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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
In need of an editor..., 26 Sep 2005
From such a scholarly writer, this is a curiously unscholarly work. It appears to be a book written in a hurry, without being properly edited. Chapters are something of a hotch-potch. First, a biographical account, then a chapter on prostitution in Thailand, then another biographical account, and so on. The author refers to himself and the reader as 'we'. Who might this 'we' refer to? Presumably to a 'western' readership, which, ironically, seems to exclude a Thai and Southeast Asian readership (which is odd, given that the book is also published in Thailand). 'We', the authore implies, will be surprised at what we read here: we might not be if we are Thai. There is a huge amount of repetition in this book. The reader finds him or herself thinking 'didn't he just say that?' A check reveals that he did. Reference to other writers seems hurriedly done. The anthropologist and American born but 40 years resident in Thailand, William Klausner - probably the person who has done more for describing Thai culture than anyone from outside of that country - is referred to as a 'travel writer'. Certain key Buddhist ideas are insufficiently researched: most authorities consider 'karma' to be 'intentional behaviour' but Totman seems to refer to it as a 'thing' which is accrued. The author refers to his extensive living and researching in Thailand, for this book but he offers little of the data that must have piled up from all this work. His comparing and contrasting of katoey and monks seems spurious - he seems to argue that one group shores up the other. This is a bit like comparing and contrasting Northern European nuns with European drug adicts: it doesn't get us very far. Gender references and the use of 'he' and 'she' are not entirely consistent, which is sometimes confusing. This book is too long and would have been better as a more 'concentrated' essay. Like Wagner's operas, it also needed a good editor. There are many 'western' Thai commentators who have offered more informed and scholarly works: Mulder, Jackson, Reynolds, Klausner and so on. They also offer deeper insights, perhaps, than are offered here. It is easy, as a 'westerner' to be overwhelmed and enchanted by Thailand but its deeper meanings are probably more complex than this author suggests. After many years of researching, both Mulder and Klausner reveal the difficulty for an outsider to 'understand' Thailand and both the country and its people deserve a more cautious account than this.
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