Review by Duncan Stearn
This is a book penned by a lady who was born to write. In fact, her prose is so simple, yet elegant, it comes as no surprise that she won an award in 1990 for the best book of poetry by a Canadian woman. Touch the Dragon is a relatively short 186-pages, first published in 1992, and it also picked up a prize, taking the 1993 Canadian Governor-General's Award for the best non-fiction. It is the journal of a young Canadian girl of seventeen who, in August 1986, left her home in Calgary to travel half way across the world and, courtesy of a Rotary Exchange Program, immerse herself in a completely foreign culture, language, and climate. It concludes in August 1987, a twelve-month sojourn that was to change Karen Connelly's outlook on life. Connelly's new home is a place in northern Thailand called Denchai and she is initially billeted with a family who own a liquor store. She attends school in Nareerat and comes under the watchful eye of Achan Champa, the overseas-educated headmistress who speaks perfect English. Naturally, the culture shock hits her after the first wave of fascination and exoticism has worn off, and as the radically different diet impacts on her stomach. She notes, 'I liked the food before I started throwing it up…' She goes on, 'Today, I hate Thailand generally…I have no tolerance at all for living in a different culture. I have no facility for languages and I am viciously narrow-minded. I don't care if it's a wonderful experience.' (p23) Two days later she goes to a monastery and meets an Australian who'd come to live in Thailand as a Buddhist monk. When she tells him how difficult she is finding adapting to her new home, he says, '…you'll soon forget about the difficulties. The people will become accustomed to you, you to them…It is so hard at first…but then everything becomes so beautiful. Even the things you never notice before…Trust me. In a few months you won't want to go home.' (p26) She makes a wonderful observation about songthaew drivers. 'Thai drivers don't really believe in other vehicles. They think their songthaew is the only one in the world, and they swerve into the oncoming lane of traffic…whenever they so desire. It doesn't matter if cars are coming straight for us- the driver thinks he's seeing a mirage.' (p37) Connelly's observations are occasionally acute: 'Sometimes it's difficult to spend hours and hours with Thai people because they talk so much about food, the weather, mosquitoes. The rest of the world, and whatever might be happening in it, is rarely a concern…' (p55) She is dolled up for the Loy Krathong festival, a process that takes 'a mere three hours'; after three months, starts to 'dream in Thai', but describes writing in Thai as 'like drawing snails and acrobatic sperm cells.' She also practises the art of Oriental massage on Mae Dang, the mother of one of her school-friends. Mae Dang is a nurse and also runs a small restaurant, calls Karen 'Kalen Canary' and is 'one of those rare people who wear life draped around her like a blanket.' (p73) A Rotary-sponsored trip to Phuket reveals just how much she had become immersed in Thai life. 'Foreigners anywhere have a tendency to mob together and criticize the people and customs of their adopted country. Some of the people I was obliged to spend two weeks with were over-critical of the Thais and their ways. Their attitudes were incomprehensible to me and I often felt offended on behalf of my hosts…it was a prelude to the difficulty I would later have readjusting to life in North America.' (p74) The process of integration continues to the point that when it does come time for her to leave Thailand and return to Canada she feels as if she is being forced to abandon the country she now regards as home. It is a feeling with which so many expats can empathise. Connelly paints some beautiful word pictures with a neat, clean prose, bringing to life the people she comes to regard as her family. A few of her observations are arguable, but it would be churlish to raise them and, anyway, they don't detract from what is a wonderful book. The book is available from Bookazine outlets in Royal Garden, Big C and now in Jomtien. At 325 baht it's worth every satang. Rating: 4.5 out of 5  You can find the book on this web site here - Touch the Dragon
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