After migrating across the Pacific Ocean 14 years ago, Canadian author Bjorn Turmann gained the necessary insight for his impressive first novel, Good Daughter (2005, Solstice Books, Jakarta/Singapore, 336 pages).
Turmann’s puzzling title soon becomes clear. In rural Thailand, a “good daughter” typically departs for the bright lights of Bangkok, works in a bar and earns a lucrative living by pleasing farang (western) men. The precious baht that she sends home support her relatives in heightened prosperity.
One such young woman is Som, identified to customers by the number 99 pinned to her green bikini bottoms while on duty at a Go-Go Bar. From the book’s opening scene, she’s haunted by a childhood incident when she failed to help after seeing thugs assault an uncle among the rice paddies near her home village.
Bill Parsons, a refugee from divorce and discontent in the American Northwest, persists as Som’s leading love-and-business interest. “I came to Thailand and now I feel free again,” he says. “I’m a happy man here.”
Friends like Dao, a savvy bargirl who suddenly becomes pregnant, and Danny, a rambunctious Australian, an old-hand in Asia, serve as advisors and points of reference. Som and Bill, buffeted by emotions and events, sometimes distracted by a rival farang named Eddie, tiptoe, dance, strut and bicker through a tale of strained romance, cultural clashes, frustrations and passions.
As Bill tells Som, his “number-one” Thai tour guide, “You showed me so many things that I would have otherwise just walked past if I had been on my own.” The book’s readers could say the same to Turmann.
Deftly written, Good Daughter enthrals when perused at a leisurely pace. Turmann not only creates convincing characters, but turns them into new pals for his readers. By doing so with apparent ease, he climbs the totem pole of Asia’s leading English-language authors.
A former Microsoft employee, Turmann brushed aside billionaire Bill Gates and landed in Bangkok as a writer, lecturer and independent filmmaker. Audiences at film festivals in Australia and Thailand have viewed his projects. A second novel, The Karaoke World of Cortous Haire, appeared in 2006.
The ultimate wisdom may come from Eddie, an idealistic character: “Well, maybe the Thai lady is also very confusing to the American man? Probably safe to say we just confuse each other, round and round. I don’t know. Maybe just accepting things and people the way they are is the only way we can move forward. Get on with life.”
Hand-in-hand, Turmann, his characters and readers sprint to an ending that’s not entirely happy, nor satisfying, but very emotionally draining.
Approval rating: 83 per cent.
For more information: www.EquinoxPublishing.com
(January 2, 2007)
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