(Drivebycuriosity) - Bangkok is a wonderful place, a mega-city which blends exotic sites with buzzling life & 21st century technology. Lawrence Osborne`s new novel "The Glass Kingdom" is set in a very sinister but fascinating Bangkok (amazon). Sarah, a young American, a drifter, came to some money. She moves from New York to Bangkok where she rents a flat in a huge apartment complex, called the "Kingdom", to “make herself invisible for a while, to turn herself into a ghost”. Soon Sarah meets some neighbors and trouble is around the corner (this is a spoiler free blog).
The novel kept me on the edge and I cared much about Sarah, even though she was a bit too naive and trustworthy for my taste, as many characters in Osborne´s novels. The author has the talent for building up the tension and keeping it slowly smoldering. The "Glass Kingdom" reminded of Patricia Highsmith´s psychological thrillers & Joseph Conrad´s exotic adventure stories.
I indulged into descriptions of a tropical metropolis, of the lush vegetation and the monsoon climate. "In the nights of violent weather, you could hear the glass being battered by the rain, the echoes spiraling downward to the lobby". The "Kingdom", it´s residents and neighborhood seem to amalgamate into a threatening being. I also enjoyed Osborn`s slick apercus about "Martini socialists who discreetly paid less taxes than little Sarah", his observations of Siam`s fragile political situation & the delicate role of powerful Chinese dynastic families, "their exquisite taste and spiritual tact".
I loved already Osborne`s similar novel "Hunter in the Dark", set in Cambodia (here my review). This book is even better. A must read for all lovers of good novels.
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