2009 books

[peteryoung]

53) The Bangkok Women's Writers Group, Bangkok Blondes, 2009
One predictable extreme of the Thailand expat writers' scene is its inane focus on crime and prostitution, so I picked this up hoping it would be at the other end of the spectrum; you know, well-crafted tales from a Western female perspective that intelligently explore nuances of Thai culture. Unfortunately after a hundred or so pages I ended up skimming the remaining hundred. Far less engaging than I was hoping for, this is mostly semi-autobiographical chick lit of a third-rate 'Bridget Jones' variety, merely with an Asian backdrop. Too many of the twenty or so writers on show here need to simply first get over the completely unamazing fact that they live in Bangkok, after which they will probably start writing about the city intelligently. Disappointing and not the kind of book for me by a long stretch, nor I imagine for many outside this Writers Group itself.

Comments

[fjm.livejournal.com]

Hmm, this sounds like the kind of post that leads rapidly to "I could do better than this..."

And the thing is, I think you could.