Gold by the Inch: A Novel

by Lawrence Chua

Called "striking" by The New York Times Book Review, Gold by the Inch is the story of a young New Yorker of Asian descent who has returned to the country of his birth following a disastrous relationship and his father's death. In a Bangkok drunk on the nation's financial miracle - and high on an assortment of other things - the narrator meets Thong, a young, beautiful male hustler who works at a nightclub. As his romantic obsession with Thong grows, the narrator tries to convince himself that it transcends its commercial nature, but he is quickly forced into a hard look at the connections between desire and exploitation, personal and national identity. Lawrence Chua vividly combines Southeast Asia's troubled history with evocations of its modern face - its polyglot culture, its colonial past, the cool futurism of its skyscrapers and its sex industry. Written in hard-bitten, dazzling prose, Gold by the Inch is a stunning debut.

Genres: Fiction, Queer, LGBT, Gay, American, Contemporary, Asian American

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Jules Vilmur]

Yes, Lawrence Chua’s Gold by the Inch is a critique of colonial consumerism in Southeast Asia. But it is also a rich tapestry strewn with lush imagery and inescapable sense of loss. Moving about in time, perspective and tense, it is best described as the travel tale of a young, queer Asian-American of Thai descent. Excluded at home and abroad, his search for an authentic Thai identity is met with distrust and amusement, hampered by his own Western privilege.

Arriving in Thailand after the death of his estranged father, the narrator drifts from his brother’s high-rise apartment in Bangkok to the hospitality of relatives and strangers in outlying villages, eventually reaching his grandmother’s grave in Penang Malaysia. Trailed by the ghosts of estrangement and remnants of pre-colonial life, Chua evokes the homeless felt by those in diaspora.

Despite his craving for a native identity, Chua’s nameless protagonist tears through the bars and brothels of Bangkok with Western appetites. Reeling from an affair in which his own body was commodified for its otherness, he engages the affections of a prostitute, imagining them as equals in the exchange.
In the end, Gold by the Inch’s dense, often opaque prose is the oddest mix of explicit hedonism, global commentary and passionate sorrow. I read it the first time nearly a decade ago and didn’t understand much but couldn’t shake it. Even now, I’ve probably just scratched the surface.

[Christine]

Also very explicit and erotic. This book talks about the Western exploitation of Thailand's sex trade. It also touches on homosexuality and the increasing number of Westerners (including women)who go on sex tours in Thailand to fulfill their sexual desires because majority of them can't "get it" at home. Pretty much "money" becomes their token for sex and power in a country that heavily relies on human trafficking.

The main character is a homosexual from New York and he falls in love with a gay prostitute named Thong who merely loves him for the money. Reading their story, you can see the difference between the reality and fantasy of both characters. Journalist Lawrence Chua does a great job exploring the shifting boundaries between sex and commerce between both worlds.

[Nern]

This book is pretty dang awesome, particularly because it manages to make a dead-on allegory of colonization of east Asia through the lives of sex workers in Thailand. And it even does so without sounding a)preachy or b) stupid.

[Joseph]

a quick read. but annoying at first.
the writing style tries too hard to be vague and "artistic."
after a while, though, i got used to it.
would i read it again? absolutely not.
did i think about it after? yes, i did.
so, i guess that's not that bad, right?

[nth]

Trying to read more Southeast Asian lit. This may have been the most pretentious thing I've read in awhile (reminds me of most tortured Singlit). I don't think anyone actually thinks / speaks like that, which is always my gripe with the aforementioned Singlit. But I finished reading the novel, which says something? There were some bangers:
- "A city is not a place where people come to live"
- "Why do you do that with your body? You Don't need to do that. Ba could never understand the comfort of falling on bended knees." (Really felt this one tbh)
- "The greed spilling through the type is poetry"
- "History is as trapped in both our bodies as our bodies are trapped in history."

Younger me would've flung the book across the room but maybe in an anodyne AI infested world I actually miss the days of pretentiousness or something.

[samuel berston]

I loved this book. Could have been twice as long with the amount of themes packed in it.

[Ella May]

3.5 stars

[Kim]

A really unique book.

[Ava]

I actually have no clue what I feel about this. It’s a lot to process and I’m not sure I understood all of it. It had some beautiful moments though and is very unique!

[Katie M.]

National identity, sex, love vs. obsession vs. exploitation, etc. I had trouble not getting lost in the narrator's ruminations but there are some exquisite lines in here. And the relationship between the narrator and the prostitute he becomes obsessed with is painted so troublingly well.

[Stevi Costa]

Incredibly poetic and haunting read.

[Ming]

wow... a beautifully written book.... uneven at times but overall quite stunning. uses poetic language and imagery... had a political social stance... compelling

[Hannah Spencer]

Filled with sentences and phrases that will knock your socks off.