Reviews

Fools' River by Timothy Hallinan

lavoiture's review against another edition

4.0

Listen, Poke Rafferty, as I've said before, is so obviously who Timothy Hallinan wants to be, but whatever. I've got an extremely soft spot for these characters and the stories. Bangkok is one of my great loves, and I love reading about it.

vkemp's review

5.0

Poke Rafferty, his wife, Rose, and their adopted daughter, Miaow, live in Bangkok. Rose left behind her very poor village along the banks of Fool’s River and Miaow left her life as a street child when they met and fell in love with Poke. Now Rose is pregnant and scared she will lose the baby as she has lost two others previously; she has never told Poke about her losses. Miaow has few friends but she has a big heart and one of her good friends is Lutanh, a Laotian boy who moved to Bangkok so he could become a girl. Another of her good friends is Edward Dell, whose father has disappeared. Miaow asks Poke to investigate Buddy Dell’s disappearance because Poke (as his name implies) likes to stick his nose into other people’s business. Within a 36-hour time frame, Rose almost loses her baby; Poke has to rescue Buddy Dell; Lutanh is beaten up and Miaow discovers the world of George Bernard Shaw as she gets ready to audition for a production of Pygmalion. The pacing is breath-taking; the characters leap off the page with their vitality; the Bangkok setting is meticulously drawn and the reader receives deeper glimpses into the life of Hallinan’s characters. Now, excuse me, I have to go find some larb gai to eat.