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People of Esarn

Pira Sudham

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Jan 28, 2023 Tony rated it liked it

Shelves: own-loanable, setting-asia, short-stories

This 1987 collection of five pieces plus a prologue appears to straddle the line between fiction and autobiography. The title refers to the northeastern Thai province commonly transliterated in the west as "Isan" -- a historically very rural and destitute part of the kingdom, whose inhabitants are predominantly of Lao ethnicity. The author grew up in a tiny village there, herding water buffalo and picking rice until travelling to Bangkok at age 14 to further pursue an education. The opening stor This 1987 collection of five pieces plus a prologue appears to straddle the line between fiction and autobiography. The title refers to the northeastern Thai province commonly transliterated in the west as "Isan" -- a historically very rural and destitute part of the kingdom, whose inhabitants are predominantly of Lao ethnicity. The author grew up in a tiny village there, herding water buffalo and picking rice until travelling to Bangkok at age 14 to further pursue an education. The opening story, "A Novce" follows exactly such a character to the big city, where he works as a lay servant in a monastery. This is a recurring theme through several of the stories, as destitute men dip in and out of monkhood as a vocation seemingly more for survival than spiritual ends.

"A Farmer and His Wife" is written from the perspective of characters who might well be standi-ns for the author's own parents, extolling the virtues of the quiet and simple village life. "A Food Vendor and a Taxi Driver" is the most fully-realized story of the collection, about double the length of any other in the book. It's the story of a young peasant woman who moves to Bangkok to survive, and just barely does so, serving and cleaning in a shabby Chinese-run food stall. An older taxi driver befriends her, and the two of them go on a road trip to her childhood village. I can easily imagine it being teased out into a contemplative film. Another woman narrates "A Thai Woman in Germany" which is exactly what it sounds like, a Thai sex worker now living with her German husband reflecting on her circumstances. The final story, "A Writer", reads more like a personal essay from the author than fiction.

Reading these stories some 35 years after they were published, I'm not quite sure what to make of them. One can clearly see the running theme of Isan people being seen as second-class Thais, and there's a huge strain of romanticism for the simple life of the rural village, and dismay at the products of modernity and the West. Like many writings of the time from all over the world, there's a strong theme around migration to urban centers in search of a better life that proves elusive. It's worth noting that about a third of the book is taken up by photos, some of which appear to link to the stories, and many of which have no obvious connection. There's no explanatory text, and they add to the sense of the book being a very personal story, as opposed to straight fiction. ...more

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