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The Book of Puka-Puka: A Lone Trader in the South Pacific
The Book of Puka-Puka is not about travel, it is about staying still. It is about living as a conspicuous stranger and slowly allowing yourself to become absorbed into the ways of an ancient, indigenous community. This book was not composed by a colonial administrator, a missionary or an anthropologist, but by a hedonistic South Sea trader. This young American fishes, picnics, swims, sleeps and falls in love but fortunately he also listens out for good stories
- GenresTravelNonfictionHistory
255 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1929
12 people are currently reading
161 people want to read
About the author
Robert Dean Frisbie
19 books9 followersRobert Dean Frisbie was an American writer of travel literature about Polynesia.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 23, 2020
Robert Dean Frisbie was born in Cleveland at the end of the 19th Century and grew up as any American lad did in those days. He served with the U.S. Army during World War I, but after he was discharged the medical advice was for him to go so somewhere warm as if he stayed in the USA then the next winter would kill him. This was 1920 and he needed to get somewhere warm, and the pacific islands seemed to be a perfect combination.
He ended up in Tahiti for a while before moving the island of Puka-Puka in 1924 to set up a trading post. This is a sun-kissed coral atoll about four miles by two in the Pacific pretty remote from anywhere else. He had only been there a few months and he had learnt the language and fallen head over heels in love with the island and the culture. The locals take to him and call him Ropati. He begins to learn its ancient ways and the self-sufficiency that they had developed to survive in the little piece of paradise.
Even though the island was visited by missionaries and there was a church that most of the population attended, they still carried on with life as they knew it, sleeping, fishing, making love and playing games. It was a life that Frisbie took to, he married one of the local ladies and had five children with her and relaxed into his little bit of paradise on earth.
The culture of the people of Puka-Puka was not advanced, but it was highly developed. Frisbie fully embraced it too, settling into the life there, catching turtles with them and partaking in the various rituals of life there. It is a fascinating book, I liked the poems from the people there that preface each chapter, some are traditional ones and others were created by an individual for a particular event, like the visit of a supply ship. Frisbie’s prose is very readable, he has a knack of portraying the way of life there in such a way that you can feel the warmth of the sun lifting of the page, hear the gentle sound of the sea lapping the beaches or share the terror of being battered by a typhoon. Highly recommended and if this part of the globe interests you then I can also recommend A Pattern of Islands by Arthur Grimble.
He ended up in Tahiti for a while before moving the island of Puka-Puka in 1924 to set up a trading post. This is a sun-kissed coral atoll about four miles by two in the Pacific pretty remote from anywhere else. He had only been there a few months and he had learnt the language and fallen head over heels in love with the island and the culture. The locals take to him and call him Ropati. He begins to learn its ancient ways and the self-sufficiency that they had developed to survive in the little piece of paradise.
Even though the island was visited by missionaries and there was a church that most of the population attended, they still carried on with life as they knew it, sleeping, fishing, making love and playing games. It was a life that Frisbie took to, he married one of the local ladies and had five children with her and relaxed into his little bit of paradise on earth.
The culture of the people of Puka-Puka was not advanced, but it was highly developed. Frisbie fully embraced it too, settling into the life there, catching turtles with them and partaking in the various rituals of life there. It is a fascinating book, I liked the poems from the people there that preface each chapter, some are traditional ones and others were created by an individual for a particular event, like the visit of a supply ship. Frisbie’s prose is very readable, he has a knack of portraying the way of life there in such a way that you can feel the warmth of the sun lifting of the page, hear the gentle sound of the sea lapping the beaches or share the terror of being battered by a typhoon. Highly recommended and if this part of the globe interests you then I can also recommend A Pattern of Islands by Arthur Grimble.
July 21, 2019
Due to including photos and a quote which I can't get to display properly on Goodreads you can read my review on my blog here.... https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2019...
October 31, 2022
Interesting!
January 13, 2022
Enjoyed this a little more than island of desire, loved the fishing stories and the myths of the island
Want to read
September 28, 2009Found in the book 'How to be Idle'. Writes that it's inhabitants are constantly napping. Paradise!
January 14, 2021
Frisbie’s account of South Pacific Island life is honest, warm and caring. I was transported back 100 years and did not want to leave. The perfect salve for a pandemic lockdown.
February 28, 2022
“If you search diligently you should find a dot smaller than a fly-speck on a line whose ends touch Lima, Peru, and the northeast point of Australia. Perhaps the dot doesn’t appear to the naked eye. In that case, if you are still interested, intersect the first line with a second running from San Francisco to the northwest cape of New Zealand, and a third traversing the Pacific from Shanghai to the Horn. Where the three lines cross you will either find Danger Island or you won’t, depending on whether the hydrographer thought it worth while to mark such an insignificant crumb of land.” Thus Robert ‘Ropati’ Frisbie introduces the Atoll of Puia-Puka, aka Danger Island, in this excellent book. Wanting to get away completely from what he described as the rat race, Frisbie set himself up as a trader on the remote Island of Pukapuka in the northern Cook Islands. ‘The Book of Puka-Puka’ is his remarkable and entertaining memoir of a remote atoll in the 1920s. His descriptions of the locals, their habits and customs are well-written and enjoyable, particularly his description of the parade of locals on their way to Church. He covers all aspects of life on Puka-Puka from his first day of trading to torchlight expeditions to net flying fish, to the amorous adventures of the islanders. Frisbie died in 1948, and this underestimated book is probably the best description ever written of everyday life in the South Seas.
May 30, 2024
Interesting book, if one is interested in an American’s life and perceptions while living in the remote South Pacific.
August 31, 2025
My barber lent me this book to read while I was on a sailing trip in the South Pacific. Fascinating stories that felt so near and relevant while in the area.
December 11, 2025
I love this book. Mostly because of my obsession with the South Pacific.
March 21, 2008
Probably the pick of the litter for Frisbie
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews