Books about Thailand
If You Can't Stand The Fun, Stay Out Of The Go-Go
|
Go-Go Girls
|
|
Originally published in the leading fortnightly Pattaya Today, each short chapter in this collection takes a light-hearted but incisive look at the quirky side of living in a city that is unusual even by Thai standards. Go-go bars as a cultural asset, dentists, chicken’s
feet, soapy massage, trousers, being struck by lightning, tattoos, luck, breast
enhancements, beards and being a foreigner—these all come within range of this
lively and revealing book.
|
Go-Go Girls is a charming collection of 92 limericks on the heroines of Pattaya night-life, the women who hug the chrome poles, entertaining customers in the bars and, possibly, elsewhere. While a go-go girl tempts you to buy her drinks, you may fall ever-so-slightly in love with her. Long after you have returned to your own country you may find yourself topping up her bank account, on the promise that she has left the bar and is chastely awaiting your return. It could even be true.
|
Return To The Go-Go
The second volume of essays on life in Pattaya, Return To The Go-Go is a collection of postings from the blog on this very site. If you are fascinated by all things Pattayan, Return to the Go-Go is the only guide you need. Khun Pobaan’s precise observations of life are the only true public record of the unique civilisation to be found on the Thai eastern seaboard. Each essay will take as long to read as it takes to drink a bottle of Leo beer; do not attempt to finish it in one sitting.
|
Selected Short Stories Of Thailand
This is a selection of short stories set in Thailand, taken from my four collections of stories. They cover the different ways in which people look at how the world works, for example in the clash between a scientific approach and a traditionalist Buddhist mode of thought. And some deal with the impossible yearnings that can motivate or destroy a person. Sometimes these may be shallow—a lust for drink, for money or for sex—and the characters absurdly comic, self-destructive or psychopathic.
|
The Thailand Sonnets
|
|
What could be more unusual, and more alluring, than a collection of 38 sonnets about modern life in Thailand? The sonnet was devised in 13th-century Italy and revitalised in 16th-century England. In 21st-century Thailand it has finally come of age.
Most people think of the sonnet as a rather dry form of verse, but in fact the rhythm and rhyme it requires make it proceed at a rollicking pace and the discipline of getting the story across in only 14 lines makes for economy of expression. If you want to know about making merit, ladyboys, elephants, bar ladies, Songkhran, the jungle and all the other things that go with living in one of the most fascinating countries in Asia, then have a go at this book. If you thought verse was a dry form of story-telling, prepare to change your mind. Some of these sonnets aim to make you laugh, while all of them will be sure to make you think. E-book Paperback |
