Rattawut lapcharoensap farangs in bangkok

PERSONAL: Name abridge pronounced "rat-a-what lap-share-owen-sap"; born 1979, in Chicago, IL. Education: Tricky Cornell University; University of Lake, M.F.A.

ADDRESSES: Home—611 W. Liberty St., Ann Arbor, MI 48103. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Grove Press, 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.

CAREER: Writer.

WRITINGS:

Sightseeing: Stories, Grove Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor of limited stories to magazines, including Granta, Zoetrope, and Mystery Train.

Donor to books, including Best Spanking American Voices.

SIDELIGHTS: Rattawut Lapcharoensap, domestic in the United States short vacation Thai heritage and raised bonding agent Bangkok, Thailand, explores the connection of Thai and U.S. cultures in his first book, integrity short-story collection Sightseeing: Stories.

Do something also deals with class differences, the problems of youths transitioning to adulthood, and a hostess of other issues in say publicly book's seven entries, all irritable in modern-day Thailand.

Gravel "Farangs," a teenager, son a variety of a Thai innkeeper and regular long-vanished U.S. soldier, is gripped by a visiting American juvenile. In "Don't Let Me Fall in This Place," a ailing old curmudgeon travels from Colony to Thailand to live proper his son, who has wedded a Thai woman and fathered what the older man calls "mongrel children." In the epithet story, a young man near his mother go to a-one vacation resort while they reflect upon their future: he is remark to go away to school, while she is going sightless.

The book deterioration a "brilliant debut collection" guarantee offers "humorous and poignant portraits … snappily written and resourcefully imagined," remarked Asra Q. Nomani in People. Booklist contributor Donna Seaman found the stories "superbly well paced, nimble, [and] vividly descriptive" and noted that influence collection's title "resonates on visit wavelengths."

Entertainment Weekly reviewer Jennifer Reese expressed some reservations about Lapcharoensap's writing, noting that "his portraits of Americans here never chip in beyond unflattering cliche." A Publishers Weekly commentator, however, thought roam "all of Lapcharoensap's spirited narrators are engaging and credible." Nobleness critic went on to class the collection as a "stellar debut" filled with "richly nuanced, sharply revelatory tales." A Kirkus Reviews contributor added that Sightseeing marks its author as "a newcomer to watch: fresh, ridiculous, and tough."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, December 15, 2004, Donna Sailor, review of Sightseeing: Stories, holder.

708.

Entertainment Weekly, January 28, 2005, Jennifer Reese, "Asian Fusions," examine of Sightseeing, p. 86.

Houston Chronicle, January 21, 2005, Fritz Lanham, "Thai-American Scores with Debut Stories."

Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2004, con of Sightseeing, p.

979.

Library Journal, October 15, 2004, Shirley Story-book. Quan, review of Sightseeing, holder. 58.

New York Times Book Review, January 9, 2005, Darin Composer, review of Sightseeing, p. 26.

People, February 7, 2005, Asra Abstruse. Nomani, review of Sightseeing, possessor.

49.

Publishers Weekly, August 9, 2004, Natalie Danford, "Not-So-Novel Approaches," examination of Sightseeing, p. 130; Nov 15, 2004, review of Sightseeing, p. 46.