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pageglue's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
When a British woman who is an editor for a publishing company and has early onset dementia reads the manuscript of the latest novel by a Thai author who has cancer, she recognises herself in his story, and decides that she has to go to Bangkok to speak with him in person. Curtain of Rain contains their stories as well as the novel itself, a series of connected short stories really.
This was good! I thought the writing was quite impressive and that the stories carried the themes off really well. They all describe a Thailand that has fallen from grace and look backwards to a mythologised edenic purity before other countries got involved. The obvious culprit of this the West, and there’s a story featuring a fling between an American solider on R&R from the Vietnam War, and another story about a populist politician and his nativist views on the economy. But there’s also a story that follows impoverished Laotians being pushed out of the country southwards into Northeastern Thailand, the two places historically conjoined, but complicated by the rotten politics on either side of the border.
My main problem with it was that we spent so little time with the author and editor. We’re introduced to their respective illnesses and preparing for death at the outset, and that set the tone/themes for the stories to come, but I felt like they served more as props and framing devices rather than actual characters.
If you read this, I would go into it expecting not a novel but a short story collection. While it didn’t blow me away, I think it depicted modern Thai society well and the writing was strong.
This was good! I thought the writing was quite impressive and that the stories carried the themes off really well. They all describe a Thailand that has fallen from grace and look backwards to a mythologised edenic purity before other countries got involved. The obvious culprit of this the West, and there’s a story featuring a fling between an American solider on R&R from the Vietnam War, and another story about a populist politician and his nativist views on the economy. But there’s also a story that follows impoverished Laotians being pushed out of the country southwards into Northeastern Thailand, the two places historically conjoined, but complicated by the rotten politics on either side of the border.
My main problem with it was that we spent so little time with the author and editor. We’re introduced to their respective illnesses and preparing for death at the outset, and that set the tone/themes for the stories to come, but I felt like they served more as props and framing devices rather than actual characters.
If you read this, I would go into it expecting not a novel but a short story collection. While it didn’t blow me away, I think it depicted modern Thai society well and the writing was strong.
its_asker's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
4.75
Character studies with broad strokes.
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