Novelist Burdett: Mission Soi Cowboy

Don’t tell you don’t know Sonchai Jitpleecheep.

That cop with a Thai prostitute mother and an American soldier father who is a devout Buddhist and always left standing.

That Sonchai, a half-Thai, half-American copper living in surreal Bangkok, city of glamor, brothels and temples, where Sonchai is at his best behind bar counters, in members-only clubs or private saunas.

Sonchai is one of the many, nicely rotten fiction characters created by a growing legion of foreign novelists who write thrillers about the fascinating sleaze called Bangkok.

Sonchai’s creator is Englishman John Burdett, a half-Asian by now, who portrays Sonchai’s Bangkok as Bangkok is. Literature bestsellers of his are Bangkok 8, Bangkok Haunts, Bangkok Tattoo.

Burdett knows Bangkok inside out.

There’s basically no change in Bangkok over the years, Burdett told absolutely: “The biggest changes are Skytrain and cell phone. The girls haven’t changed at all in their attitudes – Isaan seems to operate outside of time.”

Bangkok, this wildly exotic city, remaining a wildly charming village deep in its heart … who again said that?

For Burdett the girls from Isaan represent a very essence of Bangkok, even though the city pretends to be cosmopolitan.

In this city-remained-village, the sex trade of the Isaan girls is an as normal part of everyday life as the soup kitchens are part of the local economy.

With the telling difference though, that the Isaan girls’ industry in Bangkok kind of operates out of time and space:

Told us Burdett: “The trade I am talking about is a product of East meets West, and happens almost identically in other Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines, Indonesia, even Singapore and Hong Kong. The difference is that Thais are not hypocrites and anyway Thai prostitution is 96% local. So nobody in power really gives a damn what farang get up to so long as they are descreet.”

Welcome to Sonchai’s, ehm, Burdett’s world – who is a novelist among quite some others portraying Bangkok’s milieu the more cultured but not less entertaining way.

Take fellow authors such as Jake Needham, an oriental, spiced up John Grisham.

Christopher G. Moore, whose slightly different heart talk you have to read.

Or Stephen Leather, whose Private Dancer is compulsory reading for all Thailand first-timers who don’t know yet about relationships with bar girls.

And then there is all the cheap bar girl fiction.

Sonchai though established himself above all of them – with his creator Burdett most convincingly blending details of the sex trade with local food, superstition, corrupt politicians and corrupt cops – realities that don’t necessarily go along with the Kingdom’s „Amazing Thailand“ advertising campaigns.

But that’s just another of those cute contradictions of Thailand’s ever so pragmatic society.

To choose the milieu as the place that explains it all and where it all originates, to choose that place is a no-brainer for acclaimed author Burdett.

The milieu itself wouldn’t captivate readers automatically. Burdett’s nicely rotten Bangkokian milieu thrillers though turn readers into addicted voyeurs.

Thanks to protagonist Sonchai, whose forced-upon-him adventures deliver exotic suspense at its best.

If you’re in the mood for Thailand – Sonchai is an authentic remedy. Created by Burdett – who lives that character. Who is half Thai by now. Burdett’s website opens with the Kingdom’s most revered Buddha shrine. A how much more respectful Thai can you become.

The Englishman from outer London not only researched Sonchai’s character most carefully, he himself is a Sonchai-prototype, who doesn’t live in Bangkok for the shopping, cheap foot massages or nearby golf courses.

Burdet is a most known figure – as the Herald Tribune reports – in Soi Cowboy, shelter of the many hopes and dreams.

„As John Burdett ambles down a street packed with girly bars,“ the Tribune writes, „he pases two women in skimpy outfits waving their hands excitedly and calling out: John! John!“

„There are plenty of johns around – this is Soi Cowboy after all, one of the better-attended red-light districts of Bangkok. But the bar girls are waving to John with a capital „J“: Their author-friend and confidant. Burdett waves back.“

Burdett lives the local wisdom embodied in his books.

Burdett’s Sonchai – or Sonchai’s Burdett? – is a creation of the lusty, clawing, shady Bangkok of the Viagra-popping Western johns and corrupt cops.

Burdett eats the deep fried crickets, grasshoppers, silkworms and scorpions his portrayed girls from Isaan eat.

Burdett neither judges the girls nor the johns – even though some johns „with guts so huge they look about to give birth“ seem to be of lesser value in Burdett’s modern Sodom and Gomorrah.

Burdett, who made a small fortune as a lawer in Hong Kong, is that far away from his British roots that he drinks his beer on ice. A combination, popular in Thailand, that sends shivers down the spine of any Englishman of any class.

And through is Sonchai he neither titillates nor derogates the sex trade. Burdett’s personal view being, writes the Tribune, that there is nothing to justify:

„Prostitution is the oldest profession that we know of and it isn’t going to go away. The only time it’s ever gone away is in police states, and even then the police state had to be at its most hysterical.“




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October 25, 2007 | Filed Under Being Farang, Books & Movies, Culture & Arts, Nightlife & Entertainment, Society, The Thai Mind, Truly Bangkok 

Comments

2 Responses to “Novelist Burdett: Mission Soi Cowboy”

  1. Stephen Leather, Bangkok’s Most Immortal Expat Writer on April 12th, 2008 1.32 pm

    [...] You may also want to read our Bangkok Novelist Burdett: Mission Soi Cowboy and Bangkok’s (S)expat [...]

  2. Bangkok’s (S)expat Writers on May 29th, 2008 6.46 pm

    [...] There on the podium they sat: American Dean Barrett, known for his books on and his rather unconventional lifestyle in Bangkok. (Dean Barrett’s not to be mixed up with John Burdett.) [...]

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