After my first beautiful encounter with a book by a Thai author at the beginning of this year - Bangkok Wakes to Rain by Pitchaya Sudbanthad - I had the chance this weekend to discover another voice belonging to this literary realm: Rattawut Lapcharoensap. Thailand is well known to the outside world through travel books and stories, but books about real people and everyday life there is a rare encounter. As I visited Thailand, I had a hard time finding reliable resources about this country, except news and information written in a holidays-oriented tone. Tourism has a big share of the Thai economy but there is more than Pad Thai and island hoping to this country and unfortunately I did not have any access to it while on the road there. My only connection to the people living there was through the guide we got for a couple of days and the welcoming hotels and restaurants personnel. Which was not at all a real connection and even after including a rich agenda of cultural sightseeings and experiences, at the end of my stays, I was very far from an authentic grasp of the everyday life in Thailand.
The short stories gathered in Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap do reveal emotions, failures, experiences and everyday struggles of individuals living in Thailand.
Lapcharoensap was born in Chicago and was raised in Bangkok, and currently is teaching at Sarah Lawrence College in NYC. For Sightseeing he received the Asian American Literary Award. With a critical way both towards the Thai customs and corruption as well as the pleasure-seeking tourists - ´Thailand was only a paradise for fools and farangs, for criminals and foreigners...´ - , he brings to life unique characters caughts into the net of their life´s own limits. There is cruelty - like in the story of the Cockfighter - and absurd in this everyday life - like the father whow as killed by a crate a toys that fell on him, confusion and aggressive intolerance - as in Priscilla the Cambodian where poor Thai put on fire a refugee compound. Animals - like Clint Eastwood, the pig featured in Farangs or the fighting cocks of the Cockfighter - are more than the pet companions we are used with, but do play an existential role in the humans´ life errands.
Compared to the novel, the art of the short story is to evoke unique stories in a short amount of words and for a limited amount of time. A good collection of short stories fills the reader with life stories, through genuine encounters with characters and their stories. At a symbolic extent, it replicates everyday life, when rather than a great coherent novel, we deal with episodes featuring fragments of life. In Sightseeing, snapshots of life are coming to life part of a human mosaique of universal stories stuck in geography. But very often, when there is a lot of pressure, beauty ensued.
Now I am probably more prepared intellectually to see Thailand through different eyes than ten years ago.
Rating: 4 stars
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