uncle Dwyer” who spent time in the American Samoa islands. Uncle Dwyer was in fact Joseph L. Dwyer, secretary to the commandant in American Samoa (among other titles) in the early 1900s. He worked closely and respectfully with the Samoan people in the early days of the U.S. territory. Along with Wheat’s own thorough yet not overwhelming research, these restored and cleaned images—collected but not taken by Dwyer—present a rare look at a civilization before tremendous change. Samoan chiefs appeared in an amalgamation of native and colonial fashions, their beautiful daughters adorned with handmade jewelry of soapberry and pandanus fruit. Traditional toa warriors still received full-body tattoos to signify rank, only to be contrasted with the Western dress assigned to locals in the Navy-established Fitafita Guard. Despite their age, the black-and-white photos and accompanying captions beautifully depict the Samoan people, figures of interest, dress, activities, and their breathtaking tropical homes. The book provides a concise primer of the islands’ history before the territory’s creation, detailing the natives’ origins, their roles as warriors and sailors, the eventual arrival of Western missionaries, and the warring for the area between the German, British, and American forces. The author comments little on the effects of colonialism, offering only the history, to accentuate but not co-opt the photos with editorializing. Some will find the collection somewhat conservative in the history it chooses to share, yet ultimately that is part of its charm, making this enticing snapshot an excellent starting point for those readers it grabs.
A simple, uniquely intimate gateway resource into the early history of American Samoa as well as the influences of colonialism.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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