Another anthology of thrilling tales (that is the promise
on the front cover) from story teller Jim Algie, a well published author who
has traveled the world and has managed to recount the tales from his
wanderings.
Phantom Lover (ISBN 978-0-8048-4388-1, Tuttle Publishing, 2013) is his
latest anthology. Jim Algie is a long-stay expat who also knows his
Thailand. This one was written (published) in 2013 so is relatively current.
The back cover lists Algie as being a (former) punk rock musician, a
journalist, a wildlife conservationist and a security guard in a lunatic
asylum (this does not relate to Thailand, I am led to believe), but Jim
Algie can certainly uncover lunacy in this country.
His travel experiences include scuba-diving, rock-climbing, kayaking off the
coast of Krabi, learning how to hunt for red ant egg nests (a delicacy in
the northeast), and trawling with Thai-Muslim fishermen down south, so he
can write with some authority.
Criminal pursuits out of Khaosan Road show that Jim Algie, as well as being
well traveled, is also well experienced on both sides of the legal fence.
This wrong side of his nature stems back to childhood with shoplifting being
in his junior CV.
He has a wonderful appraisal of the psychology of Patpong Road describing it
as “an X-rated sideshow if it wasn’t for the presence of all these lonely,
desperate men like us, out hunting for some love, affection and
understanding that we would never find there.”
He is a good raconteur, and gives the reader wonderful descriptions of the
old Thermae. Not that the “new” Thermae is much better, which is one reason
Thermae is on everybody’s calling list in Bangkok.
I picked up a literal (which should not happen), calling the painter Francis
Bacon, Frances Bacon and should not have slipped by. Next book get a better
sub-editor, Jim. Bacon also had a connection with Pattaya with his friend
John Edwards living here for some time after he became beneficiary of
Bacon’s estate.
He describes the different strata of expat societies, backpackers, package
tourists, and resident expats. Some of these were ready to sell their
passports and Algie repeats a sign from Khao San, “We buy anything, dodgy or
not.”
His description using heroin, “It’s the softest drug in the world and the
closest you can come to returning to your mother’s womb, floating in those
warm tropical waters with never a worry and nary a doubt intruding.”
He brings out one of the unfortunate sides of Thai education, where students
pay others to write their assignments. One of the characters explains this
as “That’s not cheating. In business and politics it’s called delegation.”
His essay on abortion shows that he is not quite the ‘hard man’ he would
appear on the surface, and his item on his cat White Fang is educational as
well as being an enjoyable read. I, for one, did not know that Thais call
them Little Monks, and having had a cat that was “mine”, or was I his, I
wonder?
The RRP is B. 525 and it is another good read from Algie.
