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90 of 97 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
New Perspective, September 13, 2006
This review is from: The King Never Smiles: A Biography of Thailand's Bhumibol Adulyadej (Hardcover)
As someone who spent my childhood in upcountry Thailand, went to state schools there and later in Bangkok and had an advance degree from a US University, I thought i would share with my countrymen how we perceive the King. My conversations with friends, colleagues, and most of the comments here by Thai readers/reviewers say I was totally wrong. The book hits the nail in its head when it says that most thai my generation (I was born in the turbulent year 1976, when the right-wing government crushed student protestors and the King declared the event "the saddest day in Thai history") have always seen the King in the best of lights - and it was not something that wasn't well-planned by someone. In retrospect, I agree with the author about how the palace has orchestrated all their efforts on setting the royals in the best of lights, i.e. making all the royal projects look far more important and successful than their real worths by downplaying efforts by governments, presenting the royals in the way of super-human, in every aspect possible. When I was a young adult, I did not have a second thought about what the media was protraying the king and the royal family, i accepted it as truths and I don't have any reason to believe that most of my countrymen would see things otherwise - everything was so grand, so well orchestrated and thus so believeable. One notable point that I think Handley sums up the sentiment of many Thai very nicely is when he briefly discussed another biography on King Bhumibol "The Revolutionary King" (which I also read several years back) that it was probably for the consumption of a small group of educated Thais who tend to be more ready to accept what's written in English than those written in Thai (for several reasons, for one, they believe the author can escape the lesse majeste by saying negative things about the King in English) My view about the King has always been similar to the one protrayed in "The Revolutionary King", which puts the King as a very capable person though with some minor flaws - which make it easier to swallow than "The Perfect One" image that the Palace media has always been projecting. Deep down, I believe, many Thais think of the King as human, yet a very respectable one (though many choose to live with the fairy tale that he is a true semi-god), so when we hear negative minor points about him, we think it could all be possible and make him even more humane yet more likable. This could be the original purpose of the "Revolutionary King" - reinforcing the King's image to the elite Thai lot. The book was written by the person who wrote "The Man called Intreprid" which was translated by the King himself. Overall, Handley convincingly argue his case that things could be looked at in a very different perspective. He backs up his arguements with well-researched evidence many anecdotes the average Thai would have heard of. For me I haven't heard of just about half (probably more for even younger people), the others are totally new to me. This book is recommended to any Thai who wants to understand the country and the monarchy better, in a more objective way. This book doesn't make me love the country and the King less. It makes me understand the King better on a more realistic term. For a book of 500 pages and for a non-native speaker, I finished it in only three sittings and couldn't put it down. I give it a 4-star. I also recommend an academic piece by McCargo "Network Monarchy" if you find this book interesting.
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36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Veil Has Been Lifted, January 3, 2007
This review is from: The King Never Smiles: A Biography of Thailand's Bhumibol Adulyadej (Hardcover)
As an American born in Thailand in 1949, and having lived there until 1975, I enjoyed having the dim memories of this period of my life brought to full clarity. I was surprised that given my youth that I would remember all the Thai names. The description of the competition between the civilian government and the monarchy to improve the lot of the Thai people brought back a memory when I was only five or six; I was sitting on the lap of Prime Minister Phibunsongkhram at a ribbon cutting ceremony of a agricultural research station in Khon Kaen in the impoversihed Northeast (Pak Isan), where I lived most of my early years. I remember when Prime Minister Sarit imposed price controls on food when one of his many wives complained about the prices. He also had bus drivers shot when caught racing their buses; which cut down on the number of accidents. I grew up with an appreciation for benevolent dictators; and even today believe that the goal of the neocons to spread democracy to all countries is naieve. I also remember hearing many rumors about the royal family which I never thought would be revealed; so reading this book helped to put the puzzle together, and has brought my knowledge up to date for events that have happened since 1975. My respect for the King has not diminshed from these revelations. Indeed, I have a greater respect for the King having read the book; as it reveals a strategy that through moral leadership, he could restore the monarchy to such as elevated position in Thai politics that he could work behind the scenes to bring down both military or civilian governments when their level of corruption hurt the Thai people. When news came out about the recent coup, I understood completely. I also give the King all the credit for keeping Thailand from becoming the next domino to fall after Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. He was able to achieve his goals by ensuring that the monarchy was shrouded in mistique which hid his blemishes as no one is perfect; certainly something that the British monarchy or any democratic government is unable to achieve with our open press. I agree with the author that his greatest failing may be the lack of preparation of his successor. In conclusion, I was delighted to have this portrait painted for me. I have recommended the book to my Thai friends living here in the U.S.; recognizing that they would not be able to find this book in Thailand, which is too bad. Anyone who wants to know about the role of the royal family in Thai politics and culture must read this book.
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117 of 138 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ok so it's not unbiased..., July 14, 2006
This review is from: The King Never Smiles: A Biography of Thailand's Bhumibol Adulyadej (Hardcover)
Firstly, I am what the author, Paul Handley, would call a 4th Generation Chakri. In fact, my family was mentioned in the book. Secondly, I am an American by birth and have been happy living here by choice. My point is that I can take a look at this book from a more global perspective. I must admit though that the most difficult part in the beginning was to overcome the unfortunate decision of Mr. Handley to address the king and the royal family by their first names. This clearly shows his own bias and personnal resentment of the subject of his book even though supposedly, this was an unbiased journalistic piece. Give me a break. His convenient excuse will be that he is not a Thai and more importantly an American so it is natural for him to have done that. I just have to say that even the U.S. Congress refers to the King as His Majesty. Indeed, in the book, he refers to the British royals as Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana. None the less, if you are able to get over this, the book was hard to put down for me and quite rivetting. It was a good chronological summary of the modern Thai history. The gossip was of course what was rivetting. Like all gossips, there is probably some truth but one can not tell where the truth lies. For me personnally having missed the events that occurred early on due to age and the later events due to having moved to the U.S., the book was a fast read. Most of the incidents have been around the family gathering but it was a good review of the details none the less. As another reviewer had mentioned, if you are not somewhat familiar with Thai names and the major players, you have no reason to like this book or even be reading this review. With regards to the major theme, that the king is a proponent of dhammocracy over democracy, I say "so what"? Mr. Handley's other poorly hidden bias was that the reader was to accept that U.S. democracy is inherently better (better for the U.S. but not necessarily for Thailand, as a friend of mine used to say and as we are learning in the MiddleEast now) for all and that for some unexplained reason, the king's support for dhammocracy is bad. He was, in fact, schizophrenic in his assessment of dhammocracy and by the end of the book pretty much changed his criticism of the monarchy to a lack of a strong succession plan. It is as if Mr. Handley wants us to believe that the king is different from other charismatic leaders such as Napolean or Jefferson or Bush or Welch or Gates in trying to gain allegiance, pass agendas, and pursue success the way they see them. On a positive note, his whole explanation and articulation of the dhammocracy theory were insightful and easily understood in my opinion. I enjoyed reading that as much as the gossip part. In summary, if this book was called "Leadership Lessons from the Longest Reigning Monarch" and the private life gossips tuned down a bit, it would be a NY Times best seller. One can not deny that after reading this book one can conclude that King Bhumipol is a genius in the art of leading. We are constantly interested in how people like Jack Welch or Thomas Jefferson or George Bush or Bill Gates became successful. There are definitely many lessons on how King Bhumipol continues to be successful in this book although it is implicit that the author is criticising the methods. I must admit that I just do not see how an unknown journalist can criticise management method of one of the most successful leaders in modern history. The answer is he can not and this is why the book was supposedly just an unbiased commentary (A biased journalist? You're kidding, right?). As it is, it will be popular with people who enjoy reading gossip (nothing wrong with that) about the Thai royal family. Again, given my background I couldn't put it down and for that I gave it a 4 stars.
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