Bangkok 8: A Novel Review
The thing I enjoyed most about this unusual novel is that it works on multiple levels, certainly as a thriller, but also as a modern morality tale and, more subtly, as a spoof of American noir detective stories a la Dashiel Hammet and Raymond Chandler.The hero is a Thai policeman who is, not incidentally, a devout Buddhist and who finds himself in the thick of a tangled plot by a debauched American mogul who is hung up on jade and a lethal –at least for the women involved –sexual fetish.
While the overall subject matter of the plot is most definitely not funny, John Burdett somehow manages to weave some very comic asides and angles into the plot, most of them revolving around the cultural and religious differences between the Thai police hero and several American FBI agents.The agents, as one might expect, are so very Western in their thinking that half of the time they haven’t a clue as to what the Thais are saying to them outright, let alone the motivations of the Thai characters.
Yet the Thai characters are not portrayed simplistically as superior to the Westerners.Indeed, some of them — notably the mother of the policeman hero — are quite decadent, although practically so.Burnett seems to want us to understand that the mother comes from a place, both geographically and intellectually, which requires certain utilitarian attitudes if one is to survive.She accepts that reality and works within it, rather than gnash her teeth over things she cannot change, as the Western characters are wont to do.This holds true for her detective son as well, a meditator and serious believer who nevertheless manages to avoid throwing up his hands and surrendering to fatalism.
I won’t attempt a cogent summary of the plot, since it is too bizarre to wrap into a sentence or two.But it all makes sense in the end and it leaves the reader with some serious things to ponder — about love, loyalty and the way culture shapes them both.I am eager to move on to the next novel in this startling and inventive series.
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