Book review 'Destination Bangkok' (readers' submission)
The title sounds like a travel guide, but in a direction you shouldn't go. It describes the fate of the head of a globally operating Dutch company with offices in Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. A man in his sixties with a long and impeccable record, both professionally and privately, who takes the wrong path at the end of his career.
You can rightly say: it was a self-chosen path. But if ever in such an error the initial lusts were punished with almost unbearable burdens, mental, physical, and financial, this is a terrifying example indeed. And that, I think, is the purpose of this book.
Corruption, deception and greed are not typical Thai characteristics, but they are widely discussed. A beautiful intelligent Thai woman is not necessarily sophisticated. But of course they do exist. And when her entire family becomes involved in a merry-go-round of trickery and deceit where the language barrier prevents him from seeing through the true intentions, the net closes.
Then it also turns out that Thai cells do indeed match the description we have heard about before. The reader undergoes different emotions. Outrage first. Then fun. Then pity. Then disbelief, amazement, and finally admiration. You will have to read for yourself what triggers these emotions.
A review is not a summary. The book is not written in the I-form, but author and main character are the same. Under pseudonym. I know him well. And I know it's true, because during the period in which it plays, my destination was also Bangkok.
Submitted by Jan Eveleens
“The thought of an abortion oppresses him. On the other hand, a child can mess up his life badly. And how should he explain that to Marga?”
When expat Anton de Haas gets the chance to finish his career in Asia, the continent where he grew up, he grabs it with both hands. His wife Marga is less enthusiastic: she does not feel at home in Thailand and soon returns to the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, Anton falls under the spell of Sumalee, his attractive Thai co-worker. With her he ends up in an exciting wheel of adventure that keeps turning faster and faster. Things get complicated when it turns out that the much younger Sumalee is pregnant with Anton.
When the news of the birth of their daughter reaches the Netherlands, the problems pile up. Slowly but surely, Anton becomes increasingly entangled in a web of inscrutable family ties, debts and blackmail.
More information:
- Armand Diedrich: Destination Bangkok
- ISBN 978-90-79287-37-6
- Publisher Personalia
- Paperback 190 pp.
- Price € 17,50
For sale at Bol.com: http://goo.gl/GVVPxS