Pina

by Titaua Peu

Cadette de neuf enfants, Pina, du haut de ses neuf ans, dépeint le quotidien d'une famille de Tenaho, lotissement proche de Pape'ete. Peu à peu, à l'image de leur vallée et de leur pays, leurs destins entrecroisés se fissurent, finissant par s'effondrer et ils assistent, impuissants, à leur propre déchéance. Aux antipodes du politiquement correct, ce roman crie la rage trempée dans la sueur, le sang, le sperme ... et les larmes. Pas de réveil des consciences. Pas de jugement. La vie. Avec ce qu'elle a de laid. Avec ce qu'elle sait, aussi, de la beauté et d'une rédemption possible ...Prix Eugène Dabit 2017 « Il y a des romans qui claquent comme des coups de fusil Celui de Titaua Peu marque une révolution dans la littérature du Pacifique. » Mediapart « Pina a est l'enfant universel, il est celui qui voit ce qu'il ne devrait pas [ ... ]La plume de Titaua Peu résonne dans un silence qu'elle tente de briser avec une prose d'une poésie noire et tourmentée.» JDD« Il y a beaucoup de cris, de souffrance, de violence et des sursauts de dignité dévastateurs dans Pina. » Marianne

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Contemporary

372 pages, Paperback

First published December 3, 2016

Reviews

[Ming · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book depicts the devastating intergenerational trauma that one large Tahitian family endures. If you need a warning (TW/CW), consider this it for domestic violence, murder, rape, incest, and drugs/alcohol.

This book is also a gripping experience. The chapters reveal many of the main characters' perspectives and their particular injury or life's condition. Nine-year old Pina's voice is the most affecting because she is so innocent and she wants so much to fulfill her "role." Her voice is tenderly rendered by the author/translator and contrasts the swirl of violence and trauma in her family.

The plotting is smart and drives the story well. The raw brutality of this book reverberates, as I try to recount the reading experience. I'm reminded of Roxane Gay's Untamed State and its relentless violence. I also think of Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

The English translation reads very smoothly and the tone of each voice is varied, showing the range of characters. I kept wondering how much of the translated book is the author and how much is the translator. In any case, I feel like I got a rare and unflinching glimpse at life in French Tahiti. Yes, the book addresses the colonialism and racism of the French; it is a through-line as much as the family violence is.

Lastly, I wish the author wrote an acknowledgement. I wanted something of her voice but more directly somehow. (Interestingly, the translator has an acknowledgement.)

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was absolutely devastating. Beautiful and horrible at the same time. Not a book I’d recommend to most, I don’t think I’ve ever cried so hard because of a book, and yet, five stars. Peu describes complicated and painful emotions better than any author I’ve read. Sometimes, a writer is good at emotion, but the plot is weak. That is not the case here.

[Tiffany Farfan · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5 stars. I can't in good conscience give this a 4 though and mess up those metrics considering there are such few reviews. Goodreads let us do .5's, please!

Titaua Peu is unflinching in her portrayal of a Tahitian family and the pain they suffer. in the first chapter alone you are immediately exposed to the devastating pain Pina, a 9-year-old girl, and our main protagonist suffers. I think this is an important moment to note that this book comes with a lot of content warning as the book is very raw and graphic but not to the point that it feels like torture porn. Book content warning: rape, domestic abuse-both physical, sexual and mental abuse, sexual assault (including against a child), and mentions of rape of a child, homophobia, hate crimes, and murder. This book does not shy away from pain.

The book also follows Pina's other family members: Ma and Pa(Auguste), and their other 8 children. Each of them except the littlest one, Moira, is thoroughly explored as they navigate the complexity of their lives. Pauro is gay and in love with a Frenchman. Hannah moved to France to escape her father but finds that escaping to France did not cure the brokenness inside her and questions returning back to her home. Auguste Junior is a drug addict, alcoholic and has no prospects in life. Rosa sells her body for money. Ma suffers constantly from her abusive husband's hand and is drowning in her regrets for how her life has turned and wonders when a man will come save her. Pa, after nearly dying is hell-bent on his journey to spread God's "truth" and keeping his family and island pure leading to devastating consequences. Pina, supposed to be born a handsome boy, holds the weight of many of her family's secrets and her own.

Writing Style: I wish I was an expert in literary analysis because I don't know how to describe Peu's writing style other than it's different than what you find in most novels. I'm sure there's a name for it. It was so different I was very harsh in the beginning, questioning if the translator was doing the book a disservice or if this was bad writing. None of the writing techniques I knew were being employed and I felt like I was reading a first draft that desperately needed an editor to come in and restructure the book. Boy was I an idiot. Peu is a master wordsmith and I can't imagine this book being written any differently. She is a master at describing emotions and dropping a sentence that hits you sharply in the gut. I fell in love with the free-flowing thoughts and there's something very poetic about each paragraph. I felt like Peu was reading to me. What she did with the poem progression throughout the book? Genius. I was bawling when she finished the poem. I was so sure REALLY BIG SPOILER HERE Pina died. I will say there are times when she does shift too abruptly and you're like "wait, wasn't I just reading about X? How the heck are we here now?"

Characters: There are a lot of characters and Peu does an excellent job of giving each character their own distinctive voice. I thought for sure I would start to confuse all the kids but she does such a good job developing each one and several side characters that I didn't confuse them ever. This was confirmed for me when I could start to accurately guess which character we were starting the chapter with without her mentioning who it was for several paragraphs. All of these characters are deeply flawed and many are unlikeable. But each character, including Auguste, has a likable moment. Has a moment where you relate to them so much it perfectly delivers Peu's message that there is good and bad in all of us. I deeply hated Auguste Jr. and even now I'd likely never be friends with him but by the end, I am immensely grateful to him and his part in the book.

Now the reason I give this book a 4.5 is that I don't think Peu's full message of the negative ramifications of French colonization of the Polynesian islands fully explores the issue. She provides a lot of commentaries and there are several passages that I read that made me really stop and think. For sure made me realize that the sun-kissed paradise of Tahiti everyone paints is a false picture hiding the poverty France left Tahiti in and the exploitations of Tahitians. But when I consider Pina's family story in particular so much of their downfall seems more relevant to larger issues like patriarchial societies. Part of me is confused about how issues in Pina's family like homophobia, sexism, and domestic violence speak to the issue of colonization versus Auguste really is just that terrible of a man. However, what I like about that is it does invite me to think very critically and seek out other opinions to figure out what Peu is fully trying to say. I mean maybe she wasn't trying to say anything there or I'm missing something blatantly that I just don't understand because the exploration of colonization's negative ramifications is something I'm still relatively new to. The only problem is a lot of people haven't read this book so I don't know anyone to discuss it with 😥 If any future reviewer posts about it please feel free to drop a comment and let me know your thoughts.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written novel of a Tahitian family where brutality is a large part of their everyday life. Of the five children who still live at home, Pina is the second youngest and it is her perspective that is the spine of the narrative. At the beginning of the novel, their father has just had a car accident and this incident precipitates a series of events that keep on snowballing with a sense of things building towards something dark and tragic, something that is foreshadowed by a poem that grows line by line before each new section.

We hear from the perspective of some of the other older children, the oldest damaged son, the eldest sister who escaped to Paris and the gay younger son, as well as their mother and father and the way these perspectives are interweaved makes the story engrossing reading. As elections are taking place for Tahiti to gain its independence from France during the novel, so there are parts that look back to the first colonial invasion and the warrior ancestors of the family. Titaua Peu paints an evocative picture of the island both of its beauty and its poverty and often has her characters rail against tourism, against colonialists who come and exploit the country, about politics and corruption. At the same time Pina suffers quietly, watching and attempting to avoid the abuse that her older siblings are able to run away from.

The novel contains some tough topics and there are some tough scenes to read but the writing is so good, the perspectives so absorbing and the setting so rich and vivid that I loved it anyway. I’m hoping that Titaua Peu’s other novel Mutismes gets translated into English very soon.

[charlotte, · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rep: Tahitian cast & setting, gay mc

CWs: implied csa, domestic abuse, rape, suicide attempt

Galley provided by publisher

Pina was, perhaps, an odd little book. On the whole, I enjoyed reading it, but at times the writing was a slog and I’m not sure if I could say I liked any one of the characters. They were realistic and vibrant, sure, but did I like them? Harder to say (perhaps the eponymous Pina aside. And, granted, I never really disliked them either). However, having said that, this was a book about a patriarch and how he sucked the life out of his family, so it was definitely engaging, regardless of my feelings on the characters. All throughout, you’re told that something is going to happen to him, that someone is driven to the edge, and that’s what keeps you reading the book. To find out what happens and why. Which also makes it a book that I’d definitely recommend, despite everything.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Around the World Reading Challenge: FRENCH POLYNESIA
===
4.25 rounded down

Really engaging and beautifully written story that largely takes place in Tahiti, centering around the many immediately members of a family. It deals with a lot of heavy themes, but done in a way that felt true and respectful, but also not overly heavy. I also appreciated the way the influence and impacts of French colonization were dealt with here and woven naturally into the narrative. The only reason it doesn't get a full 5 stars for me is that around the climax, the author jumps ahead and then back in the timeline in a way that didn't really feel like it added anything to the story and felt a bit forced in order to draw out the suspense, which threw off the pacing for me a little. But still, and excellent story!

[Mélanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roman d'une noirceur terrible qui évoque avec puissance et rage une vérité troublante, une vérité cachée derrière la carte postale.

En effet, avec ce roman nous sommes très loin de la carte postale idyllique qui vous apporte éclat et paradis. Ici, nous sommes au cœur d'une réalité effacée par les lagons, le ciel turquoise et le cliché de la Vahiné. Nous touchons du doigt la misère et ses conséquences en suivant cette famille qui n'est pas épargnée par la vie, une famille qui survit, qui espère un peu, une famille qui vacille entre ombre et lumière.
Nous tremblons pour chaque personnage.
Nous sommes attendri par ce lien entre Pina et son frère Pauro, ce lien fraternel qui les lie, qui les maintient en vie.
Nous sommes surpris par cette mère qui n'en n'est pas vraiment une et qui, au fil de sa vie, au fil des pages, des événements, trouvera sa rédemption et un regain de maternité, de douceur, d'acceptation.
Nous sommes horrifiés par ce père, par son comportement, sa folie, son obsession.

Ce livre vous prends aux tripes pour ne plus vous lâcher. Mots après mots, c'est une fresque oppressante empreinte d'un sentiment de malaise qui vous envahi, vous englobe. Pina, petite fille forte, courageuse, avec des pensées tantôt enfantines, tantôt adultes. Petite fille qui vous brise le cœur tout en l'illuminant par cette volonté farouche de résistance.
Une histoire de famille tragique, des personnages très bien construit, aux psychologies complexes et passionnantes, un univers posé et vibrant de sincérité.

Ce que j'ai apprécié, c'est que l'auteur nous offre une vision complète de la vie de Pina par des paragraphes consacrés à chaque membre de cette famille brisée, nous apportant ainsi les pensées intimes de chacun. Des pensées parfois horribles, honteuses. Un texte mené de main de maître par l'auteur, qui a réussi à imbriquer chaque élément, chaque personnage de son roman, nous offrant ainsi un suspens et une surprise totale.

La plume de Titaua Peu est incisive, crue, percutante, d'une poésie noire, si belle et si terrible à la fois.
Une plume qui vous procure pléthores d'émotions et de frissons, qui vous arrache des larmes de douleur et d'espoir, qui vous transperce le cœur par des mots si justes.
Une plume qui parle d'amour, malgr�� la violence des gestes, des mots : l'amour fraternel, l'amour filiale parfois, l'amour familiale, l'amour parental, l'amour en couple, l'amour homosexuel.

En bref, PINA c'est tout ça, avec un début, une fin, une construction de texte intelligente qui vous fait douter sur l'issue du roman, savoir si votre cœur va souffrir par la mort ou s'ouvrir à la vie. Le choix pour l'auteur n'a pas du être simple à faire : faire vivre, faire mourir...la lumière ou la nuit.
Un texte prenant, addictif, où vous tremblez à chaque page, chaque parole, chaque acte en attendant ce destin qui forcément arrivera, quel qu'il soit.
Un texte puissant, réaliste, qui peut déranger. Un texte poignant qui rendra inévitablement sensible les cœurs de pierre. Un texte qui fait la lumière sur le côté obscur du paradis.
Addictif. Poignant. Intense. Coup de cœur et coup à l'âme.

[Yennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful and sad book exploring the lives of a poor family in Tenaho on French Polynesia and the long term effects of colonialism. It follows Pina, the forgotten and unwanted daughter who is beaten and sexually abused; Ma, who had many children and was abused by her husband but never had the happy life she wanted; Auguste the father who is depressed descendent of warriors and is super abusive to his family; and the different siblings who go into prostitution or run away from home to cope in their own way. I feel like I missed a lot of context about Polynesian history and colonialism and poverty and geography and language ….

On the other hand, this book felt like an immersion into these topics so I could get a first step into a world I knew nothing about before. Isn’t that the role of fiction? Through this characters I learned about the universality of problems (poverty and abuse and neglect and love and queerness being a woman) while also learning about Polynesia and the angry memory of being a warrior in the past and the languages and the colonialism and the dynamics with the French people.

If nothing else I want to learn more about Polynesian history now

Beautiful writing!

Small note - was initially confused by the skipping around of POV - sometimes first person from different people and sometimes third person. It confused me for a while but by the end I think I understood the reason for it. It’s meant to represent the scattered narratives of true life and also to represent the fragmentation and richness of narratives that come from poverty. And also polyphony, which I guess I’m not as used to but it was very beautiful

[Natalie Coyne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had its good moments, and I do think that it did achieve its mission of deromanticizing Tahiti and showcasing the horrors that Tahitians go thorough, as a result of intergenerational trauma from the ongoing colonization of Tahiti (I really appreciated the forward from Rajiv Mohabir on this topic). But I think that, for me at least, it ended up being more than a little too much at times. The violence, especially the sexual violence with rape, pedophilia, and incest, made me deeply uncomfortable with some of the level of detail/explicitness involved at times.

I honestly may have ended up giving this 2 stars just based on personal feelings of reading it. But I put 3 stars because of the fact that I recognize the point was to showcase these things, that it was meant to feel uncomfortable, and that the book accomplished the mission it was going for.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I’ve read in awhile - once I reached half way I couldn’t put it down. I really enjoyed learning about French Polynesia and the impact of French colonization through such real and wonderful characters. This book is beautifully written (and translated) with unique voices across characters, and while it covers difficult subjects, it also contains hope and love. I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time!

[Eva · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tough one to review for me because I did not like the book but I do not think it was necessarily a bad book.

Personally, I would give it 2 stars - it was far too intense and depressing for me. Almost every character was unlikeable and only developed in negative or trauma-related ways. There was too much incest, rape, pedophilia, and violence that just kept piling on until I was feeling both jaded and overwhelmed and took to skimming the last few chapters. It was a very moving story and I understand the points about colonialism that were being made, but I found the actual experience of reading it to be difficult and unpleasant.

However, in the genre of trauma-related intense novels, I would give this book 4 stars. It was well written and definitely showed the many negative ways that colonialism can affect the native communities as well as focusing on an area that is not frequently seen or discussed in literature.

[Isaac · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this and now can comment on it a bit. It has a flavour of 'magical realism' although it's more nightmarish in what occurs than fantastic yet has moments of hope and beauty.... A dense read. I wish there was an author's note to have a sense of the author apart from the book, especially since it's a translation. The chapters feel a bit like stories on their own as well as parts of the book's arc. Found on the New Shelf at the library.

[Edie Ayala]

Wow, this was a hard book to read! The writing/translation to English is fabulous even though it was a challenge to follow at times. It definitely did the job of bringing to light the effects and hardships of French colonialism on the people of Tahiti. It took deep dives into the disharmony and distortions of Native Tahitian and French family relationships. But it still left me with questions.

[Lanie Tankard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tahitian author Titaua Peu's novel PINA, translated from the French by Jeffrey Zuckerman (Introduction by Rajiv Mohabir), offers a glimpse behind the travel brochures of islands colonized from afar. Published by Restless Books, PINA presents a keen understanding of the global decolonization movement. Here's my review:
https://www.thewoventalepress.net/202...

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too many pedophiles and no joy.
Skimmed the last couple of chapters, it just got too depressing and too hard to care about the characters since there was no hope in any of them.
While I believe the book is meant to condemn the French colonizers it seemed to condemn just about everyone.

[Zoé · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beau. Très beau. Mais trop noir...

[Louisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bright moments but mainly very wattpad. Maybe translation issue but I don’t think so.

[K8 Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

Girl-growing-up-protagonist in Tahiti in multi-generational family with its own set of atrocities. Well written.

[Gabino G. Ocampo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Around the World in Literature #13 Tahiti

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Smart and fearless and captivating and difficult. Essential.

[Ginger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jesus Christ this book is so effing dark and depressing

[nine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Noirissime et sans doute plus proche de la réalité que l'habituelle carte postale polynésienne.