About
Author: Russell Souba (Papua New Guinea)
Genre: Social
Setting
Place: Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea
Time: 1970-80s
My Rating (see what this means)
My Subjective Rating: 1
My ‘Objective’ Rating: 1.9
Short Blog Notice:
I avoid writing full length blogs for all books. I still create a page for my completionist proclivities.
These can be books when I feel I don't have something new I can add over existing online content
OR when I don't like the book.
Introduction and Review
Maiba, by Russell Souba is a story of a young orphan daughter of a tribal chief in coastal Papua New Guinea. While recounting her life – the book captures, in great depth, the life and times of a certain Papuan tribe.
The book itself is not set far back into the past – and it remarkably highlights how the traditional way of life in PNG was suddenly exposed to great modernity. The contrast understandably is very stark. The book paints a vivid picture, in all its brutality – with rapes and murders and superstitions, as well its mundane – the routine, the hunting and superstitions of the village. Parts of it are very disturbing.
The narration feels very jagged – and the book reads as a novel in a moment and a National Geographic documentary in the next – making for not the most pleasant read.
For instance, there is an abrupt jump to the characters youth in the initial chapters, but then the book jumps back to their childhood and the characters don’t grow up for the rest of the book – leaving one to wonder what the point of the exercise was. Even the main story arc shifts from the protagonist to an sudden village coup – in the final chapters – and the protagonist seemed to have been left aside as any supporting character.
In conclusion: The book – Informative : Perhaps :: Entertaining : Not Really
Picture Credits:
- Cover Picture: http://milnebay.gov.pg/