The consul's file

The new American Consul arrives in Ayer Hitam, Malaysia and immediately finds the expats are a mixed bunch. Initially I thought Ayer Hitam was going to be a fictional place, but it isn't it is a real place, in the state of Johor, just north of the Singapore border.
The books takes the form of chapter length short stories. The are slightly interconnected - in that the characters reoccur, the key characters are present in almost every chapter - but more importantly they are told in the order they occur - they are linear. The closest example I can recall is Narayan's Malgudi stories, set in the fictional town of Malgudi. Again those stories are stand alone, but interconnected.
There is a good variety of stories - mostly about people, but also a Christmas party, visitors, the drama society, a murder mystery, a witch doctor, and a mix of other things, until the consuls departure is imminent.
An easy, short read, that perhaps doesn't reach the highs of Theroux's other full length fiction examples. Still an entertainment.

A solid 3 stars.