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A review by zade
The Bangkok Asset by John Burdett
4.0
Burdett returns with another installment in the life of Bangkok detective and monk manqué, Sonchai Jeetplicheep. While all of the Bangkok novels are quite good, this one returns to the previous high standard of the earlier works. Sonchai finds himself embroiled in international intelligence and struggles with his own sense of incompleteness arising from not knowing the identity of his American father. As usual, the plot is convoluted and pushes the boundaries of believability, dealing as it does with the development and evolution of transhuman soldiers, but the setting and ethos of SE Asia allows the blurring of real/unreal to seem perfectly normal. Burnett laces his narrative with Buddhist contemplations and cuttingly adept observations of the Western mind. Without having spent time in Thailand, I can't say whether his presentation of Thai psychology is accurate (Burdett is, after all, a Western expat himself), but his outsider's view rings true.
There is a certain discomfort to enjoying Burdett's novels and The Bangkok Asset is no exception. Burdett's attitude towards women and sex, particularly towards bar girls, challenges the mores of Western readers. He somehow manages to treat women as people and as objects at the same time and his approach to sexual relations is equally paradoxical. This works in the context of the novel, but it also leaves the reader feeling slightly tainted. Since I'm female, this may be a gendered response as well as a culturally determined one. In any case, it's never enough to stop me reading the next novel. The entertainment value and glimpse into Burdett's rendering of Thai culture make the trade-off a good one.
There is a certain discomfort to enjoying Burdett's novels and The Bangkok Asset is no exception. Burdett's attitude towards women and sex, particularly towards bar girls, challenges the mores of Western readers. He somehow manages to treat women as people and as objects at the same time and his approach to sexual relations is equally paradoxical. This works in the context of the novel, but it also leaves the reader feeling slightly tainted. Since I'm female, this may be a gendered response as well as a culturally determined one. In any case, it's never enough to stop me reading the next novel. The entertainment value and glimpse into Burdett's rendering of Thai culture make the trade-off a good one.