You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
It had some parts that really were wonderful to read through, but I treat this more as a book with short stories. I enjoyed a few story lines, and several I just read to get to the next. It was okay
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The story is a walk with varied characters across a century whose lives intertwine in one particular apartment building in the city of Krung Thep (Krung Them Maha Nakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahin Thara Ayuthaya Maha Dilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Maha Sathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit…), modern day Bangkok.
The writer transports us to the City of Angels of old with it’s tastes and smells, floating markets and towering pagodas, into the present technological age of towering skyscrapers and its obsession with the Lifestyles & Faces of the West & Famous, and delivering a compelling possible future of a flooded unstable structure where the Plastic and the Palpable still thrive despite the impossibilities a crumbling ozone has left us to endure.
A journey across interwoven timelines of the lives of multiple characters as they pass one another in realtime or through the generations, occupying the same space if not the same time, exploring their loves and losses, experiencing their journeys within the complex city, and going with them too, as life takes them far away from the place that made them to lands where their identity becomes a thing of confusion, and is perceived either as exotic or a means of exclusion.
The writing is beautiful, poetic, and in a sense epic, though often understated. This literary work of art is a piece that crosses the millennial marker and awakens memories we didn’t know we contained…
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Some of the stories are excellent, others are just okay. I liked Nee's arc; though her story was so sad and wasn't really resolved. I think I would have enjoyed it if it had just focused on her.
Gets off to a shaky start, but once it shifts to more recent events this novel really seeps into you.
This novel is certainly not a "beach" read - I wouldn't recommend reading it if you can only read in short spurts or have distractions of any kind around you - the story, which is difficult to follow as it is, will become even more so if not read more or less straight through. It is a complex book. In fact, I think it suffers from too much complexity. There were times when I was loving this novel and was engrossed in the characters, but then everything would shift and I become bored and disengaged. As beautiful a writer as Sudbanthad is, I found the story line to simply be too choppy and difficult to follow at times. The characters and their stories do weave together throughout, however, it is done in a way that is just too broken and without flow. Many of the intertwining of the stories is so subtle, it could easily be missed. I also did not like the sci-fi twist. It was unexpected, but not something I particularly enjoyed. Rounded up to 2 from 1.5 stars, only because the imagery is fantastic but the story line (or lack thereof) falls flat. Sudbanthad is definitely a wonderful writer, but I feel he tried to do too much with this novel - the words ended up drowning and got lost.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Bangkok Wakes to Rain is an exciting journey packed with emotions ranging from anger, loss, and grief to the hardships of parenting, growing up in an ever changing metropolis, and managing adulthood. We follow the diverse cast of multiple characters including estranged siblings, a mother-son + mother's best friend trio, an American doctor, a famed musician and so many more. Each chapter tells a different story of one of these characters' lives and the events surrounding them, going all the way back to the 1976 riots in Bangkok (Krungthep) involving police brutality, extremist right-wings and opposing extremist left-wings, as well other parties. What comes next is the results of these riots and where it leaves each of these characters. Throughout the novel, certain characters reappear while others disappear, never to be heard from again. All in all, without spoiling anything, I found this novel very intriguing yet, unfortunately, slow-paced with many periods of reading that felt unnecessarily dragged out. What's more is that some chapters felt extremely disconnected and out of place, but others managed to make up for this and tell a coherent story.
challenging
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This writing, this story-telling, is immediately captivating. Still like many others I wasn't sure at the beginning, these connected people's stories but not enough story or connection. But then I realized who the main character was and it's there, in places and things and memories, interconnected, in the memory of the city. What a gift to me, a bildungsroman for a city.