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Feste in lacrime
"Feste in lacrime" è una raccolta di dodici racconti di Prabda Yoon, figura di spicco dell'ambiente culturale e creativo thailandese. L'autore gioca in maniera inedita con la lingua, ricorrendo al poetico e al pop, costruendo ambientazioni in bilico tra il surreale e il vivido. I racconti sono inquieti, divertenti e caratterizzati da atmosfere misteriose e malinconiche. Una coppia fa l'amore durante un temporale e le loro attività sono interrotte dal crollo di due lettere giganti sul tetto di casa con conseguenze imprevedibili in "Qualcosa nell'aria"; un giovane incontra un misterioso uomo anziano di nome Ei Ploang al Lumpini Park, e questo lo costringe a considerare la natura intrecciata del bene e del male; in "Sonno vigile" un uomo di nome Natee è ossessionato dalla perdita dei bottoni del pigiama ed è trascinato in una strana fantasticheria sulla natura dei sogni e le qualità dei pigiama rossi e gialli (allegoria della cultura politica thailandese, divisa tra due partiti conosciuti come camicie rosse e gialle). In "Neve per la mamma", una madre aspetta che il suo bambino cresca per portarlo in Alaska a toccare la vera neve, che non ha mai conosciuto da piccolo nei tropici. Per il lettore italiano Feste in lacrime è una porta d'accesso all'universo contemporaneo della Thailandia, una società in viaggio tra modernità e tradizione, dove le contraddizioni sono spaventose ed esilaranti. Un Paese sempre più frequentato dai viaggiatori stranieri, ma della cui cultura viva si conosce molto poco.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
83 people are currently reading
3132 people want to read
About the author
Prabda Yoon
49 books46 followersSee ปราบดา หยุ่น for Thai profile.
Prabda Yoon (Thai: ปราบดา หยุ่น; RTGS: Prapda Yun; born 2 August 1973 in Bangkok) is a Thai writer, novelist, filmmaker, artist, graphic designer, magazine editor, screenwriter, translator and media personality. His literary debut, Muang Moom Shak (City of Right Angles), a collection of five related stories about New York City, and the follow-up story collection, Kwam Na Ja Pen (Probability), both published in 2000, immediately turned him into "...the talk of the town..." In 2002, Kwam Na Ja Pen won the S.E.A. Write Award, an award presented to accomplished Southeast Asian writers and poets.
Prabda has been prolific, having written over 20 books of fiction and nonfiction in ten years, designed over 100 book covers for many publishers and authors, translated a number of modern Western classics such as Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita and Pnin, all of J. D. Salinger's books, Anthony Burgess's' A Clockwork Orange, and Karel Čapek's R.U.R. He has also written two acclaimed screenplays for Thai "new wave" filmmaker Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, "Last Life in the Universe" (2003) and "Invisible Waves" (2006). Prabda's literary work has been translated to Japanese and published in Japan regularly. He has exhibited his artworks (paintings, drawings, installations) in Thailand and Japan. He has also produced music and written songs with the bands Buahima and The Typhoon Band.
In 2004, Prabda founded Typhoon Studio, a small publishing house with two imprints, Typhoon Books and Sunday Afternoon. In 2012, he opened Bookmoby Readers' Cafe, a small bookshop at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre. In 2015, Prabda wrote and directed his first feature film, "Motel Mist", which was selected to premiere and compete at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2016. The Sad Part Was, a collection of twelve short stories mostly taken from Prabda's Kwam Na Ja Pen in English, translated from Thai by Mui Poopoksakul (who won an English PEN Award for her translation), was published by the London-based independent publisher, Tilted Axis, and released in the UK on 3 March 2017. It is said to be the first translation of Thai fiction to be published in the UK.
Prabda Yoon (Thai: ปราบดา หยุ่น; RTGS: Prapda Yun; born 2 August 1973 in Bangkok) is a Thai writer, novelist, filmmaker, artist, graphic designer, magazine editor, screenwriter, translator and media personality. His literary debut, Muang Moom Shak (City of Right Angles), a collection of five related stories about New York City, and the follow-up story collection, Kwam Na Ja Pen (Probability), both published in 2000, immediately turned him into "...the talk of the town..." In 2002, Kwam Na Ja Pen won the S.E.A. Write Award, an award presented to accomplished Southeast Asian writers and poets.
Prabda has been prolific, having written over 20 books of fiction and nonfiction in ten years, designed over 100 book covers for many publishers and authors, translated a number of modern Western classics such as Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita and Pnin, all of J. D. Salinger's books, Anthony Burgess's' A Clockwork Orange, and Karel Čapek's R.U.R. He has also written two acclaimed screenplays for Thai "new wave" filmmaker Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, "Last Life in the Universe" (2003) and "Invisible Waves" (2006). Prabda's literary work has been translated to Japanese and published in Japan regularly. He has exhibited his artworks (paintings, drawings, installations) in Thailand and Japan. He has also produced music and written songs with the bands Buahima and The Typhoon Band.
In 2004, Prabda founded Typhoon Studio, a small publishing house with two imprints, Typhoon Books and Sunday Afternoon. In 2012, he opened Bookmoby Readers' Cafe, a small bookshop at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre. In 2015, Prabda wrote and directed his first feature film, "Motel Mist", which was selected to premiere and compete at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2016. The Sad Part Was, a collection of twelve short stories mostly taken from Prabda's Kwam Na Ja Pen in English, translated from Thai by Mui Poopoksakul (who won an English PEN Award for her translation), was published by the London-based independent publisher, Tilted Axis, and released in the UK on 3 March 2017. It is said to be the first translation of Thai fiction to be published in the UK.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 170 reviews
January 2, 2023
DNF@story 4/12
The sad part is that I didn't like this.
Pen in parentheses :- 1 star
- A line in the novel upset me a little and nearly convinced me to give up on the book, but after reading other reviews and finding that no one else had mentioned it, I reasoned that perhaps I was overanalyzing the situation. However, the plot didn't really offer me anything.
Ei Ploang :- 1.5 stars
- Now that I've read two stories and given them ratings of 1 and 1.5, this is not looking good. Nevertheless, I'm going to keep reading because, hopefully, there are more good stories. I suppose we can trust all those good ratings. That explanation of hell and heaven, though, was fantastic.
A schoolgirl's diary :- 4 stars
-A breath of fresh air, at last Unlike the last two, this one was unique and fun to see. She presented an excellent explanation for what 1+1 is.
Miss Space :- 1.5 stars
-I am very grateful that not all of the story is written in this way because this story happened just as I started to think that this book was going well.
The sad part is that I didn't like this.
Pen in parentheses :- 1 star
- A line in the novel upset me a little and nearly convinced me to give up on the book, but after reading other reviews and finding that no one else had mentioned it, I reasoned that perhaps I was overanalyzing the situation. However, the plot didn't really offer me anything.
Ei Ploang :- 1.5 stars
- Now that I've read two stories and given them ratings of 1 and 1.5, this is not looking good. Nevertheless, I'm going to keep reading because, hopefully, there are more good stories. I suppose we can trust all those good ratings. That explanation of hell and heaven, though, was fantastic.
A schoolgirl's diary :- 4 stars
-A breath of fresh air, at last Unlike the last two, this one was unique and fun to see. She presented an excellent explanation for what 1+1 is.
Miss Space :- 1.5 stars
-I am very grateful that not all of the story is written in this way because this story happened just as I started to think that this book was going well.
February 16, 2018
This book is published by a groundbreaking small UK publisher Tilted Axis who publish “books that might not otherwise make it into English, for the very reasons that make them exciting to us – artistic originality, radical vision, the sense that here is something new.” Their name refers to their aim to tilt “the axis of world literature from the centre to the margins ...… where multiple traditions spark new forms and translation plays a crucial role.”
It was founded by Deborah Smith, the English-Korean translator of Han Kang’s “The Vegetarian” and “The White Book” and the winner with her of the 2016 Man Booker International Prize for the former book.
This book is a perfect example of what Tilted Axis was founded to do – seemingly among the first modern Thai literature translated into English and the first chance for English readers to access an author who has genuinely transformed the literary culture of his country.
Prabda Yoon is a Thai writer, novelist, filmmaker, artist, graphic designer, magazine editor, screenwriter, and media personality. He himself is a Thai to English translator (including of Salinger and Nabakov). His primary education was in Bangkok but he then studied in America for 10+ years before returning to Thailand in 1998.
His first two books, both published in 2000, were Muang Moom Shak (City of Right Angles), a collection of five related stories about New York City, and Kwam Na Ja Pen (Probability) – stories largely based in Bangkok. The latter book (per Wikipedia) “won the S.E.A. Write Award, the most prestigious literary prize in Thailand, making Prabda a household name and icon of his generation”.
“The Sad Part Was” is a collection of 12 of Prabda’s short stories in English, 8 of which made up “Kwam Na Ja Pen” and was translated by Mui Poopoksakul a first time translator with a mixed Boston/Bangkok upbringing and a law practitioner who then studied literature at Harvard and cultural translation at the American University of Paris. The book has been shortlisted for the inaugural Society of Authors Translators Associations First Translator Award, which very impressively was funded by Daniel Hahn with his winnings from the 2017 IMPAC International Dublin Literary Award as translator of “A General Theory of Oblivion”.
The stories are playfully post-modern in style, most clearly in “Marut by the Sea” where the narrator of the story addresses the reader directly, openly criticising Yoon’s writing style – cynically an English reader could thing this approach a little too familiar albeit sign of a promising literary talent, but it is clear that for Thai literature Yoon’s style was innovative and revolutionary and that his courage to depart from traditional literary forms came just as Thai society was going through its own modernisation, and so struck a chord with a young readership. Yoon is also renowned for his wordplay in Thai – and Mui Poopoksakul seems to do an excellent job of making the stories read largely naturally in English while often maintaining much of the sense of the original story (for example the incongruously archaic language used by the two irreverent lovers in “Something in The Air” or the key role played by excessive spacing between words by “Miss Space”).
Many of the stories address generational relationships – often with strong respect from the younger to the older generation (“Pen in Parenthesis” where the protagonist designs a Dracula themed advert for breath mints as a tribute to his grandparents; “Ei Ploang” where the young narrator learns to observe others and discern their characters). Two stories “Miss Space” and “Shallow/Deep: Thick/Thin” (about a traveler who discovers, but refuses to reveal, a secret from space) – both play on the idea of miscommunication and how speaking without listening acts as a barrier to communication. Although much of Yoon’s writing is playful, it can also pack an emotional punch such as in “Snow for Mother” where what could have been a rather whimsical tale, turns into an deeply moving one culminating in the ending reflection of “How many mothers …. get to say thank you to their child as often as I do”.
Overall a very enjoyable collection, made all the more admirable by the pioneering nature of its translation.
It was founded by Deborah Smith, the English-Korean translator of Han Kang’s “The Vegetarian” and “The White Book” and the winner with her of the 2016 Man Booker International Prize for the former book.
This book is a perfect example of what Tilted Axis was founded to do – seemingly among the first modern Thai literature translated into English and the first chance for English readers to access an author who has genuinely transformed the literary culture of his country.
Prabda Yoon is a Thai writer, novelist, filmmaker, artist, graphic designer, magazine editor, screenwriter, and media personality. He himself is a Thai to English translator (including of Salinger and Nabakov). His primary education was in Bangkok but he then studied in America for 10+ years before returning to Thailand in 1998.
His first two books, both published in 2000, were Muang Moom Shak (City of Right Angles), a collection of five related stories about New York City, and Kwam Na Ja Pen (Probability) – stories largely based in Bangkok. The latter book (per Wikipedia) “won the S.E.A. Write Award, the most prestigious literary prize in Thailand, making Prabda a household name and icon of his generation”.
“The Sad Part Was” is a collection of 12 of Prabda’s short stories in English, 8 of which made up “Kwam Na Ja Pen” and was translated by Mui Poopoksakul a first time translator with a mixed Boston/Bangkok upbringing and a law practitioner who then studied literature at Harvard and cultural translation at the American University of Paris. The book has been shortlisted for the inaugural Society of Authors Translators Associations First Translator Award, which very impressively was funded by Daniel Hahn with his winnings from the 2017 IMPAC International Dublin Literary Award as translator of “A General Theory of Oblivion”.
The stories are playfully post-modern in style, most clearly in “Marut by the Sea” where the narrator of the story addresses the reader directly, openly criticising Yoon’s writing style – cynically an English reader could thing this approach a little too familiar albeit sign of a promising literary talent, but it is clear that for Thai literature Yoon’s style was innovative and revolutionary and that his courage to depart from traditional literary forms came just as Thai society was going through its own modernisation, and so struck a chord with a young readership. Yoon is also renowned for his wordplay in Thai – and Mui Poopoksakul seems to do an excellent job of making the stories read largely naturally in English while often maintaining much of the sense of the original story (for example the incongruously archaic language used by the two irreverent lovers in “Something in The Air” or the key role played by excessive spacing between words by “Miss Space”).
Many of the stories address generational relationships – often with strong respect from the younger to the older generation (“Pen in Parenthesis” where the protagonist designs a Dracula themed advert for breath mints as a tribute to his grandparents; “Ei Ploang” where the young narrator learns to observe others and discern their characters). Two stories “Miss Space” and “Shallow/Deep: Thick/Thin” (about a traveler who discovers, but refuses to reveal, a secret from space) – both play on the idea of miscommunication and how speaking without listening acts as a barrier to communication. Although much of Yoon’s writing is playful, it can also pack an emotional punch such as in “Snow for Mother” where what could have been a rather whimsical tale, turns into an deeply moving one culminating in the ending reflection of “How many mothers …. get to say thank you to their child as often as I do”.
Overall a very enjoyable collection, made all the more admirable by the pioneering nature of its translation.
April 10, 2019
Finally back on my ASIA 2019 reading project, this book of short stories by Prabda Yoon (Thailand) plays with words in different ways (one story takes place completely inside one set of parentheses, in a sentence about picking a piece of paper off the floor.) Some of the writing reads a bit awkwardly but it's always hard to tell if that's translation or the original (one was a death story told in a weird tense that must have been difficult to translate!) Overall the stories are very modern and very urban (most are set in Bangkok.)
I like to support small presses like Tilted Axis but really disliked seeing the print from other pages through the page I was trying to read. They are very new and hopefully they will work it out.
I like to support small presses like Tilted Axis but really disliked seeing the print from other pages through the page I was trying to read. They are very new and hopefully they will work it out.
March 21, 2021
Winner of Thailand's top literary honour and perhaps the first work of contemporary Thai literature to be translated into English in the 21st century from a then 20-something, multi-hyphenate sensation ...still a little lost on me.
Honestly the best review of this short story collection may in fact be from one of the characters in this short story collection. The sullen Marut from Marut by the Sea rails against the author Prabda Yoon and his penchant for "the type of bizarre story which he makes end so cryptically, as though the harder it is to understand, the better."
I've often been stymied by translated short story collections and maybe it's the sheer density of symbols, hints and nods packed into every paragraph. In English you can infer all the codes buried in the specific choice of words, the allusions to common tropes or fairy tales, expectations subverted, the significance of a plastic bag floating in the air. Without that cultural knowledge it just gets harder with this collection to understand the choice of adopting overtly formal language when a couple discovers a body, or the relevance of exceptional large line spacing.
Marut warns us from trying too hard to decipher it all. "If you try asking Sir Yoon what the meaning of each of his stories is, believe me, he'd chuckle deviously, heh heh, before answering, 'Why don't you try asking the stories themselves?' ...listening to that makes me want to strangle him until his eyes pop out of their sockets." I feel you Marut.
Honestly the best review of this short story collection may in fact be from one of the characters in this short story collection. The sullen Marut from Marut by the Sea rails against the author Prabda Yoon and his penchant for "the type of bizarre story which he makes end so cryptically, as though the harder it is to understand, the better."
I've often been stymied by translated short story collections and maybe it's the sheer density of symbols, hints and nods packed into every paragraph. In English you can infer all the codes buried in the specific choice of words, the allusions to common tropes or fairy tales, expectations subverted, the significance of a plastic bag floating in the air. Without that cultural knowledge it just gets harder with this collection to understand the choice of adopting overtly formal language when a couple discovers a body, or the relevance of exceptional large line spacing.
Marut warns us from trying too hard to decipher it all. "If you try asking Sir Yoon what the meaning of each of his stories is, believe me, he'd chuckle deviously, heh heh, before answering, 'Why don't you try asking the stories themselves?' ...listening to that makes me want to strangle him until his eyes pop out of their sockets." I feel you Marut.
May 28, 2020
"What can you do? Some people, even when a miracle appears right in front of their nose, remain perfectly oblivious. What a shame."
.
From THE SAD PART WAS by Prabda Yoon, translated from the Thai by Mui Poopoksakul, 2000 in Thai / 2017 English by @tiltedaxisbooks
#ReadtheWorld21 📍Thailand
Short stories (and poetry) are a writer's playground, to explore the weird dream that keeps coming back, the speculation of what would have happened if..., to play with language and plotlines for a minute and "just see" what will happen.
Yoon's collection was originally published in Thailand in 2000, and thankfully, 17 years later, translated into English. Loved Poopoksakul's detail to wit and wordplay throughout, and it was illuminating to read more about Thai linguistics and the challenge of translation from Thai to English in her 'Translator's Note'.
Prabda Yoon is described in a review in Asymptote as “the writer who popularized postmodern narrative techniques in contemporary Thai literature.”
Yoon's playfulness is on full display here - stories range from eerie, absurd, light sci-fi, to meta. He plays with speech patterns - one story is written in florid prose (reminiscent of a Bronte sister or an Austen dialogue) that is completely paradoxical to the plot and setting. It was quite brilliant.
Sampling of some stories:
A group of people regularly gather together to eat bird's eye chiles and cry their eyes out, a man discovers the secret to the universe in a bamboo grove and must describe it on television, a couple experiences quite an adventurous and macabre spectacle while "in flagrante", and a character in a story becomes aware that he is being written and begins to criticize the writer ("Believe me, Prabda’s stories don’t get any better than this. I myself could write ten or twenty a day.") 🤣 It's all so damn clever.
Yoon has another collection, also translated by Poopoksakul, and published by Tilted Axis called MOVING PARTS. I gotta get a copy!
.
From THE SAD PART WAS by Prabda Yoon, translated from the Thai by Mui Poopoksakul, 2000 in Thai / 2017 English by @tiltedaxisbooks
#ReadtheWorld21 📍Thailand
Short stories (and poetry) are a writer's playground, to explore the weird dream that keeps coming back, the speculation of what would have happened if..., to play with language and plotlines for a minute and "just see" what will happen.
Yoon's collection was originally published in Thailand in 2000, and thankfully, 17 years later, translated into English. Loved Poopoksakul's detail to wit and wordplay throughout, and it was illuminating to read more about Thai linguistics and the challenge of translation from Thai to English in her 'Translator's Note'.
Prabda Yoon is described in a review in Asymptote as “the writer who popularized postmodern narrative techniques in contemporary Thai literature.”
Yoon's playfulness is on full display here - stories range from eerie, absurd, light sci-fi, to meta. He plays with speech patterns - one story is written in florid prose (reminiscent of a Bronte sister or an Austen dialogue) that is completely paradoxical to the plot and setting. It was quite brilliant.
Sampling of some stories:
A group of people regularly gather together to eat bird's eye chiles and cry their eyes out, a man discovers the secret to the universe in a bamboo grove and must describe it on television, a couple experiences quite an adventurous and macabre spectacle while "in flagrante", and a character in a story becomes aware that he is being written and begins to criticize the writer ("Believe me, Prabda’s stories don’t get any better than this. I myself could write ten or twenty a day.") 🤣 It's all so damn clever.
Yoon has another collection, also translated by Poopoksakul, and published by Tilted Axis called MOVING PARTS. I gotta get a copy!
September 29, 2018
Intervista all'autore: https://youtu.be/hS4aq5D71SY
November 10, 2018
เคยหยุดอ่านไปครั้งหนึ่งเมื่อ 7-8 ปีที่แล้ว เพราะรู้สึกว่ามันแปลก และไม่ชิน มาอ่านตอนนี้อีกรอบก็ว่าเฉยๆ ล่ะ อ่านก็ได้ไม่อ่านก็ได้ แต่อ่านแล้วจะรู้ว่าบ้านเราก็มีงานแบบนี้ด้วย แบบเนื้อเรื่อง+ประเด็นจริงมีแค่บรรทัดเดียว ที่เหลือถูกเล่าในวงเล็บที่ยาวและต่อเนื่องเพียงวงเล็บเดียวเช่นกัน / ตอนกำลังอ่านก็ไม่ได้สนใจ จนจบแล้วถึงเห็นว่า อ่าว นี่มันเรื่องในวงเล็บนี่หว่า สรุปคืออะไรวะ 555 (ชม)
April 21, 2025
แม่งตลกตรงนิยายอายุ 25 ปี แต่อ่านแล้วนึกว่าเพิ่งเขียนออกมาเมื่อวาน
ชอบตรงที่มันเป็นเรื่องสั้นที่เห็นแก่ตัวสัสๆ ไม่เอาใคร ไม่ได้สนใจจะไปพิทักษ์โลกอะไร มันคืองานแบบกูอยากเขียนอะ มึงจะทำไม
โอเค มันก็มีประเด็นอะไรให้ตกผลึกอยู่เหมือนกัน แต่ด้วยพลังของ "วิธีการนำเสนอ" มันใหญ่โตขนาดนี้ ผมเลยขอสนุกกับการผจญภัยในความแปลกประหลาดพิสดารข��งคุณปราบดา หลับตาล่องลอยไปตามแรงกระชากที่คุณปราบดาจะพาผมไป
น่าเสียดายว่างานแบบนี้ ที่โคตรจะเอาแต่ใจ โคตรดื้อรั้น ไม่ค่อยจะมีให้เห็นแล้ว ความห่ามหรือลูกบ้าในงานเขียน ดูจะเกิดและตายในทันทีพร้อมกับรางวัลซีไรต์ประจำปี 2545 แล้ว (มั้ง)
บอกตรงๆว่าอยากเห็นงานอะไรแบบนี้อีก ตอนอ่านไปมโนไปด้วยว่าคุณปราบดาน่าจะรู้สึกสนุกเมามันไปกับการเขียนงานแต่ละชิ้นแน่ๆ ความคิดสร้างสรรค์ทำงานพลุ่งพล่านเหมือนได้ทานยา Limitless งานที่ออกมาเลยดูนอกคอกมากๆเมื่อเทียบในสมัยที่มันตีพิมพ์ซึ่งอุดมไปด้วยพลังของเพื่อชีวิต เพื่อสังคม
เจอพลัง เพื่อตัวกูเข้าไป โอ้โห หวานเจี๊ยบเลย
ชอบตรงที่มันเป็นเรื่องสั้นที่เห็นแก่ตัวสัสๆ ไม่เอาใคร ไม่ได้สนใจจะไปพิทักษ์โลกอะไร มันคืองานแบบกูอยากเขียนอะ มึงจะทำไม
โอเค มันก็มีประเด็นอะไรให้ตกผลึกอยู่เหมือนกัน แต่ด้วยพลังของ "วิธีการนำเสนอ" มันใหญ่โตขนาดนี้ ผมเลยขอสนุกกับการผจญภัยในความแปลกประหลาดพิสดารข��งคุณปราบดา หลับตาล่องลอยไปตามแรงกระชากที่คุณปราบดาจะพาผมไป
น่าเสียดายว่างานแบบนี้ ที่โคตรจะเอาแต่ใจ โคตรดื้อรั้น ไม่ค่อยจะมีให้เห็นแล้ว ความห่ามหรือลูกบ้าในงานเขียน ดูจะเกิดและตายในทันทีพร้อมกับรางวัลซีไรต์ประจำปี 2545 แล้ว (มั้ง)
บอกตรงๆว่าอยากเห็นงานอะไรแบบนี้อีก ตอนอ่านไปมโนไปด้วยว่าคุณปราบดาน่าจะรู้สึกสนุกเมามันไปกับการเขียนงานแต่ละชิ้นแน่ๆ ความคิดสร้างสรรค์ทำงานพลุ่งพล่านเหมือนได้ทานยา Limitless งานที่ออกมาเลยดูนอกคอกมากๆเมื่อเทียบในสมัยที่มันตีพิมพ์ซึ่งอุดมไปด้วยพลังของเพื่อชีวิต เพื่อสังคม
เจอพลัง เพื่อตัวกูเข้าไป โอ้โห หวานเจี๊ยบเลย
March 20, 2023
"...freedom, whether physical or mental, doesn't exist. Physically, everyone is a slave to the air, the sun, water and food. Mentally, the majority at least are slaves to language, culture, tradition, etc. People's servitude is so et cetera. So don't make me laugh by saying that you're a free thinker"
The Sad Part Was consists of 12 short stories written in Thai (and translated into English by Mui Poopoksakul) by Prabda Yoon, who is considered "the voice of a new generation" in the arena of Thai literature. These postmodern short stories are branded as "witty and evocative" and Prabda, while experimenting with different genres through these stories (such as sci-fi, meta-fiction, and satire) has a rather unique worldview with some dark humor notions. Most of these stories explore Thai urban society, a glimpse of modernisation from the perspective of the older generation in Thai society, generational relationships, the need to conform to social norms, the disparity between the rich and poor in Bangkok, as well as a retelling of a local urban legend with Prabda's trademark witty twist. In the "Translator's Afterword", Mui Poopoksakul noted that both Prabda and Mui are "children of '80s Bangkok, old enough to remember the city without a sky train or a McDonald's, but young enough for these signs of modernisation not to seem out of place when we imagine our hometown. The '80s and '90s were comparatively light-hearted decades in Thailand, with economic realities becoming easier and, for better or worse, politics regarded with relative apathy". It is with this premise that Prabda intends to write stories with the hope that "the Bangkok obliquely represented in these stories will come alive for the reader".
My personal favourites are "Marut by the Sea" (which exemplified Prabda's playfulness as he took a "self-loathing" approach in this story by addressing the critiques on his writing style), "Shallow/Deep, Thick/Thin" (a traveler who discovered a "secret" from space but refused to reveal it, which raises curiosity amongst the people from everywhere around the world), "The Disappearance of a She-Vampire in Pattaya" (a satirical take on violence against women vis-a-vis sex tourism in this retelling of a local urban legend), "A Schoolgirl's Diary" (a schoolgirl who fails to understand the reasoning behind 1 + 1 equals 2 where Prabda then criticises human's conformity to social norms). All in all, this collection of short stories showcased the boldness of Prabda Yoon as an author as certain stories fall within the thin line of absurdity, which is not really appreciated by some readers. To me, The Sad Part Was is a strong 4/5 star read and I do agree that Prabda offers a fresh and unique voice to the arena of Thai literature.
The Sad Part Was consists of 12 short stories written in Thai (and translated into English by Mui Poopoksakul) by Prabda Yoon, who is considered "the voice of a new generation" in the arena of Thai literature. These postmodern short stories are branded as "witty and evocative" and Prabda, while experimenting with different genres through these stories (such as sci-fi, meta-fiction, and satire) has a rather unique worldview with some dark humor notions. Most of these stories explore Thai urban society, a glimpse of modernisation from the perspective of the older generation in Thai society, generational relationships, the need to conform to social norms, the disparity between the rich and poor in Bangkok, as well as a retelling of a local urban legend with Prabda's trademark witty twist. In the "Translator's Afterword", Mui Poopoksakul noted that both Prabda and Mui are "children of '80s Bangkok, old enough to remember the city without a sky train or a McDonald's, but young enough for these signs of modernisation not to seem out of place when we imagine our hometown. The '80s and '90s were comparatively light-hearted decades in Thailand, with economic realities becoming easier and, for better or worse, politics regarded with relative apathy". It is with this premise that Prabda intends to write stories with the hope that "the Bangkok obliquely represented in these stories will come alive for the reader".
My personal favourites are "Marut by the Sea" (which exemplified Prabda's playfulness as he took a "self-loathing" approach in this story by addressing the critiques on his writing style), "Shallow/Deep, Thick/Thin" (a traveler who discovered a "secret" from space but refused to reveal it, which raises curiosity amongst the people from everywhere around the world), "The Disappearance of a She-Vampire in Pattaya" (a satirical take on violence against women vis-a-vis sex tourism in this retelling of a local urban legend), "A Schoolgirl's Diary" (a schoolgirl who fails to understand the reasoning behind 1 + 1 equals 2 where Prabda then criticises human's conformity to social norms). All in all, this collection of short stories showcased the boldness of Prabda Yoon as an author as certain stories fall within the thin line of absurdity, which is not really appreciated by some readers. To me, The Sad Part Was is a strong 4/5 star read and I do agree that Prabda offers a fresh and unique voice to the arena of Thai literature.
March 23, 2019
Nel maggio 2018 mi viene consigliato questo libro. “Vedrai che ti piacerà”. Ora, siccome io, che sono una persona di natura diffidente soprattutto quando qualcuno mi consiglia dei libri, mi ho deciso di fidarmi del consiglio, più che altro incuriosita dall’idea di leggere un autore tailandese. Io, di tailandese conosco solo i ristoranti - no, non ci vado nemmeno in vacanza perché soffro da morire l’aereo, mi dà problemi ai timpani e i viaggi intercontinentali sono una tortura che limito, lo so, ognuno ha le sue pecche, io qualche milione in più…
Tornando al libro: pazzesco, bellissimo, una delle migliori letture che ho fatto nel 2018. Confesso: l’ho riletto. Due volte. Per essere sicura della prima impressione. Anche per essere sicura che io e l’autore non siamo stati amici in qualche vita passata. In effetti, quando ho finito questo libro avrei voluto diventare amica per la pelle di Prabda Yoon per poterlo chiamare al telefono ogni volta che mi gira. Il fatto è che a volte, io e alcuni dei personaggi che popolano queste storie abbiamo un sacco di cose in comune. E quando dico un sacco intendo: a livello patologico.
Col risultato che un libro che probabilmente nelle intenzioni dell’autore avrebbe dovuto causare delle risate caustiche, a me ha causato lacrime di commozione. A me, ha tirato fuori della tenerezza questa lettura. Incredibilmente. Tra l’altro, per un certo periodo ha influenzato molto anche i film che ho visto, la musica che ascoltavo…Insomma, è stata una lettura che mi ha fatto effetto.
Ora, naturalmente non è detto che al lettore medio faccia lo stesso effetto, perché ci sono libri - e racconti - che fanno click subito a livello emozionale con un lettore e non con gli altri. Tuttavia, mi sentirei di consigliare caldamente (pure io) questa lettura. Perché magari voi ci farete le risate, ma comunque riconoscerete sprazzi di grande scrittura e idee nuove nei racconti. Sotto con le stelline.
Feste in lacrime *****
Penna tra parentesi ****** (posso fare 6 o 7 anche?)
Ei Ploang ****
Diario di una scolara *****
Miss Spazio ****
Qualcosa nell’aria *****
Scomparsa di una vampira a Pattaya *****
Superficiale/profondo, spesso/sottile ****
Sonno vigile ****
Neve per la mamma ******
Marut davanti al mare **
Trovato ****
Tornando al libro: pazzesco, bellissimo, una delle migliori letture che ho fatto nel 2018. Confesso: l’ho riletto. Due volte. Per essere sicura della prima impressione. Anche per essere sicura che io e l’autore non siamo stati amici in qualche vita passata. In effetti, quando ho finito questo libro avrei voluto diventare amica per la pelle di Prabda Yoon per poterlo chiamare al telefono ogni volta che mi gira. Il fatto è che a volte, io e alcuni dei personaggi che popolano queste storie abbiamo un sacco di cose in comune. E quando dico un sacco intendo: a livello patologico.
Col risultato che un libro che probabilmente nelle intenzioni dell’autore avrebbe dovuto causare delle risate caustiche, a me ha causato lacrime di commozione. A me, ha tirato fuori della tenerezza questa lettura. Incredibilmente. Tra l’altro, per un certo periodo ha influenzato molto anche i film che ho visto, la musica che ascoltavo…Insomma, è stata una lettura che mi ha fatto effetto.
Ora, naturalmente non è detto che al lettore medio faccia lo stesso effetto, perché ci sono libri - e racconti - che fanno click subito a livello emozionale con un lettore e non con gli altri. Tuttavia, mi sentirei di consigliare caldamente (pure io) questa lettura. Perché magari voi ci farete le risate, ma comunque riconoscerete sprazzi di grande scrittura e idee nuove nei racconti. Sotto con le stelline.
Feste in lacrime *****
Penna tra parentesi ****** (posso fare 6 o 7 anche?)
Ei Ploang ****
Diario di una scolara *****
Miss Spazio ****
Qualcosa nell’aria *****
Scomparsa di una vampira a Pattaya *****
Superficiale/profondo, spesso/sottile ****
Sonno vigile ****
Neve per la mamma ******
Marut davanti al mare **
Trovato ****
July 29, 2020
Yoon's wonderful and delightful meta-fictional tales explore various aspects of life in modern Thailand. The stories are full of wit and whimsicality, from the story of the strange, potentially romantic encounter on a bus between a men who is entranced by the abnormally gap a stranger leaves between her letters, to the glib advertiser who seeks an emotional connect via one of his adverts which acts as a paean to his youth and the classical music of his grandmother and horror films of his grandfather.
The sense of playfulness with which Yoon imbues the novel belies the serious messages he is attempting to convey. From the loneliness and isolation of life in the urban sprawl of Thailand in 'Pen in Parenthesis', to the ubiquity of the police state in 'Something in the Air', to the prevalence of violence against women in sex tourism in 'The Disappearance of a She-Vampire in Pattaya', to the inability of people to express their emotions in 'The Crying Parties', Yoon uses humour to explore the sense of sadness and isolation which pervades the lives of the character he depicts.
Not only that, but the sense of artistry which Yoon is able to interweave in the narrative, such as rain being described as "dusky gray clumps hung in the sky above the capital, converging there from all points of the compass. This confluence of water vapour created a swollen sense of saturation, a stifling swelter and a rumbling roar" allows Yoon to weave a unique sense of beauty into the tapestry of the narrative.
The sense of playfulness with which Yoon imbues the novel belies the serious messages he is attempting to convey. From the loneliness and isolation of life in the urban sprawl of Thailand in 'Pen in Parenthesis', to the ubiquity of the police state in 'Something in the Air', to the prevalence of violence against women in sex tourism in 'The Disappearance of a She-Vampire in Pattaya', to the inability of people to express their emotions in 'The Crying Parties', Yoon uses humour to explore the sense of sadness and isolation which pervades the lives of the character he depicts.
Not only that, but the sense of artistry which Yoon is able to interweave in the narrative, such as rain being described as "dusky gray clumps hung in the sky above the capital, converging there from all points of the compass. This confluence of water vapour created a swollen sense of saturation, a stifling swelter and a rumbling roar" allows Yoon to weave a unique sense of beauty into the tapestry of the narrative.
January 5, 2017
Tilted Axis Press continue to utterly astound me. This is a paradoxically funny and tragic insight into Thailand's literature culture and social mileau. Yoon exudes a confidence that trickles into the fabric of the hopelessly introspective characters that fill these stories. I don't know anyone producing translated fiction better than Tilted Axis at the moment.
Read
November 1, 2024It's good to see Prabda's prose making its way into English. These are pretty well-crafted stories that do an awfully good job of reflecting Bangkok as it is now – I'm bored to death with all the exoticizing narratives from outsiders and all the self-exoticizing narratives from locals – and big props to Mui for doing her best to maintain the wordplay in translation, which is tough. I tried to read bits in Thai to the best of my ability, and the sentence structures at times verge on the Oulipian, so it's easy to see why he's so locally revered (ooh, and if you're ever in Bangkok, hit up his shop Bookmoby at the BACC in Siam Square, always a good time). I truly wish my comprehension was better.
November 24, 2017
On the fence a bit with this one. For the most part, I enjoyed The Sad Part Was, a collection of short stories by Prabda Yoon. I can't remember where this caught my attention, but I'm glad it did - Yoon's writing is playful and witty, writing about everything from unusual punctuation to a metafictional piece that reflects on his position as a narrator.
The problem is, it didn't all work. I enjoyed the experimentation and can see why Yoon his highly regarded in his native Thailand. The stories are mostly fresh and interesting, exploring contemporary Bangkok life through a wide-ranging cast of characters - but sometimes, it all feels a bit forced, like Yoon is trying just a bit too hard to be innovative and 'out there' with his narratives. 'Marut by the Sea' is case in point.
Perhaps inevitably then, as often happens in short story collections, The Sad Part Was has some terrific high points, but cannot sustain the standard throughout. Yoon is a talented and interesting writer, no doubt, but this collection, at least for this reader, didn't always hit the mark.
The problem is, it didn't all work. I enjoyed the experimentation and can see why Yoon his highly regarded in his native Thailand. The stories are mostly fresh and interesting, exploring contemporary Bangkok life through a wide-ranging cast of characters - but sometimes, it all feels a bit forced, like Yoon is trying just a bit too hard to be innovative and 'out there' with his narratives. 'Marut by the Sea' is case in point.
Perhaps inevitably then, as often happens in short story collections, The Sad Part Was has some terrific high points, but cannot sustain the standard throughout. Yoon is a talented and interesting writer, no doubt, but this collection, at least for this reader, didn't always hit the mark.
August 30, 2018
An interesting collection of, sometime witty, short stories covering modern Thai culture, consumerism and concerns. These are very creative stories such as the loss of buttons in night shirts, of a girl who can't grasp what 1 + 1 equals, four men who had crying parties. They probably have more meaning and depth in Thai but he translation works well.
August 13, 2024
Not big on collections of short stories but this I did quite immensely enjoy. Prabda Yoon does something that I've only seen Stephen King do before; which is build a whole world, knock it down, and leave me wowed in just a few pages! Not all of the stories featured here worked for me, but enough of them did and that in and of itself is no small feat!
March 4, 2024
"buồn ở chỗ là"
, qua tiếng Việt nghe hay nhỉ, thấy muốn đọc :))
×××××××
3.5/5
Có cảm giác khá giống với khi mình đọc truyện ngắn của Raymond Carver. Tiếc là truyện đầu lại là truyện mình thích nhất, thế nên độ hứng thú cứ thế mà đi xuống. Vậy là lại chưa có duyên lắm với văn học Thái nữa rồi.
×××××××
3.5/5
Có cảm giác khá giống với khi mình đọc truyện ngắn của Raymond Carver. Tiếc là truyện đầu lại là truyện mình thích nhất, thế nên độ hứng thú cứ thế mà đi xuống. Vậy là lại chưa có duyên lắm với văn học Thái nữa rồi.
March 11, 2017
I liked the first two stories and some of the others quite a bit. A few didn't work for me. I usually avoid short story collections but I recommend this one. The mix of contemporary global youth surface intermingled with remnants of old Thai culture was very effective.
February 21, 2017
ถ้าให้นิยามหนังสือเล่มนี้ด้วยคำคำเดียว ..
ขอเลือกคำว่า "แปลก"
คล้ายๆ เรื่องสั้นแนวทดลอง ที่ยังไปไม่สุด
มันเป็นเรื่องสั้นที่มีภาษาดี มีอารมณ์ขัน (เชิงเสียดสี) ช่างคิด
สร้างภาพในจินตนาการคนอ่านได้ดี แต่ ..
เรื่องสั้นเรื่องแรกๆ ของหนังสือเล่มนี้นั้นสนุกดี
แต่เ��ื่องสั้นเกือบทั้งหมดในเล่ม มันไปในแนวทางเดียวกันไปหน่อย
ขอเลือกคำว่า "แปลก"
คล้ายๆ เรื่องสั้นแนวทดลอง ที่ยังไปไม่สุด
มันเป็นเรื่องสั้นที่มีภาษาดี มีอารมณ์ขัน (เชิงเสียดสี) ช่างคิด
สร้างภาพในจินตนาการคนอ่านได้ดี แต่ ..
เรื่องสั้นเรื่องแรกๆ ของหนังสือเล่มนี้นั้นสนุกดี
แต่เ��ื่องสั้นเกือบทั้งหมดในเล่ม มันไปในแนวทางเดียวกันไปหน่อย
January 22, 2018
A mixed bag of short stories, but mostly good. The translator’s afterword was really interesting. I knew nothing about the Thai language before, & it sounds like a huge challenge to translate - particularly the more playful meta stuff that seems common in Yoon’s work here. Mui Poopoksakul did a great job. ‘Miss Space’ was probably my highlight from the collection, and one where the wordplay really retained its impact in English. But, while I enjoyed the collection overall, I suspect most of these are much better in the original Thai.
January 27, 2021
3~4 stars
This was a very interesting read. There's a big range of styles among the stories, making it a very diverse collection in that sense. The writing also feels very fresh.
The Crying Parties was probably the story I liked the most. The premise is slightly absurd at first. A group of friends often gets together to party. The kind of party where they drink a lot of alcohol, vomit, and eat very hot chili to compete for who cries the most (as if to detach the act of crying from the feeling of sadness).
Especially in the initial descriptions, The story has a decadent over-the-top realist style. One that also seems self-aware: "strictly speaking, we ought to call it 'realism', as what looked like puke stains really were".
It packs a lot under very feel pages. It has an honest (and imo to the point) treatment of depression without being sentimental at all. It has funny moments, with a witty kind of black humor that is never to the expense of mental illness. And it develops character relations very well.
The summary is
The Disappearance of She-Vampire in Pattaya is another very good (and short) one. The narrator conjectures the causes of said disappearance, based on his own hypotheses and general gossip. The vampire story is used as a means for social commentary about what goes on in Pattaya. It feels like the kind of thing that Bulgakov would do, but using a very different writing style. The style reminds me of some high-concept Community episodes (especially the ones like Basic Lupine Urology ).
In Something in The Air there's a storm outside while the main character and his "female friend" are in his flat. The descriptions are weird and kinda funny, . It's full of double entendres, the environment behaves in a way that gives meaning to what is happening to them throughout the whole story. The dialogue is weird, as if narrative and inner monologue were uttered. However, that fits the style perfectly and is used as a device to do many interesting things. For example, the girl's daydreams about her future are actually spoken out loud, hinting at how the couple ends up in the future. It also plays a lot with the reader's expectations.
Something in The Air achieves something (plot-wise, character-wise, theme-wise) while having an amusing style. The problem I have with many of the other stories is that the style is amusing, but it stops there.
In Ei Ploang , the main character starts going to a park to run. He meets a guy that's just there to observe people and tell who's good and who's bad. He joins the guy in his observations. A Schoolgirl's Diary tells us about a little girl that, among other things, can't really grasp how 1+1=2 (since in the case of her parents and her 1+1 ended up being 3. And if it's the same substance 1+1=1, although a bigger chunk than before). It's half third-person descriptions about the girl, half a text written by her about her home. In Miss Space a guy becomes obsessed with how a girl spaces her words after seeing her writing her diary on a bus. In The Sharp Sleeper a guy's been losing buttons from his pajamas while sleeping. Through him thinking about what could be the reason we learn about his relationships with family, past girlfriends, and his values in general.
They are all nice as far as writing goes, but in the end, they feel just like good character sketches for me. The kind that would be nice in a larger work involving them, but that don't do much independently.
The same goes for Shallow/Deep, Thick/Thin . It has a very Borgean (slightly Lovecraftian) style. A guy finds a secret from outer space while hiking, he's now on national TV being interviewed about the secret. . The writing is nice, but it felt like an exercise in style that ended in a punchline.
I give it that I might have missed the point in that one, or in some others. Or that the point might have been lost in translation sometimes.
According to the introduction, Ploang means "To put something down, to unburden, to be at peace with letting go". And according to the translator's notes, the Thai language doesn't usually use spaces. But for me, those details didn't add anything more than a nice touch to Ei Ploang and Miss Space .
The remaining stories are nice. Found feels like a meditation on self-realization and involves Buddhist themes. Snow for Mother is about a mother coming to terms with her son's mental illness, narrated through two visits to her hairdresser, both before and after a trip. Pen in Parentheses tells the mc's life from his childhood. It shows a lot of Thai life intertwined with western influence (a common theme among the stories). Marut by the Sea is a very meta story where the character talks about the author himself. While not groundbreaking, it feels very personal and frank (many of his insecurities as an artist are described in there), and it's nice to get inside the author's head.
Ultimately the writing is always pretty nice and always feels very creative, but some stories have way more substance than others.
PS: The digital edition is neatly formatted. Although I don't know Thai, the translation seems pretty good (given the translator's notes and the awards). I've never heard of Tilted Axis Press before, but it's nice to see an independent publisher trying to print good translations of works that would be inaccessible to many people otherwise. I intend to check more of their catalog.
This was a very interesting read. There's a big range of styles among the stories, making it a very diverse collection in that sense. The writing also feels very fresh.
The Crying Parties was probably the story I liked the most. The premise is slightly absurd at first. A group of friends often gets together to party. The kind of party where they drink a lot of alcohol, vomit, and eat very hot chili to compete for who cries the most (as if to detach the act of crying from the feeling of sadness).
Especially in the initial descriptions, The story has a decadent over-the-top realist style. One that also seems self-aware: "strictly speaking, we ought to call it 'realism', as what looked like puke stains really were".
It packs a lot under very feel pages. It has an honest (and imo to the point) treatment of depression without being sentimental at all. It has funny moments, with a witty kind of black humor that is never to the expense of mental illness. And it develops character relations very well.
The summary is
The Disappearance of She-Vampire in Pattaya is another very good (and short) one. The narrator conjectures the causes of said disappearance, based on his own hypotheses and general gossip. The vampire story is used as a means for social commentary about what goes on in Pattaya. It feels like the kind of thing that Bulgakov would do, but using a very different writing style. The style reminds me of some high-concept Community episodes (especially the ones like Basic Lupine Urology ).
In Something in The Air there's a storm outside while the main character and his "female friend" are in his flat. The descriptions are weird and kinda funny, . It's full of double entendres, the environment behaves in a way that gives meaning to what is happening to them throughout the whole story. The dialogue is weird, as if narrative and inner monologue were uttered. However, that fits the style perfectly and is used as a device to do many interesting things. For example, the girl's daydreams about her future are actually spoken out loud, hinting at how the couple ends up in the future. It also plays a lot with the reader's expectations.
Something in The Air achieves something (plot-wise, character-wise, theme-wise) while having an amusing style. The problem I have with many of the other stories is that the style is amusing, but it stops there.
In Ei Ploang , the main character starts going to a park to run. He meets a guy that's just there to observe people and tell who's good and who's bad. He joins the guy in his observations. A Schoolgirl's Diary tells us about a little girl that, among other things, can't really grasp how 1+1=2 (since in the case of her parents and her 1+1 ended up being 3. And if it's the same substance 1+1=1, although a bigger chunk than before). It's half third-person descriptions about the girl, half a text written by her about her home. In Miss Space a guy becomes obsessed with how a girl spaces her words after seeing her writing her diary on a bus. In The Sharp Sleeper a guy's been losing buttons from his pajamas while sleeping. Through him thinking about what could be the reason we learn about his relationships with family, past girlfriends, and his values in general.
They are all nice as far as writing goes, but in the end, they feel just like good character sketches for me. The kind that would be nice in a larger work involving them, but that don't do much independently.
The same goes for Shallow/Deep, Thick/Thin . It has a very Borgean (slightly Lovecraftian) style. A guy finds a secret from outer space while hiking, he's now on national TV being interviewed about the secret. . The writing is nice, but it felt like an exercise in style that ended in a punchline.
I give it that I might have missed the point in that one, or in some others. Or that the point might have been lost in translation sometimes.
According to the introduction, Ploang means "To put something down, to unburden, to be at peace with letting go". And according to the translator's notes, the Thai language doesn't usually use spaces. But for me, those details didn't add anything more than a nice touch to Ei Ploang and Miss Space .
The remaining stories are nice. Found feels like a meditation on self-realization and involves Buddhist themes. Snow for Mother is about a mother coming to terms with her son's mental illness, narrated through two visits to her hairdresser, both before and after a trip. Pen in Parentheses tells the mc's life from his childhood. It shows a lot of Thai life intertwined with western influence (a common theme among the stories). Marut by the Sea is a very meta story where the character talks about the author himself. While not groundbreaking, it feels very personal and frank (many of his insecurities as an artist are described in there), and it's nice to get inside the author's head.
Ultimately the writing is always pretty nice and always feels very creative, but some stories have way more substance than others.
PS: The digital edition is neatly formatted. Although I don't know Thai, the translation seems pretty good (given the translator's notes and the awards). I've never heard of Tilted Axis Press before, but it's nice to see an independent publisher trying to print good translations of works that would be inaccessible to many people otherwise. I intend to check more of their catalog.
July 1, 2017
ความน่าจะเป็น โดย ปราบดา หยุ่น ๑๓ เรื่องสั้น รางวัลซีไรต์ปี ๒๕๔๕
๑๕ ปีผ่านมาแล้วตั้งแต่งานเล่มนี้ได้ซีไรต์และเราพึ่งจะได้อ่านล่ะค่ะ...
ก็คิดว่ายังไม่ช้าเกินไปหรอกนะที่จะบอกว่า "ความน่าจะเป็น" เป็นรวมเรื่องสั้นที่สนุกมากเลย ไม่ได้ชมเพราะเล่มนี้เป็นงานรางวัล แต่ชมเพราะว่าเป็นคนไม่ชอบอ่านงานซีไรต์ แค่ชอบอ่านอะไรที่เราชอบและรู้สึกเอ็นจอยไปกับมันได้ และเล่มนี้สนุก
"ความน่าจะเป็น" ของคุณปราบดา เป็นรวมเรื่องสั้นที่คม มีพลัง หนัก(บางเรื่อง) ...มันก็จะคูลๆ หน่อย(หลายเรื่อง)
การเดินเรื่องฉับไวสุดๆ จังหวะการเดินเรื่องเร็วจัดกว่าหนังสือปกติที่เราอ่านค่ะ ทำให้วันนึงอ่านได้ไม่เกิน ๒ บทก็ต้องวางแล้ว แค่นี้ก็ใช้สติกับสมาธิของดิฉันไปจนสิ้น บางเรื่องก็ขำ บางเรื่องก็ซึ้ง บางเรื่องก็อะไรอ่ะ... ตัวละครหลักมีนิสัยแบบปัจเจ้กปัจเจกคงเส้นคงวาได้ใจ มีความมินิมัล
แต่คิดว่าที่เด่นที่สุดคือ เรื่องพลังที่ปล่อยออกมา เล่มนี้ทรงพลังจริงๆ ค่ะ รู้สึกได้เลย อ่านๆ ไปนี่รู้สึกโลกหมุนเร็วและแรงจัง
๑๕ ปีผ่านมาแล้วตั้งแต่งานเล่มนี้ได้ซีไรต์และเราพึ่งจะได้อ่านล่ะค่ะ...
ก็คิดว่ายังไม่ช้าเกินไปหรอกนะที่จะบอกว่า "ความน่าจะเป็น" เป็นรวมเรื่องสั้นที่สนุกมากเลย ไม่ได้ชมเพราะเล่มนี้เป็นงานรางวัล แต่ชมเพราะว่าเป็นคนไม่ชอบอ่านงานซีไรต์ แค่ชอบอ่านอะไรที่เราชอบและรู้สึกเอ็นจอยไปกับมันได้ และเล่มนี้สนุก
"ความน่าจะเป็น" ของคุณปราบดา เป็นรวมเรื่องสั้นที่คม มีพลัง หนัก(บางเรื่อง) ...มันก็จะคูลๆ หน่อย(หลายเรื่อง)
การเดินเรื่องฉับไวสุดๆ จังหวะการเดินเรื่องเร็วจัดกว่าหนังสือปกติที่เราอ่านค่ะ ทำให้วันนึงอ่านได้ไม่เกิน ๒ บทก็ต้องวางแล้ว แค่นี้ก็ใช้สติกับสมาธิของดิฉันไปจนสิ้น บางเรื่องก็ขำ บางเรื่องก็ซึ้ง บางเรื่องก็อะไรอ่ะ... ตัวละครหลักมีนิสัยแบบปัจเจ้กปัจเจกคงเส้นคงวาได้ใจ มีความมินิมัล
แต่คิดว่าที่เด่นที่สุดคือ เรื่องพลังที่ปล่อยออกมา เล่มนี้ทรงพลังจริงๆ ค่ะ รู้สึกได้เลย อ่านๆ ไปนี่รู้สึกโลกหมุนเร็วและแรงจัง
May 27, 2023
อ่านแบบไม่ได้คาดหวังอะไรเลย แต่ก็ได้ค้นพบว่าแม้เรื่องจะผ่านมาเกือบ 20 ปี แต่สังคมไทยยังเวียนวนกับประเด็นคำถามอะไรประมาณนี้อยู่ ไม่แปลกมั้งที่อ่านแล้วจะอินได้ง่าย ๆ / ชอบการทดลองฟอร์มเล่าเรื่องต่าง ๆ ละก็ความกวนตีน ความ self-awareness ที่ใส่มาให้เห็นในหนังสือ รวม ๆ แล้วอ่านสนุกมาก / ให้คะแนนความเท่ แต่ก็หักคะแนนความเท่จนน่าหมั่นไส้ในบางบทด้วย (ที่พี่ก็ดันแซวตัวเองอีกที)
July 29, 2018
มาอ่านตอนนี้ก็ยังไม่รู้สึกว่าตกยุคนะ
ถือว่าดีมากทีเดียวค่ะ
ถือว่าดีมากทีเดียวค่ะ
February 16, 2020
The Sad Thing Was is a collection of story kernels, almost none of which are developed into anything that feels complete. Prabda Yoon writes a premise, sometimes interesting (the disappearance of a vampire woman of urban legend), sometimes not (a party where people eat hot peppers to force themselves to cry), but then the story ends with no arc, no message, no conclusion. The translator’s note suggests that some of what Yoon is doing through these stories is a meta-examination of the Thai language, but of course this doesn’t come through in an English translation. When Yoon writes a story commenting on text in a way that survives translation it comes off as gimmicky. The sole story I’d say feels complete is Snow For Mother, which barely manages to give its main character an arc by the skin of its teeth. On the plus side, the stories are so short that they never wear out their welcome, and a couple of the premises felt like things that could be built out into solid pieces—if they were in the hands of an author that cared to do so. 2.5/5, rounding up.
April 10, 2022
I suppose I've been in the mood for a collection of short stories lately, and this one doesn't disappoint as I really enjoyed most of the stories here. Yoon's writing is translated beautifully to show his dry and witty humor, and the stories I enjoyed in particular -- "Pen in Parentheses", "Something in the Air" and "Marut by the Sea" -- showcased the author's talent in drawing out the absurdities of life in a humorous manner. The author's self-portrait of himself in "Marut by the Sea" was particularly enlightening in giving readers context into how his stories come to be.
May 9, 2018
ในรวมเรื่องสั้น "ความน่าจะเป็น" ปราบดา หยุ่นถ่ายทอดเรื่องราวของหลายชีวิตอันสามัญธรรมดาในเมืองหลวงของหนึ่งประเทศกำลังพัฒนาท่ามกลางการไหลบ่าของกระแสบริโภคนิยมได้อย่างน่าทึ่ง ด้วยกลวิธีการเล่าเรื่องที่น่าสนใจและหลากหลากหลายไม่น้อยไปกว่าเรื่องราวของหลายชีวิตที่เขาพาสำรวจ ผู้เขียนมักปิดท้ายเรื่องสั้นด้วยประโยคที่มีความยาวเพียงไม่กี่พยางค์คล้ายกับว่าจะชวนให้เราผู้อ่านตั้งคำถามอันยิ่งใหญ่ต่อสิ่งสามัญธรรมดาเหล่านั้น
July 27, 2017
I made it about halfway through. The characters are unidimensional, and the dialogue like listening to cardboard cut outs talking to one another. Would not recommend
April 27, 2024
Il mio primo approccio alla letteratura thailandese inizia nella casa di June, durante una festa dolceamara. June e i suoi amici erano soliti ritrovarsi lì e mangiare peperoncino fino a piangere, ma June non c'è più e ora i suoi amici sono soli a festeggiare.
"Feste in lacrime", raccolta di racconti malinconici e comici di Prabda Yoon, potrebbe essere descritta solamente in queste due frasi. In questo libro, la felicità proprio come la tristezza, arrivano stupidamente e arrivano per caso.
Nel primo racconto, che dà anche titolo all'intera opera, si cerca il passato nel luogo in cui c'era. Scoprirne l'assenza diventa, ahimè, quasi drammatico.
Non tutte le storie bilanciano il tratto comico e il riflessivo allo stesso modo, ed ecco che racconti come "Ei Ploang", "Diario di una scolara" e "Scomparsa di una vampira a Pattaya" finiscono per apparire sconclusionati.
A questi meno convincenti, si alternano racconti degni di nota come "Marut davanti al mare" (a mio parere, il migliore dell'intero libro), in cui un personaggio si ribella al suo autore - Prabda Yoon - prima che sia messo nero su bianco, e "Trovato", una conclusione tutto sommato carina per l'opera.
Il senso dell'umorismo e la stravaganza rendono unica la sua penna ed estremamente godibile il libro, anche nei punti più critici.
"Feste in lacrime" è un omaggio all'assurdo della vita e alla maniera che troviamo di affrontarlo, pure quando è semplicemente guardarlo farci visita per poi andare via.
Un libro che fa ridere ed emozionare, ma che non sempre ci riesce.
La vita è tutta qui: vivi un po', mangi, bevi, studi sui libri le idee di qualcun altro, conosci gente, qualcuno lo ami, qualcuno lo odi. Quando incontri quello che odi meno puoi starci insieme, vi aiuterete a vicenda mentre mangiate e dormite e guadagnate baht da scambiare con le cose. Per avere tante cose, dovrai guadagnare tanti baht. Se sei fortunata (o sfortunata) vivrai a lungo. A volte si è stanchi, a volte si è annoiati, a volte tristi, a volte felici: è tutta qui, la vita.
"Feste in lacrime", raccolta di racconti malinconici e comici di Prabda Yoon, potrebbe essere descritta solamente in queste due frasi. In questo libro, la felicità proprio come la tristezza, arrivano stupidamente e arrivano per caso.
Nel primo racconto, che dà anche titolo all'intera opera, si cerca il passato nel luogo in cui c'era. Scoprirne l'assenza diventa, ahimè, quasi drammatico.
Non tutte le storie bilanciano il tratto comico e il riflessivo allo stesso modo, ed ecco che racconti come "Ei Ploang", "Diario di una scolara" e "Scomparsa di una vampira a Pattaya" finiscono per apparire sconclusionati.
A questi meno convincenti, si alternano racconti degni di nota come "Marut davanti al mare" (a mio parere, il migliore dell'intero libro), in cui un personaggio si ribella al suo autore - Prabda Yoon - prima che sia messo nero su bianco, e "Trovato", una conclusione tutto sommato carina per l'opera.
Il senso dell'umorismo e la stravaganza rendono unica la sua penna ed estremamente godibile il libro, anche nei punti più critici.
"Feste in lacrime" è un omaggio all'assurdo della vita e alla maniera che troviamo di affrontarlo, pure quando è semplicemente guardarlo farci visita per poi andare via.
Un libro che fa ridere ed emozionare, ma che non sempre ci riesce.
La vita è tutta qui: vivi un po', mangi, bevi, studi sui libri le idee di qualcun altro, conosci gente, qualcuno lo ami, qualcuno lo odi. Quando incontri quello che odi meno puoi starci insieme, vi aiuterete a vicenda mentre mangiate e dormite e guadagnate baht da scambiare con le cose. Per avere tante cose, dovrai guadagnare tanti baht. Se sei fortunata (o sfortunata) vivrai a lungo. A volte si è stanchi, a volte si è annoiati, a volte tristi, a volte felici: è tutta qui, la vita.
August 18, 2023
I loved this collection of imaginative and inventive stories - there's something magical or offbeat or strange in this perspective of late 90s and early 2000s life in Thailand. Yoon is a great writer and the translator here did a fantastic job of making the wit and humor and style easily recognizable to Yoon, making these stories flow well into each other.
I have a few stand outs of course: The Crying Parties, Marut by the Sea, Miss Space, Pen in Parentheses, and Found are wonderful fragments and stories that engaged me intellectually and had me incredibly entertained. The rest are mostly very good too, even if not always satisfying as actual stories with many questions left unanswered, but that's rather the point.
An amazing work here, I would be delighted to read more by Yoon in the future.
I have a few stand outs of course: The Crying Parties, Marut by the Sea, Miss Space, Pen in Parentheses, and Found are wonderful fragments and stories that engaged me intellectually and had me incredibly entertained. The rest are mostly very good too, even if not always satisfying as actual stories with many questions left unanswered, but that's rather the point.
An amazing work here, I would be delighted to read more by Yoon in the future.
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