I think I rather failed in my Tonga mission. As it is I mostly remember the tone, which is one of fond condescension–along the lines of Tortilla Flat, or The Number One Ladies Detective Agency–and entirely too cute for my taste. The rest of the book, to my memory, went along much the same way, lots of little winsome anecdotes that are probably very insightful about island life, and perhaps if I hadn’t read it sandwiched in among a bunch of other works that are also very insightful about island life, it might have left more of an impression on me. There’s some very cute and hilarious bit about government corruption and laziness, and some cute and hilarious bit about people in Tiko (a fictionalized version of Tonga) not liking new things (be they vehicles or people) so they break them in quickly and then care for them lovingly for decades. So I read those two stories again a couple of days ago and…I still can’t remember much.
But two of the stories are also printed in Lali: A Pacific Anthology, which I have been slowly reading as I work my way through the South Pacific. I borrowed a copy from the San Francisco library, who borrowed it from another institution, and I wasn’t able to renew it, so I found myself scrambling to finish it the day it was due and didn’t take any notes.
I can’t remember much about this book of short stories by Tongan/Fijian/New Guinean author Epeli Hau’ofa. Tales of the Tikongs, Epeli Hau’ofa, 1988
0 kommentar(er)
