White savages in the South Seas

Mel Kernahan

Verso, 1995 - Travel - 203 pages

This is a book about Polynesia after the cruise ship has left, the jet has flown off into the sunset, and the mai tai curtain has dropped on a dream that was more performance than reality. This first-hand narrative introduces the reader to the Cook Islands and an extraordinary array of their inhabitants: Susy No Pants who lives an uproarious life of pleasure, but never strays far from who she is or where she came from; a nuclear nomad from the Tuamotus who attempts suicide by ancient means in California's Balboa Fun Zone, home of the chocolate-dipped banana; and French bureaucrats who concoct an elaborate charade to create an uplifting image of the Foreign Legion in Papeete, Tahiti. The author encounters missionaries, randy kings, dictators, sailors, drunk island tyrants and visionaries on remote isles where tourists seldom tread. Kernahan does not find paradise, although she admits to having looked for it.

Contents

• Behind the Mai Tai Curtain: 15
• French Foreign Legion in Eden: 36
• Simone: 54
• What Do Naked Women Want?: 67
• Life of an Ariki: 81
• Damn You Robert Dean Frisbie: 95
• The Young Unmarried: 111
• Boardinghouse Island Style: 127
• Defection to Mitiaro: 144
• HMNZS Waikato Day: 161
• And on the Seventh Day: 180
• EPILOGUE Death of Three Heroes: 193

About the author

Mel Kernahan has written for Cosmopolitan, The San Francisco Chronicle and The Sacramento Bee as well as various Pacific Island publications. She was the first woman ever selected by the Cook Islands Government to serve as Overseas Public Information Officer, and has worked as a cultural consultant on Polynesia to the City of Los Angeles and UCLA.

Bibliographic information

• Title: White savages in the South Seas
• Author: Mel Kernahan
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Verso, 1995
• ISBN: 1859849784, 9781859849781
• Length: 203 pages
• Subjects: Travel / Reference