One Big Damn Puzzler: A Profoundly Moving and Darkly Comic Story About Colonialism in the South Pacific

by John Harding

On an island paradise somewhere in the South Pacific, Managua - the only native who can read or write - is busily translating Hamlet into pidgin English when a plane interrupts his noble work. Strapping on his false leg, he makes his way to the landing strip to greet the unexpected arrival: William Hardt, a young American lawyer driven by his misguided ambition to win reparations for the island's inhabitants.

Hardt is not the first white outsider to pay a visit; the British came earlier, bringing their language, the small pigs that run wild in the jungle, and Shakespeare . . . and the Americans followed with guns, land mines, and Coca-Cola. But in this place of riotously logical ritual, Hardt's determined quest to do good could make him the most devastating visitor of all.

Profoundly moving and achingly funny, One Big Damn Puzzler brilliantly explores the collision of the twenty-first century with unsullied pagan reality—and establishes John Harding as one of the most imaginative contemporary chroniclers of the human condition.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Humor, Magical Realism, Adult, Adult Fiction, Literary Fiction

512 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2005

Reviews

[Heather Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a Shakespeare nerd. So, this is required reading, to all the negative reviews, I will admit, it twists and turns and has many tangents, sub-plots and other basic deterrents from cohesion. I don't know who said it, but sometimes ,"I find the digression more interesting than the point." the best is that the two main points involve an island marred with amputee from undetonated land mines receiving insurance checks, and a translation and subsequent play of Hamlet for the islanders. Agreed that the essay "Shakespeare in the Bush" is a nice true anthropological counter piece. The humor is sometimes crass, sometimes dark, but all in all I really did like this book. There are other tales heavily intwined with Shakespeare that are more successful but a satisfying and comical read.

[Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5⭐️
Searched for this book in charity shops for 10 years after giving it to someone and then forgetting the name and the author…. only to be underwhelmed 😂

[Debby Binns · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those books that prove it’s good to be taken out of your comfort zone when choosing a book. It was picked for a bookclub and from the write up on the book I wasn’t really looking forward to reading it. In the end I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s a long novel and really a parable about the American drive to superimpose its cultural values on others.

[Kathrina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been reading a lot of tales set on islands lately -- fiction, memoir, history -- this is strictly coincidence, other than perhaps a subconscious desire to isolate myself. I picked this up entirely at random, I swear, and once again I'm on an isolated South Pacific island with a strange cast of characters, an unusual (and fictional) societal structure, and a wearingly sympathetic narrator. As in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (no fault here, OBDP came first) and a couple other recent offerings, the schtick is the effect of litratoor on a naive society. I think we can be done with this shtick now for a while. In OBDP, the litratoor is Hamlet, and I like that, up until the part when the author tries to parallel events in his novel quite literally in time with events in the play -- I mean so literally that the play is actually being performed on stage while the novel's forward motion takes place in the audience. Harding is quite fond of allusions, so much so that a reader might feel battered by them. I was with him for the island life sequences, hanging on for the OCD vignettes, but completely off the bus with the 9/11 references. Even now, in 2011, including 9/11 references in fiction is tricky business. We all, as inhabitants on this earth, experienced it, but we certainly experienced it differently, and remember or memorialize it in our own ways; Harding makes a big assumption in our perception of that event in rounding out allusions in his fictional tale. The planes were crashed by suicide terrorists -- this really affects Harding, but to me, that's the least of my concerns from that event. The 9/11 bit happens well toward the end of the book, kind of where you least expect it, but after the first allusion to a clear fall morning, you know exactly where it's going and you're not completely willing to go there. Oh come on, do we have to? Well, it turns out, I don't think we did. That little dollop of moralizing on top of an already very confected conclusion was just too many calories for my taste. I really liked this book when it just stayed happily and lazily on the island; I didn't need to see New York City or our narrator's childhood. From time to time it was a nice scene break, until you enter 9/11, and you can call the whole scene broken. All in all, I like Harding's technical skill, his character development, and his imagination, but I think he's too devoted to making it all MEAN SOMETHING. I might have stopped reading on page 357 and been perfectly satisfied, but, like Harding's perception of an American (I'm a little offended) he served me more than necessary, and I'm feeling a touch of bloat.

[Francis Pellow · Rating 4 out of 5]

The discussion with my book group will be very interesting for this.

[Trish · Rating 1 out of 5]

The description intrigued me: on a South Pacific island, the one man who can read and write is translating "Hamlet" into the island's patois, a blend of native words and scrambled present-tense English. "Is be or is not be, is be one big damn puzzler."

Unfortunately, this idea is subordinated to less compelling characters. Lawyer William Hardt comes to the island in an effort to win reparations for the islanders who lost loved ones and limbs to the land mines left behind by the U.S. military. William never really comes alive; his main characteristics seem to be naivete and OCD.

His efforts to find a woman who was raped by American soldiers threaten to disrupt the island's traditions, which brings him into conflict with both Managua, the Shakespeare afficionado, and Lucy, a British anthropologist with whom William has an affair that the author strenuously insists is a grand romance. But in the end his efforts do bring millions in reparations.

William leaves the island and we move ahead six years, to 2001. It's then that the book really goes off the rails. William is on his way to the Twin Towers on a morning in early September when he bumps into his unpleasant childhood "chum" Sandy (coincidentally the lawyer who represented the U.S. in the reparations case). Sandy reveals that Lucy has a daughter and that basic math strongly suggests she's William's daughter, too. Shaken, William blows off his appointment to return to the island. And by this chance, William is spared when a plane crashes into the World Trade Center.

I'm not in the camp that says it's "too soon" or "not appropriate." But this feels so tacked on and the story becomes so programmatic when William returns to the island. Because his very American effort to Do Good has led to more islanders than ever losing their limbs; the influx of money has been spent on satellite dishes, Coca-Cola, and fatty snacks, leading to an epidemic of obesity and diabetes.

It's not that I disagree with where the author is coming from. Does American interference abroad wreak catastrophe? I've read Noam Chomsky, I read the newspaper. But this feels, again, perfunctory and implausible.

The real nail in the coffin is this bit of clunky, juvenile prose: "He thought how he'd carried out his own September 11 on the island. He had done far more damage than any terrorist ever could."

[Helen Cooley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for book club, thought the premise sounded light and fun - actually despite a lot of good humour, the story was much more hard hitting than expected.

This is the story of a small remote South Pacific island living in a cultural bubble from the modern world, in comes a do-gooder American lawyer William Hardt (seeking unasked for compensation from the American army for leaving land mines there) and nothing of island life and traditions will be the same again.

Meanwhile on the island old, educated Managua is translating Hamlet into pidgin English to prepare a version his people can understand. The islanders are quirky and colourful, great fun to read about, with their own logic and beliefs, arguments and loves. The she-boys add fun as well as tragedy. The kassa hut and sorcerers are also intriguing - is it really magic in this world or simply drug-induced hallucination and coincidence?

Ultimately this is a cautionary tale about how colonists can and have destroyed other cultures - sometimes even with good intentions, and this is heartbreaking to see the inevitable, after growing to love the islanders.

(Also, think a bit of an edit would’ve been good, the book rambled at times and could have been somewhat shorter.)

[Sharonewoods · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like 2 1/2 stars. The seed of the plot had a lot of potential, and the British humor had me laughing aloud a few times, but on the whole, I found the book rather scattered. The plot wanders around quite a bit without a lot of forward momentum, and spends a lot of time on tangents concentrating on the main character's OCD. This was funny at times, but got a little old. I also thought the characters on a whole were rather cartoonish -- the Americans are either boorish or clueless, the one British character is all dry humor refined, and the natives are rather patronizingly naive. At the same time, the story did have some rather poignant moments, and I have to give kudos to the author for inventing an entire pigeon language that was both completely comprehensible and very funny. So, not bad -- I'd be curious about the author's other books which got him popular, but I can't say I really liked this book.

[Jennifer Ratcliffe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a hard book to describe. It is essentially a bit mad and here there and everywhere but is a tragic comedy afterall. It roles in so many aspects of Shakespeare which is its main theme as well as mental health, magic, otherness, politics, colonialism, gender and sexism. Sometimes it was a bit slow and maybe outdated a little but it was also from the perspective of characters who are outdated a little anyway (1995)? It's incredibly farfetched to the point where it is slightly realistic and I enjoyed it. Its not one I could read over and over again though.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not that I like everything I read--I'm just adding my faves. The title of this one is a pidgin English translation of Shakespeare's "that is the question." If you've ever read the essay "Shakespeare in the Bush" you've already got a leg up on this book. The Anglo-Saxon bard meets a tutti fruitti world; an obsessive-compulsive American lawyer lands on a Pacific Island where not only the rules but also the whole playing board are different.

[Julie Connelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good, made me laugh, made me depresso! Anti western world vibes (in a good way) I could see how people could be like GET TO THE POINT ALREADY!!! But I felt like it had a good amount of side stories and they all tied together very well. And it was a little bit of a bummer of an ending. But then a little happy. So yeah

[Corné · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing, funny book!

[weezee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I originally gave this 5 stars but I've changed my mind because of the ending.

[Isla Adelaide · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 probs
Was definitely a good book and v fun but the descriptions of some people were abit gross icl like the pointy boobs and the she-boys. And omg William was so annoying I hated him and it was so obvious the author thought his quirks made him even more perfect but I’m sorry he should not have got a happy ending and I didn’t think he was at all altruistic his whole life he was selfish as anything and he was just also shy and for some reason the author clearly thought being shy and weird cancels out being boring and selfish and sort of evil as he did destroy an entire culture pretty purposefully just cos he ‘didn’t believe’ what everyone was telling him the WHOLE TIME and what was so obvious to everyone else. He never did one altruistic thing and he was thinking mean things the whole time yet still was described as so nice and good?? I think the author probably had dubious morals and icl and William is abit of a self insert cos otherwise what the hell. Was defo well written about the islanders cultures though and was brill world building in that way. So stupid also that Purnu was clearly supposed to be the villain yet he never did anything bad except capitalising off of Williams big evil acts and his biggest ‘problem’ is looking like a rat, yet so called nice William is the one thinking that about every time they meet.

[Felice · Rating 3 out of 5]

One Big Damn Puzzler. The title says it all doesn’t? It’s got mod all over it. You know you are in for a circus of eccentric characters with some sort of bad government or evil billionaire or organization that secretly rules everyone’s lives hidden away at the center of the storyline and by the end of the novel Aunt Betty’s goat has been reunited with his childhood friend chicken (who barks) and Dimitri the bus driver/Greek immigrant has had his musical based on the life of Woodrow Wilson produced---and it’s a hit! The thought of it makes me wince tiredly.


But guess what? I was right and I was wrong.


This novel by John Harding is a circus of eccentrics and it does have bad government at its heart but I am happy to say that the likes of the goat, chicken and Dimitri do not materialize and therefore neither does my tiredness. Instead One Big Damn Puzzler is a rambunctious but controlled adventure with a great deal of wit.


On an island paradise in the South Pacific, American lawyer William Hart has arrived. He has decided that the islanders are owed reparations from the U.S. government. The British had beat the Americans to the island and left behind pigs that now ruled the jungle, unfinished buildings, the English language and Shakespeare. The Americans hadn’t been such benign tourists. They left behind guns, land mines and a taste for soda. The island culture that resulted from natural development, the British and the Americans is unique. The evolution of the islanders could alter dramatically once again based on Hart’s law suit and would that be a good thing?


As Hart gets to know the island and its’ citizens author Harding keeps everything broad but still human. By doing this Harding saves One Big Damned Puzzler from being pure farce. His creation of the islands’ history has enough reality to be accepted as possible so that when he places his peculiar characters within it their behavior and lookout become on one level a natural progression of their historical experience.


I did enjoy One Big Damn Puzzler. Occasionally Harding seems a little too eager to point how amusing he can be but that is a minor complaint. This novel is a clever, well imagined look at a trampled over society that survived anyway.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorite book of the year

[Molika Ashford · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is kind of book my brother would love. It really reflects the authors engagement with the idea of (and the possibilities of) fiction. Some people call this "magical realism". I don't really know what to call it, except "that writing style that Sam really likes."

I could tell from the first paragraph that it would be a really inventive and fantastical read, and I was not dissapointed. I doubt that you could write a novel with a character who is translating shakespeare into pidgin-english, and not produce something fantastical.

Sometimes it seems like kind a cop-out to write like you've just discovered that people will pay you to make up stories about anything that don't have describe the real world, and you can hardly believe your good luck. And I usually respond best to stories that are more elegant- that create magic through a really innovative, or really intricate style. But this novel is extremely entertaining, and the fictionality and exuberance of the strange narrative works here.

[Suzesmum · Rating 5 out of 5]

35🎧🏝SOUTH PACIFIC🏝Let me say upfront that there is a distinct lack of audiobooks by authors indigenous to the Pacific. One Big Damn Puzzler is set on an unnamed island in the Pacific once occupied by US forces during WW2, who left behind land mines. This is a story of the villagers and a well-meaning, typically bumbling US lawyer. Managua, the elderly amputee and only literate islander is busy translating Hamlet into Pidgin when William Hardt arrives to start the chain of events that ultimately leads to the demise of this island paradise. The cast of characters and their antics gave many LOL moments and the narrator did a great job with the array of accents, except for the Australian pilot’s, which was awful 🙉At nearly 19 hours and 76 chapters, this is a long read but one I didn’t want to end. Bravo John Harding, 5 stars!

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was reading this book right before Zoe was born. Actually I went into labor before I could finish it and we had to return it to the library. About a month after she was born, we went back to the library and my Kustav Klimt bookmark was still inside the book so I checked it out and finished the book.
It was one of those books that make you laugh out loud. The characters are so interesting and different. I highly recommend this book. It about this man who happens to have a hilarious case of OCD who is in charge of investigating a crime that happened many years ago and repaying this small village back for the crime. There is also an anthropologist who is not too happy that this guy has money to give to this island village and how it will change the way they live.

[Alison Stegert · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable book on so many levels. If you like books that make you laugh out loud, you'll probably enjoy this one. But it's not a light-hearted romp. It deals with the human condition, challenges stereotypes, mocks conventional wisdom(and just about everything else, including itself), and even creates a new world and its own language. The book is set on a fictitious South Pacific island that is unspoiled by the modern world--until one well-meaning, misguided American arrives to "help." The book is self-described as a tragicomedy, and that about sums it up.

My only complaint would be about the author's invention of the islanders' Pidgin English. It was not a problem--except that I can't stop thinking in it: It is be driving me damn batty!

(Recommended by Juliet)

[Elleigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading some reviews I'm confused and may have to reread this book , I read it quite a few years ago and liked it a lot , I think I liked it for the imagery , culture , human interactions , and for the pure love of reading and being sucked into another world , iv read reviews that mention that the author is anti America and anti military etc etc but for god sakes so what , it dosnt make the book any less or more relevant , pointing fingers at someone being anti , or opposed to your personal opinions is lame , and a crap reason to dislike a book , people should be looking at characters , images , language , on second thought if it pisses people off .... Good!!! Perhaps it's done it's job.

[Karen Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember reading an article in The Guardian recently about books that make you laugh out loud. I would add One Big Damn Puzzler to that list, I'm a big fan of PG Wodehouse and I did think this book shared the farcical elements of some of Plum's writings - there is even a pig! There is a deeper, more bittersweet side to the story too though, if you have a dry eye after reading the islanders' version of the Yorick scene in Hamlet then you're made of sterner stuff then I am.
It's a book that owes as much to The Tempest as to Hamlet and references other Shakespeare plays too but if you're not a fan of the Bard don't let that put you off. The memorable characters, humour and compassion combine into a delight of a book I highly recommend.

[Siobhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fab story! The setting of a remote island provides a whole host of amazing characters whom I have grown to love deeply. The best part of the novel is the fantastic people that William encounters. The only thing that lowers my opinion of the book is the parts about William's life off the island. I find myself with little to no interest in him. I'd rather hear more about Managua's Shakespeare translation or Purnu's magic spells than William's OCD or Lucy's childhood. The Americans/British in the story are boring characters who are too flawed to be likeable, when compared with the innocence and liveliness of the islanders. Absolutely definitely worth reading. It may not seem like you're usual genre but it does not matter at all. I was sucked in from the start.

[Turi Becker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes a book will catch my eye just by it's cover design and title, and I'll give it a chance. Some of these books don't hold my interest, but once in a while, I'll really like them. Such was the case with One Big Damn Puzzler. It's the story of a South Pacific Island, a native trying to translate Hamlet into pidgin English, and obsessive-compulsive lawyer, and the way societies clash with each other while people come together. It started out with a bit of an absurd Christoper Moore-ey feel (he wrote a blurb for the cover) but became much deeper and more poignant, without losing its sense of humor.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

He reminds me of Kingsley Amis-lite. I actually liked it much more than I thought I would-- but the end got a little schmeary for me. There is pidgin in it, which my postcolonially trained self was ready to dislike and find incredibly offensive. But it wasn't offensive at all, and was very fun to read. The ending, though, just didn't do it for me.

[Shane Lusher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Caution: I gave this three stars even though I didn't finish reading it. It's as if the author spends 2/3 of the book developing all of these characters...and then doesn't know what to do with them, so he goes somewhere else. That being said, it's worth reading.

[Carolknitnat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird but good.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book! The island really comes to life, and I grew attached to the characters. I think if I knew more about Shakespeare it would have helped me see another layer to the narrative. It is a tragedy in many ways despite overall being a comedic book, and I think the emotional gravity was definitely there - I teared up more than once.

There were a few moments that I was like okay, why are we describing women’s personalities by the qualities of their breasts? But I can’t tell if it was the author being reductive or if it was meant to be a part of William’s frame of mind. What would have made this book better for me is if it was written by an islander or someone with more personal experience… just because that perspective would be enriching to the story and its authenticity! I know it’s fiction, but it would be really cool to read something like that. Overall though I think Harding did a good job of writing comedic characters without making anyone the butt of the joke or overly one-dimensional!

[Val Wilkerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. Its about I will call it a tribe of people who have lived on a pacific island with little influence from Americans. They take care of themselves by fishing, picking the fruit that grows on the island, living a very happy life without the benefit of automobiles, fast food, television. Only one of the islanders can read and he is trying to read "Hamlet" of all things. John Harding you wrote a jewel of a book that I will not forget. It had me laughing out loud, and it had me feeling sad also. It is a thought provoking book well written. I will look for more of John Hardings books. I picked this up at a used bookstore and what a treasure it was. I am going to pass it on to a friend.

[AmberLB · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is too heavy handed. You see the plot points and “moral” of the story coming in the 1st half of the book which makes the second half a slog to get through. I kept reading hoping to be surprised at the end because no author could be this obvious but alas there is no unexpected ending, there is no growth of characters and there is no redemption in this book. Everyone is stupid and simple and used to make a big moral statement about western society that is neither deep nor original. I gave it two stars because of the potential of the plot and because there were a few funny moments in the tale.