What do you think?
Rate this book
Tales of the Tikongs
Tiko, a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean, faces a tidal wave of D-E-V-E-L-O-P-M-E-N-T, which threatens to demolish ancestral ways and the human spirit. From Sione, who prefers to play cards with his secretary during work hours, to Ole Pasifikiwei, who masters the twists and turns of international funding games, all of the characters in these pages are seasoned surfers, capable of riding the biggest wave to shore. These are not stories of fatal impact so much as upbeat tales of indigenous responses to cultural and economic imperialism. Epeli Hauofa uses devices derived from oral storytelling to create a South Pacific voice that is lucid, hilarious, and compassionate in a work that has long been regarded as a milestone in Pacific literature.
93 pages, Paperback
First published June 7, 1988
16 people are currently reading
913 people want to read
About the author
Epeli Hauʻofa
5 books38 followersHauʻofa was born of Tongan missionary parents working in Papua New Guinea. At his death, he was a citizen of Fiji, living in Suva. He attended school in Papua New Guinea, Tonga, and Fiji (Lelean Memorial School), and later attended the University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales; McGill University, Montreal; and the Australian National University, Canberra, where he gained a Ph.D. in social anthropology. Hauʻofa published in 1981 with the title Mekeo: inequality and ambivalence in a village society. Hauʻofa taught briefly at the University of Papua New Guinea, and was a research fellow at the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Suva, Fiji. From 1978 to 1981 he was the Deputy Private Secretary to His Majesty King Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV (The King of Tonga), while serving as the keeper of palace records. During his time in Tonga, Hauʻofa co-produced the literary magazine Faikara with his wife Barbara. In early 1981 he re-joined USP as the first director of the newly created Rural Development Centre based in Tonga.
Hauʻofa subsequently taught sociology at USP and in 1983 became the Head of the Department of Sociology at the main campus in Suva. In 1997, Hauʻofa became the founder and director of the Oceania Centre for Arts and Culture (OCAC) at USP in Suva.
As the author of Mekeo: Inequality and ambivalence in a village society; and Tales of the Tikongs, Hauʻofa dealt with indigenous responses to the changes occurring and those that have already occurred by modernization and development. Kisses in the Nederends, a novel; and, more recently, We Are the Ocean: Selected Works, include fiction, poetry and essays.
Tales of the Tikongs was translated into Danish in 2002 by John Allan Pedersen (as Stillehavsfortællinger, ISBN 87-7514-076-4)
Epeli Hauʻofa died at the Suva Private Hospital in Suva, Fiji 11 January 2009 at the age of 70. He was survived by his wife, Barbara, and son, Epeli Siʻi. A funeral service was held at the University of the South Pacific campus in Suva, 15 January 2009. He was buried at his farm in Lami, Fiji.
Hauʻofa subsequently taught sociology at USP and in 1983 became the Head of the Department of Sociology at the main campus in Suva. In 1997, Hauʻofa became the founder and director of the Oceania Centre for Arts and Culture (OCAC) at USP in Suva.
As the author of Mekeo: Inequality and ambivalence in a village society; and Tales of the Tikongs, Hauʻofa dealt with indigenous responses to the changes occurring and those that have already occurred by modernization and development. Kisses in the Nederends, a novel; and, more recently, We Are the Ocean: Selected Works, include fiction, poetry and essays.
Tales of the Tikongs was translated into Danish in 2002 by John Allan Pedersen (as Stillehavsfortællinger, ISBN 87-7514-076-4)
Epeli Hauʻofa died at the Suva Private Hospital in Suva, Fiji 11 January 2009 at the age of 70. He was survived by his wife, Barbara, and son, Epeli Siʻi. A funeral service was held at the University of the South Pacific campus in Suva, 15 January 2009. He was buried at his farm in Lami, Fiji.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
December 21, 2023
A set of satirical short stories first published in 1983 and set on a fictional south Pacific island the author calls “Tiko”. There are 12 stories but the whole book only stretches to 93 pages. Mind you, the print size is tiny so it’s a somewhat longer read than you might think, and by the end I felt that stories were starting to get a bit samey. The book would have lost impact had it gone on longer. The author was Tongan but in later life he lived and worked in Fiji. “Tiko” may be based on a mixture of the two.
In the true tradition of satire, every side gets it in the neck in these stories! Probably the main theme is the uselessness of international aid, with those that administer it being portrayed in the book as more interested in ticking boxes than in doing anything useful. The locals aren’t let off the hook either though, shown here as aiming to get as much as possible whilst doing as little as possible. In the hilarious first story The Seventh and Other Days, an official called Sione Falesi is introduced to an Australian “expert”, a Mr Dolittle. On being introduced Sione is delighted and exclaims:
“Your name, Dolittle. It’s so beautiful! Heavens above, you must be one of us!”
Although the locals are portrayed as hopeless, the reader can’t help siding with them.
Without wishing to over-generalize, the people of both Tonga and Fiji are renowned for their adherence to Christianity, and this features prominently in the stories as well. My other favourite, The Wages of Sin, is a farcical tale on the subject of Christian guilt. I often like farcical humour and was rolling about laughing at this one. The Tower of Babel was another good one. A lot of the humour is quite ribald.
There are a couple of more serious stories, and a couple of others fell a bit flat.
Appearing through almost all the stories is a character called Manu, who seems to represent the traditional ways, and who is portrayed as the wisest of the Tikongs. I wondered whether I might have been missing some meaning with this character, due to my lack of knowledge of Pacific island culture.
Overall this was well worth it. Funny, but with the underlying thought of “Many’s a true word said in jest!”
In the true tradition of satire, every side gets it in the neck in these stories! Probably the main theme is the uselessness of international aid, with those that administer it being portrayed in the book as more interested in ticking boxes than in doing anything useful. The locals aren’t let off the hook either though, shown here as aiming to get as much as possible whilst doing as little as possible. In the hilarious first story The Seventh and Other Days, an official called Sione Falesi is introduced to an Australian “expert”, a Mr Dolittle. On being introduced Sione is delighted and exclaims:
“Your name, Dolittle. It’s so beautiful! Heavens above, you must be one of us!”
Although the locals are portrayed as hopeless, the reader can’t help siding with them.
Without wishing to over-generalize, the people of both Tonga and Fiji are renowned for their adherence to Christianity, and this features prominently in the stories as well. My other favourite, The Wages of Sin, is a farcical tale on the subject of Christian guilt. I often like farcical humour and was rolling about laughing at this one. The Tower of Babel was another good one. A lot of the humour is quite ribald.
There are a couple of more serious stories, and a couple of others fell a bit flat.
Appearing through almost all the stories is a character called Manu, who seems to represent the traditional ways, and who is portrayed as the wisest of the Tikongs. I wondered whether I might have been missing some meaning with this character, due to my lack of knowledge of Pacific island culture.
Overall this was well worth it. Funny, but with the underlying thought of “Many’s a true word said in jest!”
December 18, 2025
I joined two book clubs that promote the reading off books around the world. One of them had a suggestion for this book about short stories from Tonga. It was short, the write up was interesting, so I thought, 'what the heck, where will I find another book about Tonga'.
This is an absolutely delightful book. It shows that people around the world all have the same weaknesses. I look at Hau'ofa's book at a series of fables or parables of what can go wrong when traditional people meet the modern world. I particularly liked the story about the man opportunistically founding a new religion and the story of the man who wanted a typewriter and ended up bilking the international community out of millions in NGO funds.
If you are open minded and looking for something a bit different, I highly recommend this book.
This is an absolutely delightful book. It shows that people around the world all have the same weaknesses. I look at Hau'ofa's book at a series of fables or parables of what can go wrong when traditional people meet the modern world. I particularly liked the story about the man opportunistically founding a new religion and the story of the man who wanted a typewriter and ended up bilking the international community out of millions in NGO funds.
If you are open minded and looking for something a bit different, I highly recommend this book.
October 11, 2024
Tales of the Tikongs, is a short collection of short stories by the great writer Epeli Hau'ofa.
The stories describe life in a small island nation in Oceania. Like some countries in Oceania, the people are exceptionally devout (and in the book somewhat intolerant) Christians. They are very isolated geographically, so acquiring simple things is very difficult. The people in the stories tend to get on each others' nerves, because they frequently know each others' business.
The book is very humorous, but throughout there is a melancholy tone. Some years ago Paul Theroux wrote a book called The Happy Isles of Oceania, about a kayak journey he took throughout Oceania. I haven't read his book, but after reading Tales of the Tikongs I am not so sure that everybody is always happy in Oceania.
One story is about a man who had spent his leisure time in his life collecting folklore from the people of his island. He decides that he would like a typewriter, so that he can organize his notes into a readable collection that others could enjoy. The only way that he finds to get a typewriter is to apply to what Hau'ofa calls "The Great International Organization" (what he always calls the United Nations in his fiction). The man gets his typewriter, but he is soon sucked into representing his nation at UN conferences and workshops around the world, and then . . . (I don't want to spoil the story) . . . other surprising things happen.
As you can tell, the book is very satirical.
I have also read Mr. Hau'ofa's novel Kisses in the Nederends, a remarkably comic and satirical novel. I suppose that the novel is more ambitious a work, but I can not decide which of the two books I like more.
And I like them a lot! I recommend them strongly to anyone who reads fiction.
Thank you to the University of Hawaii Press for keeping them in print in the USA, and at reasonable prices. They are available for sale in the USA from Amazon.com.
The stories describe life in a small island nation in Oceania. Like some countries in Oceania, the people are exceptionally devout (and in the book somewhat intolerant) Christians. They are very isolated geographically, so acquiring simple things is very difficult. The people in the stories tend to get on each others' nerves, because they frequently know each others' business.
The book is very humorous, but throughout there is a melancholy tone. Some years ago Paul Theroux wrote a book called The Happy Isles of Oceania, about a kayak journey he took throughout Oceania. I haven't read his book, but after reading Tales of the Tikongs I am not so sure that everybody is always happy in Oceania.
One story is about a man who had spent his leisure time in his life collecting folklore from the people of his island. He decides that he would like a typewriter, so that he can organize his notes into a readable collection that others could enjoy. The only way that he finds to get a typewriter is to apply to what Hau'ofa calls "The Great International Organization" (what he always calls the United Nations in his fiction). The man gets his typewriter, but he is soon sucked into representing his nation at UN conferences and workshops around the world, and then . . . (I don't want to spoil the story) . . . other surprising things happen.
As you can tell, the book is very satirical.
I have also read Mr. Hau'ofa's novel Kisses in the Nederends, a remarkably comic and satirical novel. I suppose that the novel is more ambitious a work, but I can not decide which of the two books I like more.
And I like them a lot! I recommend them strongly to anyone who reads fiction.
Thank you to the University of Hawaii Press for keeping them in print in the USA, and at reasonable prices. They are available for sale in the USA from Amazon.com.
September 15, 2023
Around the World Reading Challenge: TONGA
===
Fun series of short vignettes showing a satirical take of life on a tiny fictional island in the South Pacific. I thought the stories were amusing and cover a broad range of topics from culture, religion, government, development, and foreign aid to name a few!
===
Fun series of short vignettes showing a satirical take of life on a tiny fictional island in the South Pacific. I thought the stories were amusing and cover a broad range of topics from culture, religion, government, development, and foreign aid to name a few!
January 31, 2016
3.5 stars
Though a very slim volume, this book contains 12 short stories set in a fictional Pacific island nation that most readers assume to be an analogue for Tonga, the author’s home country. These stories satirize the government, religion, the foreign aid apparatus and aspects of the culture, following island men through various misadventures.
The stories are well-written and enjoyable, and even a reader without personal knowledge of the Pacific can easily grasp the aspects of island life that the author skewers. It seems to be an incisive work and would likely be an especially entertaining (if a bit painful) read for someone from the area. My rating is rounded down because the stories are too short to provide for much character development, and because a week after finishing the book, not much stands out to me. But I would certainly recommend it to anyone interested in Pacific literature.
Though a very slim volume, this book contains 12 short stories set in a fictional Pacific island nation that most readers assume to be an analogue for Tonga, the author’s home country. These stories satirize the government, religion, the foreign aid apparatus and aspects of the culture, following island men through various misadventures.
The stories are well-written and enjoyable, and even a reader without personal knowledge of the Pacific can easily grasp the aspects of island life that the author skewers. It seems to be an incisive work and would likely be an especially entertaining (if a bit painful) read for someone from the area. My rating is rounded down because the stories are too short to provide for much character development, and because a week after finishing the book, not much stands out to me. But I would certainly recommend it to anyone interested in Pacific literature.
May 26, 2020
A satirical collection of short stories about a tiny island in the Pacific, and its people. It touches heavily on religion, culture and politics. And you can't have politics without the white man coming in and taking over. The most important theme of the stories is development. Development is why the world will go boom within the next century. If Europeans, and all the other conquerors, had stayed in their countries and left natives to their own devices, the world would be different.
The stories are filled with indigenous characters and the effects of their culture coming under attack by economic development. I enjoyed some more than others, but The Seventh and Other Days, The Tower of Babel & The Big Bullshit are my favorites. Great little book to read if you're interested in Pacific literature.
The stories are filled with indigenous characters and the effects of their culture coming under attack by economic development. I enjoyed some more than others, but The Seventh and Other Days, The Tower of Babel & The Big Bullshit are my favorites. Great little book to read if you're interested in Pacific literature.
May 17, 2023
Laugh out loud fabulous Pacifica satire, memorable characters and everyone ends up in the firing line sooner or later; gossips, expat advisors!, lazy public servants, international volunteers, religious people and churches, everyone! What a great community of Tikongs is sketched out and explained! Sooo good. I read this when I first went to PNG as a volunteer and thought it was fab, so a reread 40 yrs after it was written I didn’t think would stand the test of time, but it’s as relevant today as it ever was! Highly recommend. Clever and powerful. I’ve remembered it all those years later and it didn’t disappoint. What a legend Epeli Hauofa was; reimagined and redrew the Pacific and he continues to do so even tho he’s no longer with us. Powerhouse of a human being. Big respect to his voice and intellect.
March 19, 2019
Tales of the Tikongs is a collection of stories of everyday life on Tiko, a small, fictional island in Polynesia. The stories are humorous and understanding, full of irony towards human failings. They depict the Tikongs as lazy, religious, greedy, opportunistic people, who bend the truth to their own advantage whenever possible. The time is in the eighties, soon after acquiring independence from the British. Most of the citizens of Tiko make their living by acquiring juicy government offices and swindling international aid money. They have a love/hate relationship with work, the Church, and foreigners, whose aid regukarly fails to result in any development, due to greed, short-sightedness or simple cultural unpreparedness for western notions of business and planning.
I have read this for Bookriot’s Read Harder challenge 2019, for the category “own voices Oceania”. Although a slim volume, and quite humorous, I have struggled with it, and set it aside for weeks at a time. This is partially due to my dislike of short story collections, but partially to the repetitiveness of the stories. We keep encountering the same corrupt government officials, swindles, superstitions, incompetence. Some stories are quite painful, such as the story of Puku Leka who always walked bent due to being abused all his life by everyone. The ironic tone just did not fit this story, although it worked for most others.
The tone is pretty unique, hard to describe, so I leave with a quote instead, which sums up the book well:
I have read this for Bookriot’s Read Harder challenge 2019, for the category “own voices Oceania”. Although a slim volume, and quite humorous, I have struggled with it, and set it aside for weeks at a time. This is partially due to my dislike of short story collections, but partially to the repetitiveness of the stories. We keep encountering the same corrupt government officials, swindles, superstitions, incompetence. Some stories are quite painful, such as the story of Puku Leka who always walked bent due to being abused all his life by everyone. The ironic tone just did not fit this story, although it worked for most others.
The tone is pretty unique, hard to describe, so I leave with a quote instead, which sums up the book well:
“The Tikong... tends to walk short even though he may be tall. ... He normally lives too long on account of his love for energy conservation, which he achieves with enviable success simply by doing as little as possible or by doing nothing at all if he can. He does not have to police human rights, even in his own village, since he’s never heard of such things. Moreover, he has no global responsibility, for he is a citizen of a tiny country, so small that mankind is advised not to look for it on a classroom globe for it will only search in vain.”
March 13, 2024
I found this book very reminiscent of the style of writing of Jonas Jonasson and to me that’s a positive thing. It was funny and upbeat and light. Short stories of the daily life of characters living on the fictional island of Tiko in Polynesia and how they deal with looming development, colonialism, religion, community and love.
The book gives a funny insight into the fictionalized life and culture of Polynesians, managing to both poke fun at Polynesians as Western aid workers alike. There’s one character that features briefly in all of the stories, but I wouldn’t call that enough to be considered a red line. I wished there was an overarching storyline to tie all of them together but all-in-all I was so pleasantly surprised by this book and I enjoyed every minute of reading it.
This book was my pick for my reading around the world challenge for Tonga.
The book gives a funny insight into the fictionalized life and culture of Polynesians, managing to both poke fun at Polynesians as Western aid workers alike. There’s one character that features briefly in all of the stories, but I wouldn’t call that enough to be considered a red line. I wished there was an overarching storyline to tie all of them together but all-in-all I was so pleasantly surprised by this book and I enjoyed every minute of reading it.
This book was my pick for my reading around the world challenge for Tonga.
August 30, 2023
This very clever collection of short satirical stories was highly entertaining, and definitely made me chuckle at the ironic and dry tone used throughout. It was cringeworthy in a good way, poking fun at everyone involved in the “development” of cultures like his.
I read this book as my Read the World challenge for Tonga.
I read this book as my Read the World challenge for Tonga.
November 29, 2014
The author has written a series of modern folk tales, in which he is very rude and very funny about post-independence Tonga, Tongans, the Sabbatarian Church, a few other churches and the failure of development projects. I wonder if he is allowed back.
December 26, 2019
A slim volume of satirical short stories set on a fictional island nation in Oceania. No one is spared, not the ministers, foreigners, developers, churchgoers. Enjoyable, quick read.
June 17, 2023
I enjoyed the satire and brief stories. A quick and different read.
July 6, 2024
Read-the-world choice for Tonga. A short collection of stories depicting island life, very satirical and silly. I had a good time but none of the stories really stood out.
January 29, 2022
This book was at a disadvantage with me because I generally don't like short stories. Still, my quest to read more books from other countries brought me to this little book, so I made up my mind to slog through it. To my delight, most of the stories are hilarious, so it didn't feel like slogging at all. The two serious stories are good, too, but it's obvious that the author excels when it comes to humor. Highly recommended!
July 2, 2023
I really enjoyed this! Witty and cynical, this memorable short-story collection describes the way of life on the fictional Pacific island Tiko. The themes of the short-stories revolve around the religious influence of Christianity, the recently-independent-from-Britain government authorities, and generally the way of life of the inhabitants of the island. Occasional twist-endings reminded me slightly of Roald Dahl’s short stories.
[Spoilers below]
My favourites were:
•The Big Bullshit (After receiving cows for economic stimulation, and eating most of his herd, Pulu’s remaining bull fails to service a lesbian Australian cow and turns out to be impotent.)
•The Glorious Pacific Way (After considerations on his moral integrity, Ole accepts a government grant to buy a typewriter for his genealogy research. His aunt throws away all of his handwritten notebooks, leaving him with money from the grants and no research subject to spend it on.)
From The Seventh and Other Days: “The Lord moves one way, followed by Christians everywhere, and Tiko goes in the opposite direction, all on its own. Thus if the Lord works six days and rests on the Seventh, Tiko rests six days and works on the Seventh.”
From Bobeep’s Bells: “All heads of Churches in Tiko had two-storey mansions in order to place them close to Heaven and far from Worldly Temptations, to which they were particularly vulnerable.”
[Spoilers below]
My favourites were:
•The Big Bullshit (After receiving cows for economic stimulation, and eating most of his herd, Pulu’s remaining bull fails to service a lesbian Australian cow and turns out to be impotent.)
•The Glorious Pacific Way (After considerations on his moral integrity, Ole accepts a government grant to buy a typewriter for his genealogy research. His aunt throws away all of his handwritten notebooks, leaving him with money from the grants and no research subject to spend it on.)
From The Seventh and Other Days: “The Lord moves one way, followed by Christians everywhere, and Tiko goes in the opposite direction, all on its own. Thus if the Lord works six days and rests on the Seventh, Tiko rests six days and works on the Seventh.”
From Bobeep’s Bells: “All heads of Churches in Tiko had two-storey mansions in order to place them close to Heaven and far from Worldly Temptations, to which they were particularly vulnerable.”
July 17, 2025
3.5 stars
This was my read the world selection for Tonga
A series of satirical short stories set on the fictional Pacific island of Tiko, ranging from the story of Sione, who plays cards with his secretary during the work day and is delighted to meet Mr Dolittle from the Australian Department of Aboriginal Affairs who he thinks, with a name like Dolittle, must be “one of them”, to Ole who masters the rules and tricks to international funding.
All stories have a common theme of officious, meddling but unproductive foreigners (Australians, New Zealanders and Americans) and lazy Tikongs who would rather be as idle as possible.
Some stories are downright hilarious and as with all short story collections, some are better than others. I will say that the themes began to get a little repetitive, so despite this being a short 93 page book, I think it was of ample length. Entertaining and a bit of fun! ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5
This was my read the world selection for Tonga
A series of satirical short stories set on the fictional Pacific island of Tiko, ranging from the story of Sione, who plays cards with his secretary during the work day and is delighted to meet Mr Dolittle from the Australian Department of Aboriginal Affairs who he thinks, with a name like Dolittle, must be “one of them”, to Ole who masters the rules and tricks to international funding.
All stories have a common theme of officious, meddling but unproductive foreigners (Australians, New Zealanders and Americans) and lazy Tikongs who would rather be as idle as possible.
Some stories are downright hilarious and as with all short story collections, some are better than others. I will say that the themes began to get a little repetitive, so despite this being a short 93 page book, I think it was of ample length. Entertaining and a bit of fun! ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5
November 26, 2024
The best book is grade level is grade nine. The collection of satirical short stories set on the fictional south pacific island of Tiko. The stories humorously critique the impact of Western development aid and modernization on traditional island life. Through a series of colorful characters and witty narratives, Hauʻofa explores themes of cultural identity, colonialism, and the often-absurd consequences of foreign intervention. The sharp, yet entertaining, the commentary on the complexities of the development and the resilience's of indigenous cultures in the face of external pressures. It's a thought-provoking read that blends humor with serious social critique.
April 2, 2025
This collection of short stories set on the the fictional island of Tiko in the South Pacific is a sharp satire of indigenous peoples' clash with the Western world and modernism. The everyday Tikong characters face down colonialism, development and foreign aid, bureaucracy, and the powerful Christian church with resilience and subversion. One example is the first story in which the Tikongs exert themselves on Sundays attending marathon church services, and then rest the other six days of the week. The stories are loosely connected with characters and trickster figures reappearing throughout the book.
July 28, 2023
One of the funniest books I've read for a while, like laugh-out-loud funny, and deliciously cynical about international aid and 'developing' countries and organised religion. Hau'ofa's fictional Tiko is very much of Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa but there's a universality to his stories, which fundamentally attack patriarchal and racial power structures without patronising the disadvantaged. Almost everyone thinks there's a right way, and they are all wrong, even the naysaying oracle Manu, who would have you believe there are no right ways at all. But look around you, Manu!
July 7, 2025
Ten zbiór opowiadań to przeważnie pierwszy wybór dla osób szukających literatury z Tonga. Epeli Hau'ofa urodził się w tym kraju, studiował w Kanadzie i Australii, ale powrócił do Oceanii i wiele lat był prywatnym sekretarzem króla Tonga. W tych dwunastu tekstach autor opisuje życie na fikcyjnej wyspie Tiko – mimo że są to oddzielne opowiadania, niektóre postaci się powtarzają jak starzec i mędrzec Manu.
Ciąg dalszy: https://przeczytalamksiazke.blogspot....
Ciąg dalszy: https://przeczytalamksiazke.blogspot....
June 5, 2021
41 📖🇹🇴 TONGA 🇹🇴 Epeli Hau’ofa is big name in South Pacific literature and culture. I was looking forward to reading this collection of short stories because I thought, for some reason, it would be funny. While I didn’t find it particularly funny, it was certainly interesting to read about indigenous responses to cultural and economic imperialism, under the guide of international aid and development. I’m reading another anthology by Hau’ofa, and it’s definitely food for thought🤔🏝
April 15, 2024
I find satire often doesn't translate across diverse cultures, but still, I decided to read this farcical set of stories for my Oceanic reading journey. I enjoyed them - I can't say I laughed and I'm sure some of the inuendoes went right past my head, but I felt I grasped the underlying (and scathing) message. But I struggle with where to assign this book. The author was born in Tonga, but now lives in Fiji. I decided to assign the book to Tonga.
August 18, 2025
I read this collection of short stories as part of my Read the World in Translation challenge. This was part of the Melanesian islands (Tonga).
Absolutely brilliant and truly captures the 3rd world decolonization/development era of the 60s-80s perfectly. Every characters in Tiko stood out. I almost regret I didn't know about this book when I was working in NYC back in the day. I'm also not a fan of short stories but this was done so well.
Definitely recommend.
Absolutely brilliant and truly captures the 3rd world decolonization/development era of the 60s-80s perfectly. Every characters in Tiko stood out. I almost regret I didn't know about this book when I was working in NYC back in the day. I'm also not a fan of short stories but this was done so well.
Definitely recommend.
April 3, 2019
A comical and satirical criticism of colonialism in Oceania, consisting of twelve short stories set in a fictional Pacific island nation. I rank four stars because the short story format doesn't allow for the character development I enjoy, but this is definitely a worthy, if perhaps somewhat dated, read.
April 24, 2023
If you want a satirical take on a South Pacific island nation, read this humorous collection. I know that people wanted more character development and backstories, but the thing is Hau'ofa just narrated enough for us to comprehend the stories. What is essential are the issues he is satirising! If you want a satirical take on a South Pacific island nation, read this humorous collection.
November 11, 2023
Read for my around-the-world project as the Tonga entry (didn't know that country existed before, to be honest).
This was okay. I enjoyed the first few stories but then it became a bit repetitive. Like a grandpa's stories that you've heard a thousand times before. But interesting to read about this culture that I didn't know anything about before.
This was okay. I enjoyed the first few stories but then it became a bit repetitive. Like a grandpa's stories that you've heard a thousand times before. But interesting to read about this culture that I didn't know anything about before.
November 21, 2016
I'll be honest, I skim read most of these because short stories and I don't really get along, but these were a great insight into another place and culture and the satire was quite funny, but alas, it was not my jam!
June 30, 2017
[#81 Tonga] I liked the dry humor of these tales denouncing the negative impact of colonialism on this little Polynesian archipelago. The references and anecdotes are probably more relevant when you actually know the culture, but it gave me a nice glimpse into it anyway.
May 10, 2018
Although his stories can be interpreted to be about his homeland, other Pacific Islanders can also relate. So, it's definitely a book worth recommending, especially for those interested in Pacific studies.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews