Regular readers of this blog will know that I am a very big fan of Somtow Sucharitkul - also known as SP Somtow. When I saw this novella on a famous shopping website, I figured it would make for a damned good little cheat read.
I was right.
This contains two stories, the eponymous novella and a short story called Chui Chai.
The Bird Catcher is a fictional story about a real life Thai serial killer Si Ui and his friendship with a lonely 12 year old American boy living in Siam with his mother after the Second World War. We're told the story of the friendship in flashback as the narrator describes it to his grandson after they see the mummified body of the serial killer in the museum of horrors in Bangkok.
Nicholas is fresh out of the same internment camp as Jim Ballard. He's seen things that children should never see. On the boat to Siam he first spots Si Ui, waiting motionless on the deck, waiting to catch the first bird that comes too close. He's an expert at this hunting technique, and proves to be equally proficient with larger prey later on.
Nicholas doesn't fit in in the village his mother chooses as their temporary home. Neither does Si Ui. because of language barriers, Nicholas is one of the few in the village that Si Ui can talk to, He's not native to Siam either. As a result of this, a bond forms between the two characters. This rapidly turns from a bit creepy to deeply disturbing. To say more would be to leave spoilers.
This is an elegantly written, psychologically messed up and deeply horrific tale. It truly deserved the World Fantasy award it won.
The second story - Chui Chai - is a weird sort of a zombie story, but not quite. It's one of the most original takes on the subject of letting a person live on after death. This story is also contained in a couple of Somtow's short story collections. If memory serves, he describes this as a gestalt zombie story to complement his Jungian vampire novels (Vampire Junction and its sequels) and his Freudian werewolf novel (Moon Dance).
I'm not sure what I can say about this without giving away spoilers. A businessman spends an unforgettable night with a beautiful exotic dancer. When he needs to find her, he learns new truths about the nature of existence itself. Once again, it's a sick and twisted little story. Excellent stuff.
This book is everything I look for in a cheat read. Well written, creepy, funny in places, and bloody good fun.
Available online from various sources.
No comments:
Post a Comment