Pitchaya Sudbanthad

What to say about this gorgeous, gorgeous novel? It takes the form of tightly inter-linked stories about two people who meet and have a child, but also backwards in time to colonial Siam, forwards into the future, connecting with their families histories and futures. Nee is a young woman, a university student who marches in the protests in the mid-seventies and survives the violent response. She later meets a photographer and tentatively forms a connection with him, carefully not speaking show more about what she can't bear to talk about. Her sister has moved to Japan where she owns and runs a Thai restaurant popular with Thai students and expats, but the shadow of the violence reaches her in Tokyo. A missionary from New England despairs of doing anything worthwhile in Siam and writes asking to be reassigned, even as he begins exploring the city he's stranded in. Three children ferry a woman through the now-flooded streets of Bangkok. She wants to see the place her family once lived, back when Bangkok had not been covered by the ocean.

The novel begins with what first look like unrelated short stories, but that eventually resolve themselves into a coherent narrative. It's a wonderful format when it's well-deployed as it is here, Sudbanthad builds the novel in layers of history; of his characters, but also of Bangkok itself. It's such a pleasurable thing to read a well-crafted and superbly written novel where every chapter is carefully placed into the greater whole and yet can stand on its own. show less

This novel is a kaleidoscope of the city of Bangkok, across time and the city's places, featuring many characters and stories. The earliest stories are set in the 19th century, while some take place in the future when what we know as Bangkok today is under water and people have adapted to a new life above the flooded ruins. In-between these points of time, we travel across the decades, meeting people who are flawed, insecure and real, and all tied to the city in one way or the other.
At first show more the novel seems to be just a collection of short stories, but then, chapter after chapter, the connections between the stories become apparent. Reading this feels like being a detective or archaeologist, uncovering layers upon layers of threads and events.
While I am fascinated by this approach and the novel is well-written, I found it hard to connect to many of the characters and it did not have the kind of emotional resonance that would make it a five star read to me. Still, it is well worth a read and it sucked me in the further I got into it. show less

Bangkok Wakes to Rain through its many characters and recent into the future timelines gives readers a memory bank into which we can size up the city and its inhabitants. A memory like Nee seeing her boyfriend killed by the army is one of many that haunts throughout. Water/rain may be considered a main character side by side with sound and music. Considering the many appearances of the Thai military and the scenes of repression and death it creates, what noticeably is not present in this show more story is the Thai royal family. When finishes with this novel one feels one has a better understanding of the Thai people that is sympathetic while being cleared eyed.

Quotes: (page 281) “Many thanks to the deities. She doesn't know it, but we're doing her a favor. We see them all the time, like we've said. The returnees come back here believing they'll see their old homes, not different from what they had been. The waterless years weren't long ago they like to think. Something must remain. They imagine stepping back to find the marble still shinny. Old light bulbs flickering on for their arrival. Then they find out it's only the bits in their heads that have endured, and everyone's sad.”

(pages 294-295) “ As songs shuffled to the next album on his list and then another, he grew certain that some musical matter had condensed from the air to become palpable essence filling every crevice of the room. Beyond, the city boiled in immeasurable suffering. Inside his cocoon of sound, there was only the undisturbed, perfect communion with miracle after miracle. The dead were alive to sing into his ears. Time flowed in every direction, until there was no such thing as time. He let himself sink, like a prehistoric insect into the sap. He couldn't bear to leave. What was it his father said about that collection of LPs inherited from his grandfather? A shelf full of songs outweighs all the gold in the world.”

(page 303) “Even with decades of flood, most Thais aren't shying from water. It feels good to having it around, misting faces even while hiking up the trails. Water means home.” show less

Three stories into Bangkok Wakes to Rain, I had a bad feeling about the “novel.” You see, there's been this trend in publishing lately where “novel” can mean many things. David Szalay's Booker nominated All That Man Is is an excellent example. It's a collection of short stories. (Publisher: No, it's a novel.) It may center on a theme, but that doesn’t make it a novel; it’s still just a collection of short stories. But short story collections do not sell as well as novels, nor do show more they get nominated for the Booker Prize, so I guess the publisher was (deceptively) smart.

Initially, it appears that Sudbanthad is going down the same path with Bangkok Wakes to Rain. Here are stories that have absolutely nothing to do with one another other than their connection to the setting. The first story focuses on a missionary in the 19th century. The second deals with a jazz pianist in the post-Vietnam-war era. The third of a photographer who’d emigrated to the U.S. And so on… I liked the writing, but again I felt duped and disappointed because this was not a novel.

Then a wonderful thing happens—one of the stories overlaps another. I held onto hope there’d be more. Then there is another connection. Slowly, the connections begin to build upon one another so that some stories are only lightly connected to one another, but others share so much. I was intrigued. It became a fun exercise searching for all the connections. It reminded me of a device David Mitchell might employ. This association with Mitchell was even more so made concrete by the fact that the book stretches from the colonial era into a future where cities are under water and AI plays a large role in daily living.

The writing is superb and the characters are memorable and well designed. Sudbanthad is a wonderful author who has earned a spot on my growing list of authors I will invest in in the future. Bangkok Wakes to Rain is an intriguing and intelligent novel overall, but the implementation is a bit off. Using such a device is tricky, and while I think Sudbanthad pulls it off well, it is not solid enough to sustain itself. It's close and an admirable effort, but it just doesn't quite gel. Nonetheless, I look very much look forward to the author's sophomore effort. Here is an author who knows how to use language, plot, character, and setting to form a nearly perfect novel or collection—call it what you want. show less