Novel
Kisses in the Nederends
Epeli Hauʻofa · 1987
Synopsis
On the imaginary island of Tipota, Oilei Bomboki, a fairly important man, wakes up one morning with an atrocious pain in his backside. He runs from one traditional healer to another, then to the doctors, up to an extravagant operation, without finding a remedy. In desperation, he turns to Babu Vivekanand, at once sage, yogi and swindler, whose lessons lead him to look differently at the source of his ailment.
Context
The novel came out in 1987 in Auckland from Penguin, then in 1995 from the University of Hawaii Press. Presented by its publishers in the tradition of Rabelais, it makes an intimate pain the starting point of a fierce and absurd comedy about an island community. Critics place it among the first works of written Tongan literature and note it for its satirical vein. The island of Tipota borrows from Fiji, where the author lived. It is not translated into French.
Who it is for
For laughing at Oceania with an anthropologist turned novelist, in a farce that spares neither the healers nor the sages.
Prizes and reception
A satire in the Rabelaisian vein, published in New Zealand then reissued in the United States eight years later.
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