Exploring your outlandish self - “Sightseeing” by Rattawut Lapcharoensap

Here is a young, yet astonishingly full-grown literary voice that shouldn’t fail your notice:
Thai/American author Rattawut Lapcharoensap, whose first collection of short stories, “Sightseeing”, I most warmly recommend to anyone in here.

Dealing with a whole range of remarkably intense and close-up themes of adolescence (I realize only now how prominently an issue this apparently is with me…) and the many wondrous intricacies of inter-culturalism this is definitely a book that deserves to make it onto your shelves.

The strong point of Rattawut’s writing is in his obsession with scrupulously going for the most accurate wording of his well-crafted sentences. Yet however much effort he’s putting into this, the result almost never betrays its painstaking conception. In effect, the seven stories of this volume each offer a convincingly rendered world of their own, with all the nitty-gritty details of life’s reality fabric. Anyone with a keen eye for psychological twists, mindscaping the uncharted territory of teenage angst’s darker recesses will be impressed by the blunt originality of his story-telling. He may be pushing his plot lines a bit too hard at times, but still, here is talent already developed to profundity. The insights he gives are all deeply infused with a subtle but hard-won sympathy for his vivid characters. Emotions abound, and while they at times happen to trespass the crucial boundary to the pathetic, you’ll be fully compensated for these minor flaws by comic bits of salaciousness…

All in all this is a more than satisfactory read. In particular the eponymous story “Sightseeing” stands out as easily the best among the good and will give you a lot to think about, memorable characters and scenes so handsomely put on the page they strike you with equal force for their permeating wrath as well as their astonishing freshness. “Farangs”, the bitter-sweet opener giving the hosts’ smirking view on foreign tourists’ well-known behaviour, and “Draft Day”, a double-edged tale of betrayed friendship and initiation, as well as “At the Café Lovely”, a hard boiled sojourn with Bangkok’s underbelly youth, equally deserve mention here.

The amazing thing is that neither of these stories can be quite that easily summed up, for double meaning is never far away, scenery isn’t mere decoration and close reading pays in most every paragraph. Since I take it for a fact that every collection of short fiction is just as strong as the best piece included, there will be no harm in admitting to the following:
Truth be told, I do have my problems with the last two stories in particular, which tend to take on the appearance of being mere literary stunts, welcomed vehicles to suitably test and showcase the author’s artistic wingspan. Nevertheless, even these two have their fine moments where the author manages to reign in his forward charging vigour and window dressing antics to give imagination a chance and evoke images that altogether make for a rewarding reading experience.

While attending this year’s 6th “Internationales Literaturfestival Berlin” in the “Literaturen der Welt” section on September 7th he spoke about how “the years on the cusp of adulthood are probably the darkest time in our lives”.
Well, he certainly sheds some blissfully modest light here and there, never exposing some ill-conditioned existence and labelling it “truth” or “shame”; but always keeping level with his protagonists, not shying away from full eye contact and thus it is that he tentatively and so powerfully illuminates some of the more obscure places, wherein a feeling heart may happen to temporarily seek refuge.

If you are looking for a book that is telling on the human condition, on aspects of growing up in a Thailand that's not all clichés, if you'd like to read something real intelligent, well written and truly enjoyable: try out “Sightseeing” by Rattawut Lapcharoensap (wonderful name that is!), who as far as I can tell is an author to watch.

You can get your copy of “Sightseeing” here (hier).

(pic©Grove Press)