Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Sightseeing (review)

2005; University of Missouri; Volume: 28; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/mis.2006.0077

1548-9930

Erin Flanagan,

Categorization, perception, and language

Reviewed by: Sightseeing Erin Flanagan Sightseeing by Rattawut LapcharoensapGrove Press, 2005, 250 pp., $22 Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Sightseeing Rattawut Lapcharoensap's Sightseeing is a stunning debut collection containing stories of class, culture, separation and grief, with characters so recognizable in their pain that Lapcharoensap could be writing about any of us, yet so unique that the reader knows he or she has never encountered them before. American influence on the Thai characters' lives is evident throughout the collection and is sometimes viewed as advancement but more often than not as a negative force that the characters are powerless to stop. Nevertheless, the characters have found a way to use the Americanization to their advantage, outwitting tourists even if it comes at a cultural cost. In "Farangs," the narrator visits Mr. Mongkhon's Jungle Safari, with a sign reading, COME EXPERIENCE THE NATURAL BEAUTY OF FOREST WITH THE AMAZING VIEW OF OCEAN AND SPLENDID HORIZON FROM ELEPHANT'S BACK! Lapcharoensap writes, "I'd informed Uncle Mongkhon once that his sign was grammatically incorrect and that I'd lend him my expertise for a small fee, but he just laughed and said farangs preferred it just the way it was, thank you very much, they thought it was charming, and did I really think I was the only haukhaui who knew English on this godforsaken island?" [End Page 197] A few times the negative association with America feels heavy-handed: in "At the Café Lovely" the narrator becomes violently ill after eating his first McDonald's hamburger, and his father is killed by a falling crate of toys destined for American children. Lapcharoensap saves the story from feeling overly contrived, however, by focusing not on the evils of America but on the narrator, who is grieving his father's death while being taught simultaneously an indifference to death, life and culture. Other strong themes for Lapcharoensap are class and loyalty; "Draft Day" and "Priscilla the Cambodian" deal with these issues deftly. In "Draft Day" a boy and his best friend must go before the draft lottery, where the narrator knows his safe card has been secured by his father while his friend's fate is left to the lottery. The narrator suffers his own kind of shame, shuffled to the end of the line, where everyone in the crowd knows his family has bought his freedom at the cost of his honor. In "Priscilla the Cambodian," two young boys befriend Priscilla, a refugee squatting near their homes. The boys have their own ideas of wealth and what matters, but their fathers see the Cambodians as a threat to their way of life, a sign of further ruin. The fathers burn down the Cambodian village, warning the people first so they can retrieve their few possessions—a gold tooth, an Elvis Presley album. Here is where the true characters are revealed: "I told [Priscilla] I was glad she and her mother weren't hurt, but I could barely look at her. Priscilla shook her head and said the same thing had happened at the last place they squatted. Just like Dong, she told me it was only a matter of time. She said it could have been a lot worse." Priscilla's acceptance of tragedy at such a young age is heartbreaking, yet her inherent belief in the goodness of people survives. She gives the narrator her gold tooth, her only possession, which he flushes down the toilet in an act of both penance and purge. While most of the narrators are young, male and Thai, Lapcharoensap does write outside his sex and culture to great success with a female narrator in "Cockfighter" and an American father in "Don't Let Me Die in This Place," proving his ability to cross the gender and cultural lines he's so clearly identified in his characters' lives. In the end, what binds the collection is his understanding of humanity and his ability to present believable characters who have wisdom well beyond their years. Copyright © 2005 The Curators of the University of Missouri