One Big Damn Puzzler

by John Harding Narrated by Peter Brooke

Overview

On a remote South Pacific island, the struggles of an elderly tribesman to translate Hamlet into local pidgin English are interrupted by the arrival of an unexpected visitor. William Hardt is an obsessive young American lawyer who has come to help. From that moment on, nothing will ever be the same - for what (and who) William finds on the island will challenge both his and our notions about love, life and even death.

Editorial Reviews

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Fans of The Sex Lives of Cannibals and Getting Stoned with Savages will hoot riotously over Harding's timely tale. Managua, an elder member of an aboriginal tribe on a remote Pacific island, is the sole literate member of his community. An incomplete copy of Hamlet in hand, Managua has dedicated himself to translating the play for the edification of his people, using the island's limited lexicon. "Is be or is be not," he interprets the famous soliloquy, "is be one big damn puzzler."

After their departure from the island, the relatively benign British left a smattering of culture, an introduction to pork, and an unfinished hotel; whereas subsequently, the American military left a history of rape, a trail of unexploded ordnance (like many of his fellow islanders, Managua has only one leg), and, ominously, a generalized craving for Coca-Cola.

Young American lawyer William Hardt is determined to win compensation for the injuries sustained by the islanders. But wise Managua knows that dollars mean trouble. Yet Hardt cannot counter the impact of his well-meant yet naïve actions -- except by adapting to the old ways of the islanders himself. Supremely entertaining, with a clever plot that entwines classic literature, current events, and common sense, One Big Damn Puzzler is a must-read. (Summer 2007 Selection)

Publishers Weekly

Set on a fictional South Pacific island inhabited by black bantam pigs and a clan of nearly-naked eccentrics, this excessively zany British import has a raging conscience and a muted heart. Managua, a one-legged tribesman (most of his fellow inhabitants are missing limbs), is obsessed with transcribing Hamletinto island pidgin and finds his unconventional paradise disturbed when William Hardt, a white American lawyer, arrives to arrange reparations for natives whose limbs have been blown off by the landmines left behind years ago by the American military. Hardt soon witnesses a staggering array of peculiarities: the "the shitting beach" where villagers empty their bowels every morning; transvestite men forced into dressing in drag by parents who wanted girls; vision quests brought on by consuming "kassa," a red hallucinogenic paste. A few years after his departure from the island, Hardt's successful mission has drastic consequences for the island. Journalist Harding (While the Sun Shines) is an equal opportunity and brutally sharp lampooner, though he sometimes misses (notably in his invocation of 9/11 as a parallel to corporate America's exploitation of the island). Folly, silliness and cultural sucker punches come at full speed in this ribald, imaginative farce. (Apr.)

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Product Details

BN ID:	2940171540128
Publisher:	W. F. Howes Ltd
Publication date:	07/17/2014
Edition description:	Unabridged

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