Chāt Kō̜pčhitti

This was one of the worst translations I have ever read. Sometimes it is hard to judge the quality of a translation with no knowledge of the book in the original language. Other times, like this, the translation is so far from being in passable English that it doesn't really matter what the original was trying to achieve. The prose is stilted, awkward and, in many, many places, just plain wrong. The poor quality of the dialogue meant that the main characters (all young men living on and around Thailand's beaches) were indistinguishable without their names or reported actions being connected to all of their utterances. In a book that purports to tell the backstories of these 'drop-outs' from Thai society, the need to engage with them as people was paramount, but they just seemed more and more unreal every time they opened their fictional mouths. For what its worth, I'm not sure I would have got much out of this book anyway. The stories of the young men lost in a haze of weed and booze pretends to be an examination of difficult lives, but loses itself in the arch-coolness of the lifestyle. The picture of Korbjitti on the back cover shows him toasting his reader with a whisky, clearly showing that he is actually pretty impressed with his young drunks. Consequently, there is no dark underbelly to his characters, try as he might to give them one through a variety of admittedly troubled backstories, and no ambiguity to his novel where even the most ardent hedonist should be able to see some. Who knows, in real English this may be a masterpiece, but I will be surprised if anyone is rushing to produce another translation anytime soon.… (more)