It took me an entire year to read this 380 page book. It was so painful to get through. But so powerful.
The novel talks of how a village destroys a good man and venerates a bad one through its petty minded gossip and judgement. Fak, a poor man, is left alone after his father dies. His father had taken a simple minded, mentally ill woman as his wife. Out of compassion, Fak continues to look after her. She, simple minded and mentally ill, behaves inappropriately, calling him, "her man" and flashing her privates at him and anyone in the village.
The rest of the village believe that Fak is sleeping with his stepmother -- a major sin -- and, scandalised, turn on Fak. Previously liked, Fak finds himself treated as a pariah by all including his former friends. The only one willing to befriend him is the village undertaker who is himself shunned by the villagers because of his job. The unjust hostility of the villagers to him, their baseless viciousness in calling his compassionate willingness to continue to allow his stepmother to stay with him incestuous lust cause Fak to turn to drink. He becomes increasingly abhorred by the self-righteous villagers.
A person in the village, admired and looked up to, takes the opportunity to cheat Fak out of his money, and Fak has no recourse because, in the eyes of the villagers, his word -- the word of an alcoholic incestuous sinner -- is nothing compared to that of the real cheat.
In Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes, Daniel Everett talks of how in the Amazon jungle, the Piraha tribe would cast out someone if he seriously offended against their customs. That person would be left alone to fend for himself -- a death sentence really because a lone man will die without the help of his community in the Amazonian jungle. The same law applies her - but Fak, the innocent compassionate one is exiled and treated as a pariah because of the villagers' small minded petty self-righteous lies and gossip. In this age of the internet where the world has become a village and internet mobs happily turn on people and spread lies, The Judgment is a useful reminder that ordinary people can be no less cruel and vicious than their leaders when it serves their sense of identity to be so.
The title, The Judgment, is both the judgment that the villagers pass on Fak, and the judgment that Chart Korbjitti passes on us, all of us, including himself. Make no mistake, while this takes place in Thailand, this might be a village, a company, a class or any community anywhere in the world. Highly recommended.