If you want to include excellent review of this book I suggest you include the following: Chris Tiffin. Mana. 3(1) p.140-142; Oct 1978 James Bertram. Listener. 88(1995) p.54-5; Mar 25 1978. World Literature Today. 52 p.696; Autumn 1978. World Literature Today. 52 p.247; Spring 1978. Sally Lodge. Publishers Weekly. 218 p.83; Oct 31 1980. Library Journal. 106 p.473; Feb 15 1981.

I thought this book was pretty cool, it had the whole "future with no privacy or real reality" plotline like The Matrix or 1984. The story was great and the writing was excellent, but the names were a little hard to read and I thought the ending was bad. The book's ending was so up in the air that it might as well have not been there. but other than that the book was exceptional and I recommend it to anyone who liked The Matrix or 1984.

Albert Wendt is the author of novels, short stories and poetry, including, Sons for the Return Home, Flying-Fox in the Freedom Tree, Inside Us Dead, Pouliuli and Leaves of the Banyan Tree. Living in Western Samoa, Wendt recieved a scholarship to continue his studies in New Zealand. Attending Victoria University at Wellington, there he earned his M.A. in history. Wendt's style of written is difficult and a bit foreign if you would, I'm guessing of the different schoolings he had, his style is more aggressive in writing with deep feelings, comedy and tragedy, which makes him a great writer. Flying-fox in the Freedom Tree is a sequel to the Leaves of the Bayan Tree which is focused on a young Samoan boy, Pepe of Sapepe. Throughout the story Pepe is brainwashed by his two mentors, senoir chief, Toasa "Pepe's conscience" and Tagata, a city dwarf condemned of his stature to be an oddity, a flying fox 'with an eagle in the gut'. Torn between these two paradox, Pepe embarks on a life of defiance aganist his father's unholy trinity of God, Money and Success only to find that the precepts and responsiblities Toasa had taught him are impossible to practice.

I've no idea what Wendt was thinking when he wrote this, but this doesn't even begin to measure up to his previous best works. This doesn't have a Samoan setting, and he's first and foremost a regional writer, so it's painful to read this mishmash of a novel. Couldn't help thinking about "Flying Fox" and "Sons for the Return Home" and wishing that Wendt had stuck to what he knows best: Samoa and its people.