Books

Sightseeing
By Rattawut Lapcharoensap
Picador, 2005

Laura Blakley Staff

It’s been said that when you’re travelling, along the way you may discover more about yourself than the world you live in. When transplanted into a different atmosphere or climate, even the most well-adjusted person can feel as if he or she is alien to this world. All of a sudden, everyday errands become daunting as you are not understood, and so you draw into yourself, feeling lonely and depressed. That is how I felt after reading some of the short stories in Sightseeing, the latest book by Rattawut Lapcharoensap.

As a 26-year-old man born in Chicago but raised in Bangkok, Lapcharoensap may feel this isolation as acutely as his characters, who tell tales of the darker side of humanity from a predominantly Asian perspective.

Seven different main characters tell their tales of lost innocence and heartbreak. “Farangs” is the title of the first story — a phrase heard throughout the book that is used to describe tourists who come through Thailand in search of the kitschy sights and cheap thrills they associate with Thailand. The word can be used as an insult or merely as a description, and as the main character falls in love with another “farang” girl, he learns that love, too, can be a double-edged sword.

“Draft Day” finds two childhood friends preparing for the draft lottery draw to see who will be selected to face combat in their country’s army. One of them has a secret that he’s kept from the other that will ensure his own safety. One’s body may survive corruption and deceit, but a friendship may not. A country at war is one thing, but international conflicts can pit friends within the same borders against each other, too.

“Priscilla The Cambodian” is about a girl who carries her worldly treasure around in her mouth, embedded in her teeth. The girl who “looks like she swallowed the sun” has had to swallow her pride, as her family has been exiled from their homeland and dismissed by the places they’ve tried to make their new home.

One of the stories, “Don’t Let Me Die In This Place,” describes the alienation of a Caucasian man by his son’s marriage into an Asian family. Following a debilitating stroke, Perry is confined to a wheelchair and forced to live with his son in Thailand, accepting help from his Thai daughter-in-law and grandchildren. All Perry wants is to feel normal and accepted, which is difficult when he can’t even pronounce his grandchildren’s names without them laughing at him. He wants happiness, and he finds it one day at the local circus, if only for an afternoon.

Individually, each story is earnest, heartbreaking and full of characters who are used to each other so that they can show their quirks without having to explain or make a huge display of them. The only problem with this book as a whole is that the stories can sound repetitive after a while, with each story of another Thai youngster learning that the world is a cruel and hurtful place. The stories express it in different ways, but the tone of the book overall isn’t varied enough for me to think that Lapcharoensap has really stretched himself and put out a well-rounded piece of literature.

I would recommend against reading it from front to back or without other reading in between the stories to cleanse the mental palette. Sightseeing is home to some great characters, and some of them can give new insight into the fish-out-of-water story, but if you want to keep the stories fresh and new, I recommend only reading “Draft Day,” “Priscilla the Cambodian,” “Don’t Let Me Die In This Place” and “Sightseeing.” When crossing oceans and country borders, language barriers and cultural ones, there are some morals and experiences that are universal. Sightseeing has found a bittersweet story, and a million ways to tell it.