'Nerdy' politician inspired to write

Samoan Deputy Prime Minister and author Misa Telefoni Retzlaff talks about his first novel 'Love and Money' at a launch at Auckland University yesterday. Picture / Kenny Rodger

When Herman Retzlaff was a "nerdy, determined" student at King's College, he was always intrigued that his moneyed, private school had ended up surrounded by one of South Auckland's poorer suburbs, Otahuhu.

Now Samoa's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and known by the chiefly title of Misa Telefoni Retzlaff, he has turned that fascination into a novel about cultural collision that was launched last night at the University of Auckland's Fale Pasifika.

Misa is in Auckland to lead the Samoan delegation to the Pasifika festival this weekend.

Love and Money tells the story of King's most eligible bachelor, James Wood III, who falls for Sieni Folasau, the quick-witted Samoan university student from Mangere who works part-time in the school kitchen.

It's full of local references, both overt and sly: there's a broadcaster called Paul Heinz and a female newspaper columnist who appears remarkably like the Herald's redoubtable Tapu Misa.

It's not the first book by a Samoan author to chronicle cross-cultural relationships - Albert Wendt did that in 1973 with Sons for the Return Home.

But it is probably the first novel by a country's serving Deputy PM - and, if you're plugged into Samoan political gossip, a future Prime Minister.

Misa, 52, wrote the book in longhand over eight weeks around Christmas 2004, rising at 2am - he's always been up early - to fit it around his public duties.

It was rejected four times by New Zealand publishers, which he found galling, before being accepted by a Samoan publisher. So far, 1000 copies have been sold in Samoa - pretty good by local standards - and another 1000 have made it to New Zealand.

Samoa-born Misa, who came to New Zealand to attend King's, was a distinguished graduate of the University of Auckland's law school.

He is married to Sarah and the father or step-dad of six daughters and two sons, ranging in age from 18 to 31.

He talks at booming baritone volume in general. And with eye-watering directness in particular about the explicit oral sex scenes in his novel.

His ego is robust but still, he goes all coy when you suggest that he must have had plenty of palagi girlfriends.

In fact, Misa good-naturedly dodges answering those questions altogether, no matter how you couch them.

However, he admits to concern that the clergy might criticise him for the sex scenes - that hasn't happened so far.

The most awkward has been his daughters' mortification that their dad could write like that.

But Misa is quite pleased he made his heroine a virgin until her marriage, aged 24, because a surprising number of young people - 20 and 30-somethings - have commented favourably on it.

"That aspect has taken on quite a bit of prominence ... maybe it will encourage [people] to go back to abstinence."

However, Misa didn't set out to do a cultural or social primer.

Rather, he booms, "I wanted to keep the integrity of the love story - all the other things can come afterwards."

Pasifika Festival

When: This Friday night and Saturday

Where: Western Springs