They won me in a book!
Christopher G. Moore has lived in and written about Thailand for more than twenty years. His new book of essays reveals what he has learned about the country, about writing, and about writing about the country.What's the book about? Here are the titles of its four sections:
- "Perspectives on crime fiction writing"
- "Clues to solving cultural mysteries"
- "Observations from the frontlines"
- "Outside the Southeast Asia comfort zone," in which Moore leaves Thailand for odd adventures in India
Japan is the Land of the Rising Sun. Korea is the Land of the Morning Calm. What is Thailand's amiable nickname?
***
Readers in England, Oregon and Australia knew that Thailand is nicknamed "The Land of Smiles." Copies of The Cultural Detective will soon he headed their way. Congratulations, and enjoy the book.© Peter Rozovsky 2011
Labels: Christopher G. Moore, contests, Detectives Beyond Borders in books
posted by Peter Rozovsky at 11:59 PM
18 Comments:
I know the answer.
Its the land of smiles.
Try crossing into Thailand from Cambodia and see how smiley they are. Six hours later in the same sweaty hut and NO ONE is smiling.
Feck and away with you for not entering via the proper channels. You're barred.
I don't know quite how to put this in a less than morbid context, but an hour or so ago, I heard from a friend who is dealing with our mutual friend's last effects. Her sister had brought home a bunch of pictures, and I had asked for one to remember her by. It turns out that she found one of me and our vanished friend sitting on a couch in Thailand. I don't know if it is the Land of Smiles or not, but I'd bet we were smiling. She worked in Cambodian refugee camps on the Thai border. At first Edie wasn't crazy about the Thais, but they grew on her.
Thailand figures in Colin Cotterill's mysteries set in Laos. It's the place at which people gaze longingly from across the river.
Being a country to which refugees flee must leaven the official smiles with a measure of wariness.
Indeed.
I'll try to look especially reputable or even prestigious if I visit that part of the world, which I'd like to do.
Peter
Oops. Sorry about that. I suppose Thailand is the freest country in SE Asia but the competition is not that great is it?
No apologies needed. Indeed, the competition is slender, which I suppose is one of the oddities of Thailand's position in the world.
Peter
I've urged it in another place, but a really great little comic book about Burma is the Burma Chronicles by Guy DeLisle, a fellow countryman of yours and an interesting guy.
I love Colin Cotterill's Coroner books! They have that same whiff of strangeness overlaying the political and criminal that I also enjoyed (amped-up) in Michael Gruber's Tropic of Night.
Adrian, I may have flipped through that book before. I have browsed a comic about an odd visit to North Korea. That book's author may be Canadian, too.
Clare, I don't know Gruber, but that whiff of strangeness is one of Cotterill's defining characteristics (humorous strangeness, for anyone unfamiliart ith the books).
I was looking at that Burma book in the store today, as we had a couple of copies. I liked it so far. I wonder what Burma would be--the Land of We Don't Really Give a Toss What You Think?
"The Land of the Forbidding Scowl"? "The Land of the Years-Long House Arrest"?
The Land of Gentle Rain that Turned into a Monsoon and Nobody Was Allowed to Help Even if They Really, Really Wanted To.
It's shorter in the original, uh, Myanmarese.
"The Land of Enchanted Disaster."
Want to give a quick shout out and an bigger thank you to peter. I received my autographed copy of The Cultural detective today and trying to resist sitting right down to read it an ignore my chores. Thank Peter, enjoy your blog very much!
Thanks for the kind words, and let's give a shout-out to the U.S. Postal Service for getting the job done with commendable speed. I think I mailed the book Friday.
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