Sightseeing

I heard Lapchareonsap, the author of the short story collection, Sightseeing.He intrigued me as he spoke of growing up in Thailand and the U.S. crossing the ocean time and again.

The stories in Sightseeing show "Thailand off the tourist route." In fact some like one about a teenage Thai-American boy who dates an American tourist, much to his mother's displeasure, the critical aspects of tourism and disdain some locals feel for foreigners. You get a feeling that you're seeing the Thai's without their party manners, what they experience daily as they go through the ritual of the army draft, care for elderly parents, tension in friendships with Cambodian refugees. The stories are pretty well written though nothing outstanding. The collection's strength lies in the subject matter.

It's good light reading on the train home after work or law school.