Bangkok 8

[lunamoth]

Hello, Perhaps this should go in the lounge, but I wanted to bring this book to the attention of our Buddhist and Buddhism-interested members. Its a work of fiction by John Burdett and it's the first gritty-mystery-thriller-featuring-a-devout-Buddhist I've ever come across. Maybe it's a whole genre I've just previously missed! Anyway, from the dust-cover:

Witnessed by a throng of gaping onlookers, a charismatic Marine sergeant is murdered under a Bangkok bridge inside a bolted-shut Mercedes-Benz. Among the spectators are the only two cops in the city not on the take, but within moments one is murdered and his partner, Sonchai Jitpleecheep--a devout Buddhist and the son of a Thai bar girl and a long-gone Vietnam War G.I.--is hell-bent on wreaking revenge. On a vigilante mission to capture his partner's murderer, Sonchai is begrudgingly paired with a beautiful FBI agent named Jones and captures her heart in the process. In a city fueled by illicit drugs and infinite corruption, prostitution and priceless art, Sonchai's quest for vengeance takes him in a world much more sinister than he could have ever imagined.

I'm about half-way through and it's been a fun read so far, and pretty good prose as well. I hope the mods won't mind if I copy a fun paragraph here:

Between the two incompatible worlds of waking and sleeping my mind reverts to the dildo garden at the Hilton. Meditation is just a way of preferring reality to fantasy, as our abbot used to say. He would not have been put out by that small forest of cocks, though he might have had a problem with the Hilton. (He is referring to a shrine to a tree, honored by 300 phalluses, remaining on the property of a new Hilton Hotel.) Like many of our country abbots, he retained much of the shamanism of pagan times and liked to predict the future. Once he foretold the winning numbers in the national lottery, just for fun, but hid the paper on which he made the prediction until after the deadline for purchasing tickets, so as not to corrupt his monks. There will be a massive shift of power from West to East in the middle of the twenty-first century, caused not by war or economics, but by a subtle alteration in consciousness. The new age of biotechnology will require a highly developed intuition which operates outside of logic, and anyway the internal destruction of Western society will have reached such a pass that most of your resources will be concentrated on managing loonies. There will be TV news pictures of people fleeing from supermarkets and pressing their hands to their heads, unable to take the banality anymore. The peoples of Southeast Asia, who have never been poisoned by logical thought, will find themselves in the driver's seat. It will be like old times, if your time line stretches back a few thousand years.

Hope that is readable; any typos are mine since I copied it.

What do you think?

lunamoth

[Devadatta]

Originally Posted by lunamoth

Hello, Perhaps this should go in the lounge, but I wanted to bring this book to the attention of our Buddhist and Buddhism-interested members. Its a work of fiction by John Burdett and it's the first gritty-mystery-thriller-featuring-a-devout-Buddhist I've ever come across. Maybe it's a whole genre I've just previously missed! Anyway, from the dust-cover: I'm about half-way through and it's been a fun read so far, and pretty good prose as well. I hope the mods won't mind if I copy a fun paragraph here:

Hope that is readable; any typos are mine since I copied it.

What do you think?lunamoth

Hi Luna. Looks entertaining in a sort of Tom Wolfe/Tom Robbins style. On the other hand: "a devout Buddhist and the son of a Thai bar girl and a long-gone Vietnam War G.I. hell-bent on wreaking revenge" is a an interesting concept. Could this be crazy wisdom?

[Pathless]

Originally Posted by Devadatta

On the other hand: "a devout Buddhist and the son of a Thai bar girl and a long-gone Vietnam War G.I. hell-bent on wreaking revenge" is a an interesting concept. Could this be crazy wisdom?

Yep, sure seems strange and silly. Seems like the writer shifts from action/adventure fiction into a sudden Aquarian prediction, too. Anyone else find this transition bizarre?

Originally Posted by lunamoth

Once he foretold the winning numbers in the national lottery, just for fun, but hid the paper on which he made the prediction until after the deadline for purchasing tickets, so as not to corrupt his monks. (transition now -->) There will be a massive shift of power from West to East in the middle of the twenty-first century, caused not by war or economics, but by a subtle alteration in consciousness. The new age of biotechnology will require a highly developed intuition which operates outside of logic...

What the hell is that about?

[lunamoth]

Originally Posted by Devadatta

Hi Luna. Looks entertaining in a sort of Tom Wolfe/Tom Robbins style. On the other hand: "a devout Buddhist and the son of a Thai bar girl and a long-gone Vietnam War G.I. hell-bent on wreaking revenge" is a an interesting concept. Could this be crazy wisdom?

It is interesting, probably closer to Wolfe than to Robbins. The funny thing is that this protagonist seems very real, including his Buddhist outlook on things, and his obvious lapses.

Crazy wisdom? At one point there is an aside about an American youth who intentially gets himself busted by the Bangkok police for carrying marijuana. The protagonist is called in to translate his English and quickly figures out that the youth was looking for an 'experience' to write about in his travel blog, having determined beforehand that he could avoid the Bangkok jail by bribing the police with a certain amount of cash, which he conveniently had with him. Once the ruse was known the arresting cop, not enjoying being played the fool, throws the kid into "the hole" for ten hours, after making him smoke all the dope he was carrying. The youth comes out of the hole telling how he spent the time talking with Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, etc.. The youth says he never realized what a funny guy the Buddha is, that He told one heck of a joke. The protagonist in turn is depressed; in all his years of meditation the Buddha has never once told him a joke.

peace,
lunamoth

[lunamoth]

Originally Posted by Pathless

Yep, sure seems strange and silly. Seems like the writer shifts from action/adventure fiction into a sudden Aquarian prediction, too. Anyone else find this transition bizarre?

What the hell is that about?

Hi Pathless, yes that paragraph is a bit jarring. The jumpy transition you point out is actually a continuation of the 'telling of the future' done by the Buddhist abbot.

The dust cover blurb compares it to Thai food, sweet and spicey, salty with a bite...I love Thai food.

luna

[kuranes]

"Gates of Fire" by Elwyn Chamberlain was a good combo of gurus and thriller stuff. Combines popular conceptions of Indian "Hindu" thought with other Eastern philosophy. Therefore not strictly a "Buddhism" book. 3 Americans smuggle a million hits of LSD in to India while one of them seeks a cure for a disease he has, which will involve him having to change his ways radically etc.

"Ganja Coast" by Paul Mann, is set in Goa, and has an Indian detective. Not quite as much guru material. Both books fast paced.

Neither book is scholarly in the least.

Heard about Bangkok 8. Haven't read it yet.

It's Chiang Mai I want to go to. Not Bangkok.