Jeff Lee

Pinctada Jeff Lee

The Pinctada Duo is an epic coming-of-age story told in two novels ("En Mer" & "Lost and Found in Paradise") that are intended to be read as one work. In 1956, American teenagers Bill Benton and Brittany "Bambi" Macey sail to French Polynesia on a stolen yawl and endure tumultuous months that erase what remains of their adolescent innocence. Under the benevolent mentorship of Oliana Teriierooiterai, a prominent Marquesan chieftess on the island of Hiva Oa, they learn to cope with earning a living and parenthood while exploring the myriad manifestations of adult sexuality to which they are exposed. Bill and Bambi move beyond a taboo-rejecting, adolescent rebellion to an existence where the only restraints to satisfying one's sexual appetites are consent and imagination. The inclusion of significant doses of greed, betrayal, cannibalism, and a beautiful and faithful mahu -- a third gender person named Mahana who becomes both friend and lover -- creates a story set in a world that is far different from the America that Bill and Bambi have left behind, a world in which conflicts are resolved by fate, courage, perseverance, and a strategic return.