A review by alex_e_stone
Bangkok Wakes to Rain by Pitchaya Sudbanthad

4.0

Truth lingers, unseen like phantoms but there to rattle and scream wherever people try hardest to forget - p. 272

This book was incredibly interesting.

It was like a family saga, except not everyone is blood-related ( but still in relation to each other in some capacity) and instead of detailed life histories of the characters, we get short glimpses of them at different times in their lives.

It starts with a short chapter called Visitations, and I was busy trying to figure out who the woman walking the streets of Bangkok was. I have forgotten most about this chapter and should probably re-read it.

Then, just when I sort of have a grasp on what is happening, we jump to a different time, a different character altogether. This time, we follow a missionary doctor from the United States, who has just arrived in Siam. And when I adjusted to this new character, with all the people around him, we jump again, to a musician at a much later date.

To be honest, it was incredibly frustrating at first. It was jarring to be dumped into different times with new characters every chapter. It was a bit like starting a new book again and again, and just as it starts to get interesting, we are thrown into the unknown again.

Still, I pushed through, and I’m so glad I did. Eventually, people start to reappear, either through the perspective of another character - the child, parent, sibling, or lover of an earlier character - or they get another chapter all to themselves.

At the end of the second part of the book, I started to care for the characters, all of them. I find myself a little frustrated at not getting to see what became of some of them, like

Spoiler

Sammy and Betty’s child - did they get born, did they have a good life, despite how immature and abandoning their father has proved to be? - we don’t know.

I still think this book could benefit from some more dates, or years at least, to get uncultured and ignorant people like me a hum on where we are. Some of the chapters do give the year they take place in plain text, and some are just easy to place into the context, but a lot of chapters I spent confused about if it was chronologically before or after the chapter before.

Still, it is a book that made a mark in me, something indescribable. I loved the characters and felt deeply for them. Even Sammy, who

Spoiler

only acted stupidly and frustrated me so much.

A lot went over my head, some metaphors or cultural references and some more historical events that I should probably do some research about. The first chapter is just a fog for me. I really want to read it again after some time has passed and I know more about Thailand and Thai culture, to see how much more I would understand.