Description: "A multilayered, highly informative and insightful book that blends memoir, historical and travel narrative...vivid and meticulously researched."--San Francisco Chronicle
Brief description: Christina Thompson was born in Switzerland in 1959 and grew up in a suburb of Boston. In 1984 she received an ITT International Fellowship from the Institute of International Education in New York. She also received a fellowship for graduate study at the Univesity of Melbourne, where she later did a PhD. She is author of numerous essays, stories and reviews, and her work has appeared in literary and scholarly journals. In 1998, Christina and her family returned to the United States after a decade in Australia. She is currently editor of the Harvard Review.
Review Quotes:
"Charming, insightful, honest, balanced, the book offers a unique look at the pressures of marriage across cultural, racial, and geographical boundaries. Vivid, fascinating reading" --Philadelphia Inquirer
"[A] fine account. Her observations about the enduring effects of colonization [are] penetrating. She puts her vantage point of insider-outsider to good effect, tracing the genealogy of racial stereotypes and cutting through some of New Zealand's most cherished myths about itself." --New York Times Book Review "A thing of beauty." --Tampa Tribune "Perceptive, endearing look at the often fraught contacts between Maoris and Westerners. A candid examination of persistent, troubling issues of race and stereotype in the history of the two cultures' encounters. Honest...forthright...well-wrought." --Kirkus Reviews "Thompson's deep knowledge of the history of Europeans in the Pacific allows her to trace the misunderstandings and stereotypes that have marked perceptions of Polynesians up to the present day. A sensitive observer and polished stylist, Thompson is never dully tendentious or dogmatic. The narrative moves smoothly by way of well-told anecdotes both personal and historical. Her prose never disappoints." --Publishers Weekly