Bangkok Days
Bangkok Days
paperback
Published:
4 March, 2010
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Description
Tourists come to Bangkok for many reasons: a night of love, a stay in a luxury hotel, or simply to disappear for a while. Lawrence Osborne comes for the cheap dentistry, and then stays when he finds he can live off just a few dollars a day.
Osborne's Bangkok is a vibrant, instinctual city full of contradictions. He wanders the streets, dining on insects, trawling through forgotten neighbourhoods, decayed temples and sleazy bars.
Far more than a travel book, Bangkok Days explores both the little-known, extraordinary city and the lives of a handful of doomed ex-patriates living there, 'as vivid a set of liars and losers as was ever invented by Graham Greene' (New York Times).
More Details
| Type | Book |
|---|---|
| ISBN13 | 9780099535973 |
| ISBN10 | 0099535971 |
| Number Of Pages | 288 |
| Item Weight | 257 g |
| Product Dimensions | 129 x 199 x 21 mm |
| Publisher / Reseller | Vintage Publishing |
| Format | paperback |
Media Reviews
Thailand inspires such enthralled romanticism that it also invites great cynicism and it is a feat to acknowledge all its complexities and graces, as Osborne does, without ever quite surrendering to them -- Pico Iyer * Los Angeles Times *
He is a first-rate observer and analyst... Any Westerner curious to take a decadent Oriental trip with a writer you can trust to keep you turning the pages should pick up a copy * New York Times *
He vividly sketches the characters he meets: a man with a degree in air-conditioning, one with an air of "upper-class twittery"... Osborne's travelogue is, however, memorably touching -- Anita Sethi * Independent on Sunday *
With a brief stint as a gigolo, insights into the Buddhist interpretation of transgender 'kathoeys', and several friendships with various wayward desolates, Osborne maintains a lively note to proceedings throughout... this book has an underlying sense of warmth and genuine fondness for its subject matter * Real Travel Magazine *
He uses language with great skill, and the sounds and smells of Bangkok are wonderfully evoked. Osborne's writing conveys a geniune love for the city * Library Journal *
Nicely observed -- William Leith * Scotsman *
An enlightening tour of the twilight world of exile * Traveller *
Osborne paints an evocative portrait of the Thai capital -- Sara Wheeler * The Lady *
One of the best travel books I have read for a long time, as books always are when written from the inside, by someone who has not just visited a city but lives in it at what you might call "street level"... Not the Bangkok the cheap-flight brigade will ever see -- Susan Hill * The Lady *
Osborne is an accomplished travel writer... Osborne creates a city of beauty in its own right, and it is one in constant conflict of identity * Eats.com *
GoodReads Reviews
Author's Bio
Born in England, Lawrence Osborne is the author of the critically acclaimed novels The Forgiven, The Ballad of a Small Player, Hunters in the Dark, Beautiful Animals, Only to Sleep: A Philip Marlowe novel (commissioned by the Raymond Chandler estate) and The Glass Kingdom. His non-fiction ranges from memoir through travelogue to essays, including Bangkok Days, Paris Dreambook and The Wet and the Dry. His short story 'Volcano' was selected for Best American Short Stories 2012.
The Forgiven, starring Ralph Fiennes, Matt Smith and Jessica Chastain, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2021; Hunters in the Dark will shoot in Cambodia with Aneurin Barnard, Adam Pettyfer and Tzi Ma; and Beautiful Animals is now in production with Amazon. Osborne lives in Bangkok.
www.lawrenceosborne.net