It was as a soldier boy in President Truman's "Police Action" that I first visited Asia -- South Korea and Japan.
Hardship Posting, Volume 5 compiled by Stu Lloyd. Helmet Press 441pp Available at Asia Books, leading bookshops and airport stores 450 baht. Series box set e-book available at stulloyd.com
As a college graduate, I knew about them, and during World War II, I followed the battles -- as with Europe -- on my wall maps. But the thrill of actually being in Tokyo and Hiroshima, Seoul and Busan was indescribable. I longed to return.
I did so a decade later as a backpacker, the long way, via Europe. 1960 was very different to now. The Twin Towers hadn't been built. There was no Berlin Wall, no Vietnam War, no Pattaya resort. Calls abroad from Bangkok could only be made at the Central Post Office. The Moon hadn't been landed on. The 1967 Israel-Arab conflict had yet to be fought. Eisenhower was in the White House.
I earned my way teaching English in private schools. Having taken no education credits, I made up the curriculum as I went along. My students were mainly businessmen and women. Some teachers. They knew some English and wanted to learn more. I soon realised that they knew less than they thought.
English isn't an easy language. The same word can mean many different things according to context or tone of voice. There are words spelt differently that sound the same. Choosing the wrong word may well result in an unintended sexual innuendo. Feeling sympathetic, I tried to get them to do it right. Sadly, I met with all too little success.
Stu Lloyd, seeing the humour in it, put out a call to others who felt the same and received numerous contributions from throughout Asia. They have filled five volumes of Hardship Posting. Good fun at the expense of those making mistakes in a second language.
The compiler extended the field of humour to include what contributors felt were quaint laws of the foreign countries they found themselves in. As well as the customs, mores, mindset and practices of the populace.
This reviewer wonders how many expats would chuckle if silly locals moved to their homelands and asked their fellows to list the peculiarities prevalent there. I dare say the Western expats would be livid at their ingratitude in return for their "traditional" hospitality. Not that I'm putting down the Hardship Posting series, just putting it in its place. Indeed, they are an enjoyable read.
Firefighters in the smoke
The Shout by Stephen Leather Hodder 407pp Available at Asia Books and leading bookshops 325 baht.
I had no consciousness of fires, apart from movies like The Towering Inferno and news accounts of forest fires, until I arrived in the City of Angels. Sarit was head of state, corrupt yet well-liked. There was a practice where businesses that were not doing well would be torched for the insurance, usually around Christmas. The police chief took exception to this and proceeded to execute the owners.
Several establishments burnt down more than once. Then the razing stopped, apart from a few accidental blazes. Since then, the fire department has trained investigators studying the scenes, sifting through the ashes, determining which was accidental and which was set. Whether or not the arsonists outwitted them is a moot question.
It was Stephen Leather's The Shout that triggered this memory. As one of the British writer's fans, I expected him to pen yet another story about either of his popular literary creations -- "Spider" Shepherd or Jack Nightingale -- giving Isis their just desserts. Instead, this thriller is about a serial killer who covers his murders by burning down the buildings around them.
Initially, it seems to the Kilburn (London) firefighters that the blondes were innocent victims of the smoke. In time, they discover the sinister cause.
What is peculiar about the plot is the motive of the perpetrator: he enjoys killing blondes, drugging and raping them during their dying gasps. I'm not into criminal psychology, but that's a first for me. The author has done his homework and gives the reader a Firefighting 101 lesson. The fire engines themselves are described in detail.
Vicky Lewis heads her crew. Des Farmer is the investigator. Their quarry could be any of a half-dozen suspects. No clues for us. We are kept in suspense until the penultimate chapter. Leather keeps building suspense as to who will prevail.
Publishing a book a year, one of which has been made into a film, the cliché fits that Leather is at the top of his game. FYI, the book that was adapted was The Chinaman, about a Vietnamese. Hollywood titled it The Foreigner.
Go figure.
