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Frangipani, Celestine Hitiura Vaite
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Reviewed by SHeila Forbes (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)

Don't let the rather garish cover put you off this delightful book. Set in Tahiti, it explores the relationship between a mother and daughter with warmth and humour.

As the story opens, Matarena, champion professional cleaner, is expecting her second child, which she knows is going to be a daughter. After all, a needle suspended over her belly has indicated as much. Of more pressing attention, however, is how she is to get her hands on some of her husband's pay before he drinks it all at the bar with his friends. Her solution is a drastic one of which, naturally, he does not approve.

In due course she is blessed by the arrival of a daughter, but some 16 years later she is not so sure about the blessing! Having been obliged to buy an expensive encyclopaedia to answer Leilani's endless questions, Matarena now finds that, like many mothers of teenage daughters, she can do nothing right. She consults friends, cousins, Mama Loana and the Virgin Mary Understanding Woman and confides that she feels like throwing Leilani out into the street.

To make matters worse, Leilani no longer shares her secrets with her mother, and it is only through relatives that she learns there may be a boy hovering in the background. It must be true, because on Saturdays Mama George and Loma time every relative going into the confessional box. Anyone who is in there longer than 10 minutes must have some bad sins to confess, and Leilani was in there 14 minutes!

It becomes clear that Leilani is indeed in love and Matarena is full of advice, although it worries her that the boyfriend, Hotu, comes from a wealthy family. When Leilani finishes her education, becomes assistant to a doctor and moves in with Hotu, who is a dentist, it seems that her future is settled. However, life has many surprises in store, not only for Leilani but also for Matarena as they both embark on new careers.

It is an entertaining book full of humour, engaging characters and homely wisdom. It follows an earlier book, Breadfruit, but it is not necessary to have read the first to enjoy the second.