Bangkok Days
I suspect Lawrence Osborne once tried to frame this heartsick tale of being adrift in Bangkok as fiction. The wounded man who hopes (and fails) to outrun his shrouded past in a far-off land has populated novels for centuries. Any reader of Melville and Conrad has met this doomed, romantic type; film noir wouldn’t exist without him.
It’s just as well Mr. Osborne sidestepped that approach. The potency of his writing emanates from his ability to channel reporting, history and an intense sense of atmosphere through his introspections. He is a first-rate observer and analyst:
“The decor of the Bamboo is rattan and lacquer, for the word ‘colonial’ has nothing but positive connotations in Asia these days, and everything colonial is deemed handsome, stylish. The Bamboo Bar is the most touristy bar in the city, so touristy that it seems to wink at itself, so it is also the most colonial.”
He is the sort of nocturnal sensualist who experiences Bangkok through his nostrils and tongue as well as other organs. A shortage of funds is an opportunity to dine on insects at a roadside stall. “Your first waterbug: what a relief. It isn’t really necessary, it’s just that one doesn’t want to be a square to oneself.”
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