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Book Review: by Lang Reid
Sleepless in Bangkok
 Chatting
with Ian Quartermaine the other day and he reminded me of his book Sleepless
in Bangkok (ISBN IQ Inc, 978 974-884600-2) which has taken off again. Mind
you, it was a great tale, so the fact that another age group of bookophiles
has just discovered it should not be surprising.
It is an erotic thriller, and Ian Quartermaine is an itinerant journalist
who has spent some time in Thailand and SE Asia. Set in this region, the
opening chapters drop little pointers such as the phony war in Laos and the
(in)famous Air America. The cover does also state that the book is based on
actual events. “Only the names have been changed to protect the guilty.”
The plot revolves around a once discredited British SAS Major and a Thai
agent in the guise of a beautiful Eurasian girl. While this combination
looks a little Hollywood B movie, the plot is true ‘airport novel’ in that
you want to keep reading, being an engrossing action tale of drugs and drug
lords.
The language used is forthright and you are left in no doubt as to the
sexual proclivities of the principal characters. For example, “Confirming
yet again that the way to the top is through the bottom, Rupert had served
his time as a closet queen and an officer in Her Majesty’s armed forces.”
Pattaya scores its mention as one of the venues in the thriller, but it is a
pre 2000 version that is described. Reading the book you begin to remember
or appreciate just how much Pattaya has changed over the past few years.
The generally very short chapters (there are 108 in a 300 page book) have
interesting footnotes, lending the ‘reality’ to the tale. Quartermaine also
shows his age and nationality with such footnotes describing the founders of
the famous Goon Show for example, or even for knowing the word ‘charabang’
(sic) let alone making it a footnote (even if he does spell it incorrectly).
The short, snappy chapters, some are only one page, do keep the narrative
going at a breakneck pace and is a good device for maintaining the speed and
immediacy of the action at the same time.
Quartermaine does manage to exploit the inscrutability of the oriental
races, and adds this to the natural inability of man to understand woman,
irrespective of race. That this is even more difficult between cultures is
well established.
The heterosexual sex scenes are indeed very graphic, and I felt a little
repetitive at times. Descriptions of homosexual sex that 90 percent of the
readers would have had no prior knowledge of are also dealt with in the same
forthright manner.
It is a fast paced yarn, and it is a thriller. It is also a highly erotic
book, with a Nota Bene on the back cover advising that “Sleepless in Bangkok
contains a considerable amount of expletives and the most explicit scenes of
sex and violence. Do not purchase if you are of sensitive disposition or
emanate from a sheltered personal background.” I agree, but that does not
detract from it being a great read.
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