Kingdom of Make-Believe: A Novel of Thailand (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: General Li, Hong Kong, Horny Tiger (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Drawing on his Vietnam experience and on his 17 years in Asia, Barrett (Memoirs of a Bangkok Warrior) has tried to create a novel of one man's midlife crisis, an adventure story, a exploration of Thailand's exotic delights and an inquiry into the aftermath of the Vietnam War. But the narrative collapses amid conflicting goals and unexamined stereotypes. The hero of sorts is divorced, middle-aged New York editor Brian Mason, once an army linguist in Vietnam, where his brother Paul (he believes) died in combat. Brian receives a vague, importunate letter from Paul's Thai widow, Suntharee, urging him to visit Thailand and help her with an unspecified problem. Brian, who was once in love with Suntharee himself, uses a business trip to the Orient as an excuse to meet Suntharee. After they tour the ruins at Ayudhya, they make love, though Brian is disturbed to discover that the real author of that letter was not Suntharee but her troubled, estranged daughter, Nalin, a former art student working as a go-go-dancer/stripper at the Horny Tiger bar in Bangkok. Nalin calls him "Uncle Brian"; he dubs her "Little Tadpole." Soon they're sleeping together, too. Then Brian falls in with seedily menacing expatriate conspirators, some of whom may have engineered his brother's murder 20 years ago. A subtext about the attractiveness of submissive Oriental women colors Brian's feelings toward Nalin: "He found her allure most compelling when she dressed in traditional Thai dress and wore no makeup; when she seemed to look and act and think more like a traditional Thai." She, and other Bangkok beauties, seem to him "impossibly exotic." When Brian's search for romance and his search for his brother come together in the hunt for an opium warlord, the story loses its credibility in a clumsy authorial revelation. (July)

Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

An exciting thriller...A gripping mystery documenting Dean Barrett as a writer in full possession of his craft. -- Midwest Book Review 2000

Barrett is a powerful storyteller who has a feeling for language that's lacking in many contemporary novels. -- Laughing Bear Newsletter, 2000

Barrett spins a tightly packed tale, part murder mystery, part love story with seductive Thaland in a leading role. -- Today's Librarian 2000

Kingdom of Make-Believe captures a slice of Thailand as it really is--and was. -- Denis Gray, Chief of Bureau, AP, Bangkok

Kingdom of Make-Believe is a captivating thriller describing the mystery and beauty of Thailand. -- Indochina Travel

Sharp, often poetic and pleasantly twisted...tautly written...compelling...a very considerable writing talent. -- January magazine, 2000

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Village East Books; 1st edition (July 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966189906
• ISBN-13: 978-0966189902
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #438,142 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A page-turner, June 23, 1999

By A Customer

The author obviously knows Thailand very well. It's a country of beautiful temples and smiling people on the facade but the novel explores what lies behind. Set in throbbing bars in steamy Bangkok, seedy sea-side town, Pattaya, and beautiful ruins of Ayudhya, this novel will offer great entertainment to anyone who's been to Thailand or interested in Thai culture. Exotic, always interesting and even comic at times, it makes an engrossing read throughout. It is defintely a page-tunrer.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Accurate and well drawn Portrait of Thailand, November 24, 2001

By	Ken Rogers (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

"In the fleeting moments of twilight they sat mesmerized with the crumbling remains of the abandoned temple and glimpsed the still-living soul of the kingdom." The author's descriptions of Ayudhya are really fine and sensitive. The plot of this book is also interesting. I bought the book in Bookazine in Bangkok and it made great reading on the plane back to the States. This is a kind of love story and mystery and murder set against the background of Thailand about a decade ago. It's the kind of book you don't want to end.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exotic and Captivating, September 16, 2003

By	therosen "therosen" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

Dean Barrett captures the seedy side of 1980s Thailand, when the wealth is pumping in and out through greedy and shady characters.

The backdrop of the story is a tale of lost love between a man, his brother's widow and her daughter. The protagonist returns to Thailand after a long exit, expecting life to be similar to what he walked away from. Instead, he learns that you can never go home again, even in Asia. By the end, Brian Mason also realizes that the Thailand and people he remembered perhaps wasn't even as it really appeared the first time around.

Barrett really captured the essence of Thailand, and the extoic and hypnotic effects it can have. His writing draws you in to the story, and you become compelled to finish it in just a few sittings.

The only knock is characters that seem just a quarter shade from believable. A couple times I thought to myself, "They really wouldn't do that..." but perhaps that's because the characters were based on real people who don't act as we expect.