Read any good books lately?

[markle]

Well I'm glad we got that cleared up I knew you were saying something interesting, just couldn't figure out what it was.

 

As for the "Great Thai Novel", I tend to agree although the literary tradition here has a different focus, Thai writers seem to avoid 'grand books'.

As for a contemorary social critique novel I think it's early days yet, Dickens and Stienbeck had a longer time period to work and develop in.

Language is an impotant factor as well, Thai is a fairly obsure language so the depth of talent for translation is poor. I read (well started) 'Luk Issan' in Thai and found it very vivid but the 'Child of the Northeast' was kind of bland.

And local authors don't write in English. This is an advantage that especially Indian authors have.

I totally agree with your position on expat writers.

[Guest]

>>>And local authors don't write in English. <<<

 

pira sudham does, but, ... well...., hmm...

 

i only speak thai, but i don't read it, so i am a bit handycapped there. but what i have heard is that written thai is very different from spoken thai and that you actually need a fairly high level of education to bring words to paper properly.

i don't know, but if that is so, there might be a possibility that maybe some person from a lower class background could write a novel in exactly the language they speak every day, with "gu" and "mueng", and all the real swearwords and slang used. a much less obscure language than the more more educated thai, very direct and to the point, but definately not without poesy.

i have spoken a few times with friends in the slums, asking them if they could try to write about their lives in their language. i think that something like that could be somehow a sensation, but unfortunately their days are a bit too busy making enough money for drugs.

i don't see much of funding going into such a direction, but i think it would be well worth some effort of giving out some (unconditional!) grants into that way.

the few SEA award winning books translated into english i have read were not very inspiring.

 

i have not much experience here with the literary scene, but i guess it is rather similar as with the art scene - a bunch of boys not ever going out of their little cliques trying to get grants and exhibitions, guys like vasan sittikhet who blatantly copies from baselitz etc., writes poems like the letter to the queen during her visit a few years back, where every second word he uses is the F... word directed at the queen of england, and are seen as avantgarde artists of thailand, while real people like montien boonma don't even get an orbituary when he died.

 

i don't know, but to break up such a buddy system you will need efforts and funding from outside the regular art establishment, so that somehow a tradition of quality in modern creative arts can be built up.

 

[Pharcyde]

Hi,

I have read a good book, it is from the italian author Tiziano Terzani. In english it is called "a fortune teller told me".

Its about a jounalist who, after a fortune teller warns him against flying, spends a whole year travelling by land and water to and from his different assignments around asia.

It is a grand read, I can only recommend it as one of the best books I have ever read. Check it out.

Cheers,

Pharcyde

[kamui]

Agreed, see my post above ::

[Pharcyde]

Oh! :othat slipped my eyes, sorry.

The book is good enough to be mentioned two times... ::

 

[uk101]

or even three times - highly recommended

[walletss]

Here is one you can add to your list.

" The Sexual Occupation of Japan"

by Richard Setlowe.

This would be of particular interest to those who want a basic insight to Japanese cuture.

[markle]

This is going so well I think we've progressed off the topic I'll start up a new thread.

[Old Hippie]

Loved Big Mango, will check out Tea money. I am now reading an early Dean Barret book, "Memoirs of a Bangkok Warrior" so far really good! I did read Private Dancer as well, thought it did a good job nailing the idiot punter and his dimise! Found it a bit stereotypical of the girls, but I suppose that was just the character. I see a few guys pointing to it as the way things are, and I would remind all to judge on a case to case basis!

[phoenix]

During my last visit in december, I read a book about a young issaan girl, who goes to BKK to earn money for her dad, afetr mer mum died. She gets invoilved in dancing and singing in a kind of molam type music club, has gets raped, has some further bad experinces, and ends up working in a gogo bar, I think in Pattaya. Eventually, she goes back home, and the music club boss finds her back and makes her a famous singer. Unfortunately, I forgot the name and the author, but i think I bought it at Asia books, and it was fairly recent. It was an interesting read, sometimes a bit unlikely, but sometimes seemed spot-on.

 

I recommend it wholeheartedly. I can't give more info, because I left it behind with a friend who wanted to improve their English.