David Young
David Young, an expat from northern Michigan, has written several delicious novels that explore the nightlife of Thailand’s largest city, and one which takes place in Chiang Mai.
Young's The Scribe (2000, ISBN 974-243-051-9) describes the world of a man who’s job it is to translate letters written to, and by bar girls, to their foreign customers.
In Thailand Joy (2002, ISBN 974-243-104-3), the story of a country girl who has moved to Bangkok to explore better economic opportunities, Young offers a hard-boiled picture of the Haves vs. the Have-nots:
“Look around you.
There’s nothing but automobiles and people and dogs and pollution.
The air is so thick, you’ll be able to walk on it in another few years.
You don’t live in Bangkok, Joy.
You live under Bangkok.
Ground level is about four or five meters above our heads.
Don’t believe me?
Give it some thought.
The only real jobs are above the second floor of office buildings.
The only real places to live are condominiums, high in the sky.
Smell the air. Is it fresh? Look at the faces of the people.
Are they happy? Just you wait and see, Joy. Bangkok won't ever fall.
Its underbelly, where you stand now, will simply harden, like rice burned in the bottom of a pan.
And the survivors will be up there in their office buildings and condos, waiting to lay fresh concrete on all of this, all of us.”
Young, whose influences include Dostoyevsky, Céline, and Charles Bukowski, has distilled many of the ironies of Thailand’s relationships between people from both sides of the legal fence in the masterfully-written Fast Eddie’s Lucky 7 A Go Go (2004, ISBN 974-91664-0-X), set in Chiang Mai.
“To insure his investment, he paid off the police to protect him from the Mafia.
He paid off the Mafia to protect him from the police,” he writes, describing a farang bar owner.
Eddie’s is a masterfully-written story of betrayal and intrigue, which we found impossible to put down, and is the first of Young’s books to be published under his own company.
Young’s Sukhumvit Road (2005, ISBN 974-92636-8-5) is an ambitious book, utilizing literary conventions not heretofore seen in the genre.
He’s admitted to taking a risk in introducing a character whose ethereal origins are not unveiled until the book has reached its ¾ point.
Sukhumvit Road is as much a journey through the minds of five psychological archetypes that frequent the Bangkok demimonde as it is through the places they visit, and the situations they encounter.
This book clearly breeches the formulaic, and is a bold attempt to give personality to the demons that cloud men’s minds as they search for love in the City of Angels.
Published in 2006, Bangkok Dick (ISBN 974-93710-9-7) is an edgy detective farce that documents the imploding worlds of two detectives who make their livings by reporting on the extra-romantic affairs particular to Western-Thai relationships.
Told in the first person by acerbic detective Dick Reilly, this is a tongue-in-cheek tale of convoluted relationships and crimes, with more than a few digs thrown at farangs suspicious of their Thai girlfriends, and those who think they can play Bangkokian games with Western rules.
With this unusual novel, Young continues to move beyond traditional Bangkok Fiction, in terms of plot, perspective, and humor.
No Problem Girl (2008, ISBN 978-974-13-7293-5) explores the life of a wealthy expat that suddenly needs to get married in order to secure an inheritance.
He runs smack-dab into Isaan culture, in the part of a country girl with a bit of well-known baggage called a family that sees its daughter as a moneymaker to help the family pay off its mafia debts.
Young’s Thailand-situated books include:
- The Scribe (2000, ISBN 974-243-051-9)
- Thailand Joy (2002, ISBN 974-243-104-3)
- Fast Eddie's Lucky 7 A Go Go (2004, ISBN 974-91664-0-X)
- Sukhumvit Road (2005, ISBN 974-92636-8-5)
- Sukhumvit Road (2005, ISBN 974-92636-8-5)
- Bangkok Dick (2006, ISBN 974-93710-9-7)
- No Problem Girl (2008, ISBN 978-974-13-7293-5)
See more of David Young on the web at: www.hostagepress.net