November 30, 1992
A violent storm that scatters the canoes of a wedding party gets the pseudonymous Coleman's tale off to a dramatic start while it shows that the ancient South Pacific can be a dangerous paradise. Tepua, the bride and the daughter of an island chief, washes ashore on Tahiti; she is taken in by a fisherman and his sister. Tepua realizes her aristocratic lineage counts for little now and humbles herself to learn the tasks her new life demands. Soon her dancing skill earns her a niche in the small community. She first teaches an underchief's daughter to dance and then becomes a member of the Arioi, an elite group of female dancer-warriors; her dancing also draws the admiration of Matopahu, the high chief's brother. Matopahu has his own worries: his prophetic ability reveals to him imminent famine, but his brother's priest-advisor dismisses the warnings. Tepua and Matopahu remain slightly distant from the reader, possibly because their thoughts and speech are rendered in somewhat stilted prose that may be intended to remind us of the obvious--that these characters don't speak English. However, the challenges they face and the exotic society in which they move give the work a dynamism that keeps it afloat.