January 25, 2010
Welcome back to Bangkok and the multi-layered world of Sonchai Jitpleecheep, John Burdett's half-farang and fully-charming police officer who solves murder mysteries in his hometown of Bangkok, while educating us on Buddhism, capitalism, and the Thai way of life. Jitpleecheep is a swell dresser who meditates with sincerity, fights crime with alacrity, and has a sweet spot for every down-and-outer he meets. In The Godfather of Kathmandu, Jitpleecheep investigates the bizarre murder of a hugely fat American who, as it turns out, has had more done to his head than just a mere case of cannibalism, while also serving as unwilling consigliere to his boss Vikorn's illegal empire.
Six years have passed since we last hung out with Jitpleecheep in Bangkok Haunts (see review below) and much has changed, but even more has become even more so of what it was before. Burdett deals in extremes but with such ease and humor that we believe every bit of it. Jitpleecheep's Buddhism, always a force in his life, has become dominant, especially under the influence of a Tibetan man he meets in the course of the murder investigation; Vikorn's aspirations have grown even grander; the cast of characters that Jitpleecheep must content with are even more wild and crazy than ever before; the sex, more earth-moving; the drugs more mind-blowing; the personal conflicts more soul-hurting; the east versus west mind-sets, more illuminated; and the final resolution, more masterful, combining other-worldly motivation with political activism, western capitalism, eastern mysticism, and human greed.
The Godfather of Kathmandu packs in a full dose of Buddhism for beginners along with a must-know history on the interconnections of Tibet, Thailand, China, and the United States. Burdett incorporates reincarnation, telepathy, altruism, mysticism, tantrism, gender identity, and nationalism into an awesome plot that is thrilling, fun, disturbing, and completely engaging.
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April 6, 2009
John Burdett's mystery series set in contemporary Thailand and starring Sonchai Jitpleecheep, a devout Buddhist and incorruptible but wholly human police detective, are marvelous. Yesterday I read Bangkok Haunts, Burdett's most recent, published in 2007. The Godfather of Kathmandu comes out in October of this year and I hope Burdett just keep going with more of these great mysteries. They are as addictive as yaa baa (a mix of methamphetamine and caffeine, very popular in Thailand), stoking both your heart and your mind, but so much better for you.
Burdett's books combine fast-paced, lurid, and sometimes just chillingly gross action (the plot of Bangkok Haunts turns on a snuff film) with sequences of calm indulgences (massages, walks through crowded bazaars, meditation, incredible meals in hovel-like surroundings). Through it all we are favored with Jitpleecheep's thoughtful introspection on reincarnation, karma, love, justice, duty, pain, and pleasure, and the huge differences between how West and East understand all these aspects of living and dying.
Burdett has achieved the difficult art of the series: he writes each novel with a vibrantly new plot (nothing is formulaic) but always with the reassurance of having our wonderful man Jitpleecheep on the job. We are sure to be given a wild ride that appeals to both sides of our brains, the physical (action) and the spiritual (meaning of everything). Hence the addiction. One taste and you will be hooked.
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