BG2 - September 2022 - Review

Book Group 2 had a meeting this September to discuss Duanwad Pimwana’s “Bright” a translation into English by Mui Poopoksakul. 

Kampol was a boy abandoned by both parents and left to be cared for by the occupants of Mrs. Tongjan’s cluster of tenement houses. One must have great faith in human nature to do this to a five-year-old child. Bright was an easy read. The story was simply told in episodes that were important in the boy’s life.

We were totally wrapped up in Kampol’s little adventures and misadventures. Because of the simplistic writing style and the fact that it was a translation the reader is constantly looking for symbolic events and figures in the story as it unfolds. For me it was the ‘black dog’. While most of the characters live in the tenement some remain in the shadows and others interact actively in the different chapters of the book. Most prominent is Mr. Chong the grocer who takes on a fatherly figure providing Kampol a place to sleep, learn and be independent.  Most of us were surprised at the range of things Kampol can do within the different chapters. His venture into entrepreneurism to earn money on a few occasions proved so engaging and delightful to read.

The book had a glossed over pleasantness without the nasty, ugliness of real life. Except for the very frequent times when there was this acceptance of hunger or going hungry when one did not have money to buy food there were no other unpleasant events.

The first shock of realising that Kampol and his baby brother are without their mother, and that Kampol is left behind by his father was the cruellest moment in the book. Nobody explains why this is done and one must assume that children being left behind is not really a rare occurrence in Thailand.

The book club gave the book an 8/10

Santhi Nair-Moine