Customer Reviews

Bangkok 8: A Novel

5 star:		(68)
4 star:		(61)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

A Thai detective and his partner in Bangkok are assigned to follow around an American marine sergeant for reasons unknown to them. They lose him in traffic, then catch up to him in time to see him being devoured by a python which somehow made it into his car. His partner runs to help, and in turn is attacked by a dozen or so cobras, which, needless to say, kill him. Don't worry, no plot giveaways here, all of this happens in the first chapter.

This kind of thing is pretty typical of the thriller genre. Start off with a bizarre, grisly murder, then sit back and watch as the smart-aleck/wise-cracking/clever/anti-establishment/unscrupulous/alcoholic (take your pick) detective unravels the diabolical murder and reveals corruption at the highest levels of society/government/police/CIA/FBI/business/clergy (take your pick). Terrible and unusual things happen along the way, the hero detective is almost killed a few times, a sexy agent he is ambivalent about is assigned to help him, and the ending is shocking, just shocking.

That's how it usually works and that's how it works here, but the novel rises a little bit above the genre due to its locale, which is Bangkok, and the author's thorough knowledge of it. The plot is sprinkled liberally with discussions about the differences between the east and west and Buddhism and Christianity. It's pretty interesting, occasionally humorous, and only rarely condescending, unlike a lot of other novels with subject matter of this type, which gleefully and spitefully describe how pathetic and meaningless our empty little lives are here in the west.

The scene description is excellent. We get the full load of Bangkok and its denizens and the way they live. It all rings true. The detective himself is the progeny of a Thai prostitute and an American serviceman he never knew, so there is also a load of talk about the prostitution industry, which Bangkok is justly or unjustly famous for, and some of it is quite thought-provoking. "Prostitutes do not make good wives as a rule, but it has nothing to do with fidelity. Usually, the last things such girls want is an extra-marital affair, in which they would probably be expected to play the sex goddess all over again. What they want is the right to be irritable and charmless, which they lost the moment they started in the game." Never thought of that. And there is a whole bunch of stuff just like it in the novel.

But, in the end, it's a thriller, no more, no less; told by a likeable narrator, to be sure, with an ability to convey his unusual locale and his unusual lifestyle. But eventually the bodies and improbabilities start piling up, as does the reader's desire to get to the end of this.

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.

Great Surreal, yet gritty Portrait of Bangkok, a "why'd-they-do-it", magical, Spicey, with a fresh, funky ending. Does not follow dogmatic, petrified-wood thriller formula.

Ignore the folks complaining this is anti-American or whatever....I think most people can tell by the book title that it's about Bangkok. If you want a really, really patriotic American story....I don't know, maybe look for a book that doesn't have Bangkok in the title.

You have 2 childhood friends, Sonchai and Pinchai, troublemakers sent to the Bhuddist Monastery for a year by their prostitute mothers, then placed on the police force. They are so spiritual, devout, they could ascend to heaven now, but resist to pay for their sins. Being in the monastery apparently rewired their delinquent brains, as they seem to be more sensitive to the environment, people, and possibly, the nonvisible universe.

Yet, for all his straining for spiritual ideals, he is accidentally always around westerners, drawn to top-of-the-line clothing and perfumes. He has a yearning for connection to his mysterious caucasian father, and that the only males to spend quality time with him were westerners.

They are sent to tail a US Marine, only to find him murdered in a freaky revenge killing, and our lead's pal is accidentally killed. For all his buddist values, he vows deadly revenge.
There's a lot of atmosphere building, lots of background which is fascinating, especially the lifestyle and treatment of prostitutes, and their children, especially the half-asian ones.

He and the FBI team to work on this case, only it starts to get sticky politically, starts reaching far up the American foodchain. He is paired up with some americans but eventually ends up with MS. FBI who seems to be pursuing this in her own vendetta, and she has twisted the facts in order to pursue the culprit against top-brass orders.

It is interesting to see the clash of styles in personal dynamics between Ms. FBI and him. He's used to female Thai behavior, their flirting, approachability and sexuality. She is slow to warm up, very business-like and assertive, which to him is manlike. It is very interesting to see them alternately flirting, then offending each other, getting turned off, yet still being drawn to each other, despite what they think is commonsense, and their pride and mutual stereotypes get in the way. He can't see it at all, which is rather funny.

They do hammer each other with their dumb mutual stereotypes of what America & Americans are like vs. Thailand and Thai folks are like. (This happens at my work too, when one Thai guy says that Thai schools are so much better, so I "innocently" ask if everybody can fight like Jackie Chan & fly through the air.)

They are both conflicted about themselves. He's supposed to be free of desires, yet lonely, can't seem to not flirt or allow physical proximaty. She's supposed to be professional, robot-like, yet very lonely, alternately wanting professionalism yet starving for connection and romance.

His police boss, although corrupt, is a caring, responsible man, who has done the best he could in life. His mother is one smart ex-prostitute business woman, and she scares him a little with her ambition and brains.

A lot of the things you see in the news about SE Asia are tied together here in vivid grit. The Russians, moonshiners, spirits, ghosts, bribery, artwork, plastic surgery and the drug and sex trade---all portrayed in very interesting fashion.

I did not want to have this story end.

I very much agree with the "Editorial reviews" above. This mystery has genuine surprises and a good sense of humor. But the most striking quality is the setting, and how seriously Burdett takes the protagonist's Buddhism. This is not one of those books that takes a run-of-the-mill story and plops it in an exotic location--Burdett really makes the most of Bangkok, essentially making it a character in the story.

I give it 4 stars instead of 5 because of the relatively weak ending.

Sonchai is an honest police detective in the totally corrupt police department of Bangkok. But, hey, that's the way things work there. People pay the police, things get done, and everybody is happy. Sonchai is not cheered by his present situation, however. His best friend and partner has just been killed in a bizarre event following a murder. His prostitute mother is going to open a bar, and an assertive blonde lady FBI agent has been assigned to help him solve his case. Her American personality and flirtatious manner is somewhat unsettling to his placid Buddhist nature, but they work together somewhat efficiently.

Gems, snakes, and an American evildoer make up the plot. The murdered man was a marine who was living with a statuesque Thai woman, and seems to have been involved in the jade trade. Sonchai has some difficulty in pursuing the case because he begins to bump into some of those police payoff areas. The unlikely investigating couple continue their work, however, and it leads to a few choice surprises.

This book flows smoothly, and is well written. The characters are well developed, and the reader is happily immersed in Thai culture. Well, Thai culture as it applies to the police, prostitution and drugs that is. This novel is for readers who want something different than the normal mystery novels written by authors who seem unacquainted with descriptive adjectives, and the human personalities and cultural contexts of their stories.

I picked this up when I saw that the blurbs on the back cover came from my two favorite crimes writers, Carl Hiaasen and James Ellroy. I suppose I was hoping for great things, either Hiaasen's light hand, or Ellroy's dark tales of intrigue. However, when a character takes a deep breath and delivers a one to three page sermon on, amongst other things, jade, prostitution or buddhist beliefs, you discover that you are not in the hands of an expert. It seems as if Burdett had almost too much that he wanted to impart to the reader and rather than work pieces skilfully into the plot, he opted for dense exposition. It is a shame, because Burdett can write well. Sochai Jitpleecheep comes across as a well developed character and would have held the book together had he not been surrounded by a paper thin supporting cast. Take your pick, the [attractive] FBI agent with a crush on our hero, the [prostitute] with a heart of gold, the evil millionaire sexual sadist. Most of Burdett's secondary characters are little more than B-movie types given the odd line of amusing dialogue. It's a shame, because Burdett does a fine job bringing the city and the culture to life. If only he had found the right characters to populate his streets.

I came to Amazon searching for a copy of the excellently titled "A Personal History of Thirst" - another alleged 'first novel' by former Hong Kong lawyer John Burdett, and was surprised by a few of the US based reviewers of Bangkok 8. I guess some are still tingling with righteous anger and feel sensitive to criticism (I note the date of one review - 9.11) however historically accurate.

What is this criticism? That the CIA set-up the heroin run out of Laos - there's a surprise. That some SE-Asian economies are still corrupt and in tatters thanks in part to post Vietnam War political chaos - really? This is tamely handled, and quite non-judgmentally described as background explanation for the Thai attitude to the west in Burdettt's superb police procedural. Burdett was careful to apoligize in advance to the Thai police and people, fearing he might ofend them with this tale of endemic and institutionalised corruption, and I am sure he didn't anticipate cultural sensitivity coming the other way.

As an expat swimming to and from Thailand all the time, I appreciate Burdett's ear and eyes for the goings-on in the seedy parts of Bangkok that we business-class tourists know and exploit so very well. His observations ring with genuine experience and he shows an empathic fondness for the working girls and their sorry situation. I read in the South China Morning Post just this morning that Burdett decided to refocus his novel as he found out more about these girls. They are amazing people and prostitution in Thailand is an amazing business. "The sequel is a continuing conversation with them," he is quoted as saying.

I was recommended this book for the entertaining cultural commentary it provides and I enjoyed it for that plus the nicely tuned sexual tension, and the fact that I was lying by the pool in my Phet-Buri Rd hotel as I read it. Bangkok is not Planet Splok to me, but a place I know well, and it is here described finely and astutely. When I see those criticisms I think that maybe, despite Burdett efforts to explain it to the world, Bangkok remains, as Australian band Cold Chisel used to sing, a place, an atmosphere, an attitude "that only other vets would understand."

However the some of the world so convincingly described in Bangkok 8 has already been reshaped. For those who didn't know, Prime Minister Thaksin has recently been cleaning up the streets of Bangkok. The girly shows are nowhere as raunchy and the bars shut promptly at 2am. There has been a sharp rise in the "extra-judicial" deaths (about 2000 shot in Feb and March) of suspected drug dealers in shoot-outs conveniently not involving the police or the justice system. And if they had made it through the courts, Thailand's offical death penalty is by machine gun.

Back to the novel. The weakness is not in the ending, which I thought refreshingly off-beat, but the unrelenting tendency for the various suspects to sit down with Officer Sonchai and a bottle of Mekong for some extended and contrived confessional monologues which burn my plot-device sensitive palate worse than the fieriest Thai prik (chilli).

However, it remains an excellent example of the recent explosion of Bangkok low-life lit that is choking the bookstores in Don Muang airport terminal's shopping areas. For me, the best is the older stuff, particularly John Ralston Saul's hard to find "Paradise Eaters", from 1988 or so, when the political rot was settling in nicely (prior to the most recent coup and well before the Baht's crash.)

Now where was Burdett's other first novel again?

In Bangkok the corpse of African-American US Marine William Bradley is found in his Mercedes along with cobras and a giant python. Not long afterward, the partner of Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep is also found dead in a similar manner.

Because he speaks English, "half-caste Third World" Detective Sonchai is assigned to investigate primarily the marine murder. However, he knows the hidden message that he must work closely with the Americans, which means don't let the facts interfere with the prime objective not to annoy the Yankee authorities. Sonchai escorts FBI agent Kimberley Jones through the nastiest part of town in quest of Bradley's female companion. As they inch closer to locating the missing woman, the half American Sonchai (unknown Yankee father) finds the Fed he is working with quite attractive, but his Buddhist beliefs keep him from crossing a line more dangerous than being stuck inside a car with deadly snakes as companions.

BANGKOK 8 is a refreshing police procedural due to the unique lead protagonist. The who-done-it is well written though the climax seems a bit forced and rushed. The insight into Buddhism is brilliantly interwoven into the tale so that the audience gains depths of knowledge that never slows down the story line. Also cleverly interlaced inside the investigation is a deep look at sex practices. The tale belongs to Sonchai, a vulnerable fatalist with an inner strength and self-deprecating humor that makes him an incredible character that hopefully has many future lives.

Harriet Klausner

I recently devoured Bangkok 8 in a couple of days. It is a compelling mystery with excellent use of local culture and customs to add color to the novel. It is literally overflowing with lurid and accurate details of Bangkok. He also manages to convey a lot about Buddhism. I liked how he used a radio call in talk show with a sociologist host to make observations and analysis about Thai culture and societal problems, rather than giving long speeches to characters. I like the fact that he made the main character half Thai and half Caucasian (or double if you prefer). This dual status gives him access and insight into Thai culture and western culture. Furthermore, it makes him an outsider in both cultures as well. He is also well steeped in the world of prostitution since his mother used to earn her living via the trade. In addition, his Buddhism and personal knowledge of the street makes him a pure cop, who doesn't take a bribe, but is tolerated for his ability to speak English, which can come in handy for the police department. The ending is somewhat anti-climatic, but somehow appropriate to the tone of the story.

An unusual murder and the concomitant death of a partner who was also a cherished, life-long friend - so begins an intriguing, garish, yet sympathetic look into the underside of life in Bangkok. These deaths occurred in Bangkok's 8th police district (hence the title). As summarized on the front end flap, "Under a Bangkok bridge, inside a bolted-shut Mercedes: a murder by snake - a charismatic African American Marine sergeant killed by a methamphetamine-stoked python and a swarm of stoned cobras. Two cops - the only two in the city not on the take - arrive too late. Minutes later, only one is alive: Sonchai Jitpleecheep - a devout Buddhist, equally versed in the sacred and the profane - son of a long-gone Vietnam War G.I. and a Thai bar girl whose subsequent international clientele contributed richly to Sonchai's sophistication."

The unusual circumstances behind the two deaths are matched by a variety of compelling, occasionally surrealistic characters Detective Jitpleecheep encounters as he works his way through seemingly disparate clues - bargirls who use the only resource available to themselves as they try to find a better life, an international art dealer who uses his power to satisfy his sado-sexual fantasies, a transsexual driven by a desire for revenge, and police officials that use and perpetuate institutionalized corruption as a vehicle to achieve personal wealth and power. Along the way he ruminates on his past, his close relationship with his now-dead partner, subtleties of Thai culture, and an uncertain future as he struggles to reconcile his inner conflict: his Western biological roots versus his deep affinity for Thai culture; his role in a tangled world versus his longing for self-enlightenment and inner peace. His struggle mirrors the broader struggle that is Burdett's central theme: the longing for a spiritual Buddhist past versus the increasing encroachment of Western technological consumerism.

The plot is contrived, somewhat larger than life, but luckily doesn't get in the way. It holds one's interest, but the beauty of the book is the story of the seamier side of Bangkok's culture. Burdett has captured the turmoil, the inner conflict, of a spiritual people who avoided outright European colonization (one of a small handful of Asian countries to do so) only to succumb to Western wealth in the second half of the twentieth century. The conflict within Detective Jitpleecheep mirrors this broader Thai conundrum.

Burdett's style is readable; the story well paced. The ending is a bit strange, but the descriptions of Thai culture and life in Bangkok that season the book throughout are a delight. It has the makings of a movie along with a sequel or two. One hope's we have not heard the last from Sonchai Jitpleecheep.