The Sad Part Was

Winner of Thailand's top literary honour and perhaps the first work of contemporary Thai literature to be translated into English in the 21st century from a then 20-something, multi-hyphenate sensation ...still a little lost on me.

Honestly the best review of this short story collection may in fact be from one of the characters in this short story collection. The sullen Marut from Marut by the Sea rails against the author Prabda Yoon and his penchant for “the type of bizarre story which he makes end so cryptically, as though the harder it is to understand, the better.”

I've often been stymied by translated short story collections and maybe it's the sheer density of symbols, hints and nods packed into every paragraph. In English you can infer all the codes buried in the specific choice of words, the allusions to common tropes or fairy tales, expectations subverted, the significance of a plastic bag floating in the air. Without that cultural knowledge it just gets harder with this collection to understand the choice of adopting overtly formal language when a couple discovers a body, or the relevance of exceptional large line spacing.

Marut warns us from trying too hard to decipher it all. “If you try asking Sir Yoon what the meaning of each of his stories is, believe me, he'd chuckle deviously, heh heh, before answering, ‘Why don't you try asking the stories themselves?' ...listening to that makes me want to strangle him until his eyes pop out of their sockets.” I feel you Marut.