White Savages in the South Seas

Before getting tickets for that Tahitian holiday you've dreamed about, read this book. It's not another tourist guide-rather, a quick study in cultural (mis)understanding that could avert a few embarrassing mistakes, especially for women traveling (like the author) alone. Kernahan's collection reads like a compendium of troubles in paradise, patching together outrageous comedy, incisive observation and caustic social comment in bold swatches like those she used when stitching appliques on her tifaifai-the Polynesian equivalent of a quilt. Her demystifying of one of the few remaining fantasy frontiers left in late-20th-century life is bound to seem a tad cruel to the white savages of the title, but she makes quick work of debunking some unattractive myths and prejudices held by islanders as well. Readers will take in the confessions of a Cook Island queen; share the amorous escapades of Suzy No Pants-doyenne of Papeete's most raucous bar; decode homesick ritual played out nightly at a Tahitian restaurant in California; trace nuclear fallout; and witness the final return from French prison of a revered freedom fighter. These privileged intimacies were won by the author in her many years studying the region, they are signal moments readers would never catch on a two-week cruise in paradise, but can be savored here, served up crisply, with wit, candor and charm. (Nov.)