A quick search of the Internet for top vacation and retirement destinations will frequently turn up Thailand. A jaunt over to Amazon to find some books about Thailand will inevitably return numerous guidebooks and works of fiction written by white men who have either moved or vacationed here. There is not much fiction written in English by a Thai author. Which is why I was excited to find “Sightseeing” by Rattawut Lapcharoensap, a collection of short stories about Thailand.
About the Author
Rattawut was born in Chicago, but raised in Bangkok. “Farangs,” a story that is included in “Sightseeing,” was his first published piece in “Grata 85.” “Sightseeing” is his first book and was selected for the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” program and won the Asian American Literary Award.
There are six stories that I would classify as short stories and one that seems more like a novella.
Farangs
The first story, “Farangs,” is about a young adult who works with his mother at a beach motel and is always falling for the Western women tourists who pass through the area. Added to the complication of falling in love with women, who make no attempt at understanding the young man’s culture as well as the fact that they are constantly rotating through the area, is that his father is also a Westerner who left his mother.
There are little interactions in this story that clued me into the author’s intimate knowledge of Thai culture, such as when a friend is speaking to him in Thai and calling him out for his date’s immodest clothing, and when she asks what is going on the translation is one that everything is fine, not to worry! The melancholy ending of the story also sets the tone for the rest of the stories in the collection.
These are not stories to read if you find Thailand to be a wonderful paradise and idealize the way of life here. Or rather, perhaps that is exactly the reason you should read these stories, as they will show you some of the darker repercussions of the culture here.
At the Cafe Lovely
The next story is about a set of brothers whose father has died and their mother has sunk into a depression and is called “At the Cafe Lovely.” The older brother self-medicates through rather destructive behavior and the younger brother, the narrator, wants to tag along and get out of the house that their mother’s depression looms over.
The narrator tells the story as if looking back on the beginning of where things began to go wrong for him. While the family is in an urban setting and the father’s death is related to his urban job, I couldn’t help but relate the issues facing these boys to the children in my area, who parents have left the village for work, leaving the kids with aging grandparents and, as such, little supervision.
Not to mention that the culture around sex for boys is one that they have an insatiable appetite and are encouraged to go to brothels even at a young age, as happens in the climax of the story.
Draft Day
“Draft Day” seemed to be an especially poignant read right now, as the military government trumpets its efforts at rooting out corruption. In Thailand, every young boy is up to be drafted into the military. On the appointed day, the boys and their families are all assembled to draw a card, either red or black, which denoted whether they are then drafted to serve or not (respectively).
The story is told from the perspective of a boy whose father bribed his son’s fate to not serve, while his best friend, whose father had died and mother struggles to make ends meet, is ultimately drafted. The detailing of the bribes and facing the ultimate reality of those bribes was especially moving and not something I think is the general understanding of the corruption here.
Sightseeing
One thing that has struck me, and that is often brought up by my co-teacher when I talk about my travels in Thailand, is that Thai people generally do not do much traveling around their own country. But in “Sightseeing,” a young woman and her mother take a trip to see a famous island before the mother loses her eyesight.
The young woman has decided to put her university education on hold to take care of her mother, which becomes a point of contention. This conflict really speaks to the Thai cultural sense of responsibility that children have towards taking care of their parents. Even when her mother tells her that she will not stand for her daughter to not go, the daughter remains adamant that she needs to take care of her mother as she goes blind.
The story combines several things about Thai culture very adeptly into one concise and emotional story.
Priscilla the Cambodia
“Priscilla the Cambodia” offers a very frank picture of the xenophobia that is endemic in Thai culture. Two young boys start off by throwing rocks at the shanties occupied by Cambodia refugees. Eventually they befriend a young girl who lives there and it opens the young boys eyes, even just slightly, to their shared humanity.
But later, the Thai community burns down the homes of the refugees and drives them, and the boys’ new friend, away to find a new place to be.
Casual racism and xenophobia is something I definitely encounter here and it was nice to have a story explore the way that those kinds of sentiments begin to ebb away, even if it ultimately did not have a very uplifting ending.
Please Don’t Let Me Die in This Place
That reason the majority of Western men who come here is to find a wife is no secret. But “Please Don’t Let Me Die in This Place” kind of defies the expectations associated with this fact.
It’s told from the perspective of an older man, whose health is failing, who has moved to Thailand because his son had married a Thai woman. He ruminates on why his son had to marry someone from a different culture, gets upset that his grandkids and daughter-in-law don’t understand him and expresses an enormous amount of contempt and frustration at his current situation.
At one point in the story, though, he watches as his son and daughter-in-law dance along on a dance floor and notices the whispers and points at them from the crowd, who are likely wondering if the woman is a prostitute. The narrator in that moment comes to the realization, and says as much, that his son’s love is a brave act in the face of so much misunderstanding.
Cockfighter
The final story, “Cockfighter,” is more of a novella than a short story.
This story, which is told from the perspective of a girl as her father, once the best cock fighter in the village, falls from prominence and into debt at the hands of the village headman’s son who feels personally slighted when he loses.
There is so much going on in this story that speaks to so much of Thai culture: gambling, sexism, classism, corruption, collectivism, greng jai and not wanting to rock the boat, saving face, pride, the sense of responsibility to one’s parents.
I would recommend reading this story, even if it wasn’t with all the others, to anyone who wanted a clearer picture of what the village dynamics are truly like. I’m sure many things that happen in the story would leave a Westerner questions, “Well, why didn’t she just….?” to which the answer is “Because Thai culture.”
Recommendation
I found this collection to be extremely readable, and having lived in Thailand and experienced much of the culture here, very relatable. Though, not much of the cultural norms and backstories are spelled out, which may leave some Western readers confused as to the motivations of the character. However, one is able to read between the lines in many instances.
If all you have heard about Thailand is that it is the “Land of Smiles” and a paradise, and want to read about and feel some of the darker side of this country, definitely pick up a copy of this book.