Patpong Sisters: An American Woman's View of the Bangkok Sex World [Paperback]

Cleo Odzer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1997

Patpong, in the heart of Bangkok, teems with bars and sex shows, catering mainly to farangs -- foreigners. Cleo Odzer, a young anthropologist, spent three years studying the area. Gaining the confidence of the bar girls and bar boys, she interviewed them at length, lived among them, accompanied several back to their families in remote villages. She also got to know their customers, those in for a night or in forever (many fell in love and stayed on in Patpong). From Odzer's account emerges a far different picture from the cliched image of the prostitute. Many of the Patpong girls, smart and enterprising, use their profession for self-liberation and to support their impoverished families back home. Warm and personal, Patpong Sisters reveals the truth about the $4 billion Bangkok economy of sex.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As an anthropology graduate student, Odzer was in Thailand in 1988-90 studying its prostitution industry, centered in the Patpong district of Bangkok. Because of the culture's particularly repressive views of women's rights and female sexuality, according to the author, prostitution thrives, attracting many foreign male tourists. Studies estimate that between 15 and 30% of Thai women work in the sex industry, and Odzer's goal was to assess the impact of such a career on their lives. She discovered that, while prostitution is in many respects demeaning, its practitioners are nevertheless more "liberated" and more self-assertive than more traditional Thai women. The book is shorter on analysis than on narrative accounts of Odzer's interaction with various Patpong women and men, which, while lacking the academic rigor she initially promises, are engrossing. At times tales of her own romantic adventures all but subsume discussion of her research project. Illustrations.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Odzer went to Bangkok to study prostitution for her anthropology dissertation, but she comes across as anything but academic in this highly personal, anecdotal account of her experiences in Patpong, the city's thriving red-light district. Indeed, her findings confound expectations. The bar girls Odzer managed to befriend were adept in turning sexual transactions into affairs of the heart, making Western men feel responsible for them and, eventually, their families. Compared to the village life they left, these enterprising women were living the good life, earning much more money than they possibly could at more respectable occupations. When Odzer accompanied her friends and subjects on their visits home, they were treated like dignitaries, admired for their pretty clothes, freedom, and sophistication. Odzer even managed to win the confidence of some Western men willing to explain their infatuations with these pragmatic, even ruthless Thai women, but her own messy affair with a Thai man provided her with the most revealing insights into the conundrums of Patpong life. Candid, intrepid, and perceptive, Odzer humanizes a realm outsiders are all to quick to judge and dismiss, a realm shadowed, now, by a looming AIDS epidemic. Donna Seaman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing (April 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559703725
• ISBN-13: 978-1559703727
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,018,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This is the worst book I've ever read, November 18, 1999

By 

Vincent Rowe "sanfrancisco_reader" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Patpong Sisters: An American Woman's View of the Bangkok Sex World (Hardcover)

The title of this book is utterly misleading. Ms. Odzer goes to Thailand to study women in the sex trade, but she quickly reveals that she is revolted by the work they do and that she is squeamish about stepping into the sex clubs in which they work. Instead, she spends the rest of the book going on about an affair she had with a married Thai man. How angry she is at his wife. How unfairly life is treating her. And on and on. It is boring, not even remotely informative. As a reader, I felt as used as the Thai people with whom Ms. Odzer interacted, and I felt no sympathy or empathy for the author or her actions...

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Shockingly Irresponsible, May 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Patpong Sisters: An American Woman's View of the Bangkok Sex World (Hardcover)

Ms. Odzer's book cannot be characterized as a serious study of the sex trade in Thailand. Although it contains numerous anecdotes from the 10 or so prostitutes who she befriended during her two year romp around the bars of Patpong, it lacks any serious in depth analysis or reliable conclusions. The conclusions she draws regarding the manipulative nature of the prostitutes and the exploitive arrogance of the farang customers is obvious from one evening of casual observation of Patpong and does not provide any further insight. The purpose of Ms. Odzer's lengthy "research" seems to be her obsessive pursuit of her much younger, deceitful, dishonest pimp "boyfriend." It is nothing short of astonishingly appalling that this so-called scientist engaged in repeated acts of unprotected sex with a man who not only lied to her, took money from her, and was responsible for the complete destruction of her home, but also admittedly had regular sexual intercourse with prostitutes in a well-known AIDS infection area. Her conclusion that she would not "worry over Jek's (the boyfriend's) motives, Doom (his wife) and AIDS" after he sufferred from a mysterious and inexplicable high fever lest she "drive (herself) crazy" is indescribably self-destructive and irresponsible. I came away from this book questioning the author's sanity.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars SAVE YOUR MONEY, THE AUTHOR ONLY TALKS OF HER THAI BOYFRIEND, October 13, 2000

By 

doris (norfolk, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Patpong Sisters: An American Woman's View of the Bangkok Sex World (Hardcover)

if you want a book dealing specifically with prostitution in thailand, how it is done, and what the prostitutes do, and how they live, this book is not informative enough. this book is a description of the time the author spent in bangkok. more often than not, she does not interviewing prostitutes, and she does not bring you into the lives of these slums. she sees the whole prostitution business in a way that is rather naive. rather, as said before, she spends a lot of time talking about her thai boyfriend and other non-relevant things. she does give some important insight on thai prostitution and the white men involved, but it is very little. read this book like you would a novel. i wouldn't recommend you purchase it for research.