In our previous review of Paul Handley’s book The King Never Smiles, we quoted from the book’s back cover: “Any journalist or academic who takes an interest in Thailand soon learns that one topic is off limits: the modern monarchy… it is dangerous, and one risks expulsion or jail for lèse-majesté” for reporting on sensitive […]
Read the rest of this entry »Archive for the 'Politics' Category
WoWasis Book review: ‘Bangkok Haunts’ Bangkok Fiction by John Burdett
Bangkok Haunts (2007, ISBN 9780-5930-5544-1) is the third in writer John Burdett’s Detective Sonchai series, in which Sonchai, a colorful character in the Bangkok Fiction genre, attempts to get to the bottom of the death of an ex-lover, with other-worldly implications. Burdett’s protagonist, a Royal Thai Police detective operating in Bangkok’s District 8, offers up […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: Fumitori Nakamura’s Japanese novel ‘The Thief’
Nishimura, the lifelong pickpocket in Fumitori Nakamura’s novel The Thief (2009, ISBN 978-1-47210-695-7) is the embodiment of nihilism, to such an extent that his name appears fewer than ten times in the book. He loves no one and compulsively plies his trade in return for the small amount of joy it gives him. The one […]
Read the rest of this entry »Tourist complaints increase in Japan as Nikko’s historic sites are renovated
Japan is undergoing renovations of major historical buildings all over the country, but in the eyes of many visitors, it’s most apparent and frustrating in the city of Nikko, two hours north of Tokyo. Shrines and Temples of Nikko is a UNESCO World Heritage site consisting of two Shinto shrines and one Buddhist temple (Futarasan […]
Read the rest of this entry »Jet-setting Thai monk defrocked, Thailand now in shock and denial
A multimillionaire jet-setting Thai monk has fled the country with millions of dollars, leaving the nation in Thailand in sock and awe. Shock, because holy people aren’t supposed to be building empires and impregnating 13 year old girls. Awe, because he’s been getting away with the shenanigans for so long, he seems to be the […]
Read the rest of this entry »Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra: Best legs in the business?
Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra apparently has a leg up on her fellow world leaders, based on a front page photo by the Bangkok Post’s Thanarak Khoonton in the July 12, 2013 issue. In the photo, the Prime Minister reveals a shapely leg as she steps up on the dais to review an armed forces […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis Book review: ‘Tears of Autumn’ Vietnam spy fiction by Charles McCarry
Here at WoWasis, we love reading old books that we missed the first time around, especially when we discover something that we really shouldn’t have missed. We’ll bet you missed Charles McCarry’s thriller The Tears of Autumn (1974, ISBN 13-978-1-58567-890-7), too. That’s right, it was written in 1974, at which point many of the readers […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis Vietnam book review: Nelson DeMille’s ‘Word of Honor’
If you’re a U.S. citizen, when you visit Vietnam, you may be pleasantly surprised at the lack of animosity. After all, the Yanks tore up the country and killed a lot of people. Just how badly things go haywire under combat conditions in Vietnam is a story that sets the table for Nelson DeMille’s epic […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis banned book review: ‘Thailand Unhinged: the Death of Thai-Style Democracy’ by Federico Ferrara
This book has been banned in Thailand, and it’s easy to see why. It takes on the ruling class, the monarchy, and to a certain extent, denigrates the Thai people as well. With his Thailand Unhinged: the Death of Thai-Style Democracy (2011, ISBN 978-979-3780-84-9), author Federico Ferrara notes in his foreword that he’d self-censored his […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘A Golden Age’: Bangladeshi fiction from Tahmina Anam
The Bangladeshi War of Independence of 1971 forms the backdrop of a plethora of novels from that country, and Tahmina Anam’s A Golden Age (2007, ISBN 978-0-06-14787-1) is no exception. The book won a Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for Best First Book. It’s a coming of age tale, involving the evolution of a mother from a […]
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