This was one of my favorites. A Brit who travels to Bangkok, Thailand to avail himself of some affordable dental care finds himself drawn to the city time and time again. His adventures (or misadventures)are entertaining and offer a glimpse into not only this exotic international city but into the expatriate community and their interactions with it. Highly entertaining, highly racy, and thoroughly engaging all the way through. This is one of those I will read a second time one day. Though he has written several novels before, this is the first I have read by him. I was distracted by the prose in a really great way, in that I wanted to read it over and over to commit some of the phrases and quirky descriptions to memory. First-person is not always my favorite perspective, but he executed it brilliantly. It opened my eyes to Thailand and its uniqueness in a way that offered enough sociopolitical detail so it helped understanding, but not so much that it slid into the driest nonfiction, an encyclopedia. It's a very masculine perspective, admittedly, in its whimsical crudeness, but not so much so that I couldn't relate. If one isn't attuned to the detail, the narrative might come off as superficial and "typically foreign" in perspective. Bangkok has many layers, and he peels them off in unorthodox ways, sometimes with no warning. It's a quality not every author can pull off without seeming contrite or like they're messing with you on purpose. His English candor and values shine through in a way that's muted, vague, and they're quickly washed over with shiny oil to polish the Thai-ness, tame the flyaway hairs of Britishness. He rationalizes quite a bit of masculine behavior - and I'm not bad about it, because it's his perspective. Whether he's right or wrong, it's what he thinks. His interpretation of the sex industry is ... odd. But, that's a discussion for another book that actually focuses on it as a social issue and less of a passing characteristic of a country full of wanderers trying to absolve responsibility. No matter how he dresses it up, that is what he's doing, along with many other men, who were broken by life. The question of if it is ethical or is subject to our moral judgement. And as he mentions, he isn't an authority and doesn't claim to be, so we can't judge him on that note.Definitely melancholy, as many other reviewers said. For contrast, it's a direct one to "The Hangover II" in feel and emotion. That's a hair-raising journey of foreigners with a strict destination, and were swallowed by the uniqueness. This is someone who had no direction and decided to embrace it with open arms.
What do You think about Bangkok Days (2009)?
An interesting take on one of my favorite places without pushing a 'thing' down out throats.
—nims
Louche life in Bangkok. All too believable.
—hmcpvp
