One Big Damn Puzzler

I fell in love with this book from the opening lines, as an inhabitant of the island transcribes Hamlet into patois. Despite the humour John Hardings message of the often negative influence western society and money have on other ways of life comes through clearly.

We all imagine a being on a tropical island, in the sun, the roaring ocean, with innocent and beautiful natives giving us everything we need. John Harding gives this to us with plenty of add-ons: Shakespeare, OCD, innocence and its loss, and the Western materialistic mentality. An American lawyer comes to this untouched island, meets the natives, and tries to obtain compensation for them from injuries as the result of left over land mines. The book turns into an allegory of American values running amok and attempts to give a world vision on todays events. Harding uses humor, literary license, and great imagination to accomplish this task. I thank him for great and thoughtful entertainment.

Another great read -- funny throughout.

I thought this book would be extremely witty but I didnt find it so. It was marred by coarseness, which I felt didnt have a place in the whimsical style it pretended to. The story sounded engaging but in the end I couldnt finish it as it didnt grab my interest.

A lawyer with obsessive compulsive dissorder is sent on a trip to a south pacific island to give money to the native islanders who have been hurt by land mines planted my US marines during the war. Inspired by the work of the anthropologist Malenowsky, John Harding brilliantly suceeds in flipping the anthropological gaze so it is not the islanders who are othered but Western culture itself. This is however, all with tounge in cheek, but in my opinion, Hamlet has never sounded so good as it does in pidgen English. Students of anthropology will adore this book, and probabily best grasp its layered meanings, but even if you know nothing of pacific anthropology you will still get something out of it, as it is really very funny.

This was a great book to read over a few rainy days as its quite big and the narrative flows beautifully. Its a very well told story, of an unusual nature. Its set on a small Pacific Island where the native people have had brief contact with the outside world but have maintained a firm grasp of their indigenous ways. Americans came by after the war, used the island as a weapons testing site and left it full of land mines.The British came later to build resorts for cruise ships but left buildings half finished and in a derelict state, and no cruise ships ever came. THEN one day an American lawyer arrives. Eventually he reveals he is there to seek compensation on their behalf for the loss of limbs and lives caused by the mines that the Americans left behind. As he discovers the island and tries to understand the indigenous culture, we observe with him. We also have William tell us about his past and his struggles growing up with OCD and as an adult making his way in life with this disorder. In between chapters we have Managuas side of the story. Hes an elder in the tribe, translating Hamlet into pidgin English and struggling with Shakespearean concepts and how they fit into the culture of his tribe. He opposes the idea of the west coming to the island and changing their way of life. He wrestles with concepts and is the voice of caution in his community. There is a nice interval at the end where we revisit the island one year after Williams initial visit and then five years after that. In this story there is ample discussion of issues current to our times but put in a context we can distance ourselves from and therefore take a more pragmatic view of topics like globalisation, cultural identity, mental disorders, gender issues.... All together this becomes an interesting and entertaining read and another great example of John Harding’s great skill as a story teller.

My first experience with John Harding. One Big Damn Puzzler was a great read. This book is really 3 different stories driven into 1 gripping finale. Harding does a good job of examining the Wests materialistc culture interspered with a desire to help those who dont ask to be helped. I enjoyed this book thoroughly and did not mind the diversions of other topics Harding poses to the reader. A good light-hearted read that has some touching and emotional moments.

Had to purchase this for a class and I really enjoyed reading it. I kept this one for my book shelf.

Things I did not like: 1) Grating, poorly created pidgin. 2) Treatment of women was very disappointing. 3) Supposedly American characters spoke like Brits. In a book with such a focus on language this was very disappointing. I couldnt imagine being forced to finish this book. It was awful.

I read this while on vacation back in 2011. I was laughing out loud. Very witty, surprising, and enjoyable, with lots of details and well built characters and plot. Enjoy it!