Jonathan Finch

OK, this is one of my first reviews of any book; consider yourselves warned!

From the title and the blurb copy on Amazon, I expected something rather raunchy. I don't normally read stuff like that, but helping out a fellow indie....

Instead, what I found was a delightful series of essays drawn from Finch's life as an ex-patriate—farang in the local term (and not a term of endearment, as Finch will tell you!) in Pattaya, Thailand, a.k.a. "Fun City."* The stories are typically short and all over the place in terms of subject matter—scenes of domestic bliss followed by a frank recounting of a friend's (purchased) night with a beautiful girl (who turned out to be a boy!), followed by an example of just why he'd rather live in Thailand than his native Britain (hint: it's something Thailand doesn't have: overbearing government!). It turns out they're from his blog—nothing wrong with that! He just got a new follower!

Finch's Thailand is a land of beauty and color, even draped several months in black-and-white bunting for the Thai king's funeral. The food is colorful, its people are colorful, their culture is colorful, and Pattaya's night life is most definitely "colorful." But the most colorful part of Finch's world are his fellow farangs. Many of the stories in this book are of their adventures—and frequent misadventures, with no doubt the names changed to protect the guilty.

Colorful as it is, Pattaya is no place for sissies. Even the "ladyboys" (cross-dressing male prostitutes) are plenty tough! Just going outside onto the street, you're taking your life in your hands. Not so much from the crime—though there is that—but the drivers. It's like driver's ed there is watching Fast and the Furious and Mad Max films. This is no racial slur—one of the first stories in this book is about the deadly crash of a crowded bus caused when the driver and his wife got into a fight behind the wheel! And I thought drivers in Illinois got crazy!

For all daily life in "Fun City" can be a high-wire act without a net, it's clear neither Finch nor anyone else in his stories would live anywhere else. Where else can you live (sorta) the life of a playboy on a pension? It's clear in his writing he loves the place and its people—crazy drivers, annoying neighbors, sex workers and all. He has nothing but respect for them, especially the "working girls" in the bars who are typically single mothers abandoned by husbands who "traded in" for a newer model. Finch himself has an adopted Thai family, a frequent source of drama, frustration, and joy; his little granddaughter's adorable antics are a favorite subject.

One thing I noticed is that while many of Finch's stories concern themselves with frank discussions of his and other people's encounters with the local sex trade, he's never crude; I was over a quarter-way in before I saw my first four-letter word! (In my novels, you wouldn't get a quarter way into a chapter!)

I've been lucky to have been able to travel overseas, though I've never been to Thailand. Once I make my first million, I'm going to fix that! (LOL) Until then, I'll have Finch's books and blog to take me on little mini-vacations to gorgeous, funny, beautiful and sexy Pattaya.

*I also expected from the blurb and the (I) in the title, this was the first in his series. I found out, no, that that's Collected Selected Words, a.k.a. Great Tits I've Known (And Other Species) a.k.a Sexy Thai Bar Girls And Me / Sex Adventures In Asia, which I'm reading next!… (meer)