Currency

America's Haunted Road Trip

by Zoe Zolbrod

Piv and Robin are not such an unlikely match. Piv, a small-time hustler in Thailand, and Robin, a twenty-something backpacker from the United States, have always dreamed big dreams. What begins as a traveler's affair in Sukhothai quickly intensifies, and the young lovers envision an idyllic future together, traveling the world. Their plans are thwarted in Bangkok, however, when Robin runs out of money, her credit is denied, and she may have to leave Asia and Piv behind. Desperate, Piv turns to Abu, a charismatic businessman acquaintance, for help. Thus begins Piv and Robin's foray into exotic animal smuggling. Soon they find themselves amid an international crime ring that may have even darker underworld ties stretching from Kenya to Russia. Under the scrutiny of the traffickers who employ them, with investigators hot on t heir trail and idealistic dreams unraveling fast, Piv and Robin  must face the consequences of their individual struggles for identity, as well as the cost of their mutual desires.

272 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2010

About the author

Zoe Zolbrod is the author of the memoir The Telling (Curbside Splendor, 2016) and the novel Currency (Other Voices Books, 2010), which was a Friends of American Writers prize finalist. Her essays have appeared in Salon, Stir Journal, The Weeklings, The Manifest Station, The Nervous Breakdown, and The Rumpus, where she is now the Sunday co-editor. She gradated from Oberlin College and received an M.A. from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Program for Writers. Born in Western Pennsylvania, she now lives in Evanston, IL, with her husband and two children.

Reviews

[Zoe Zolbrod · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I learned from this book: How to write one!

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Currency is the book I’m looking for when I experiment with genre fiction. However, Currency isn’t genre fiction because the characters are so well developed and the relationships are not secondary to the plot.

I viscerally experienced the needs of the characters. They need sleep, food, money, each other, safety and finally their own homes. One sequence in an airport in Singapore left me with that relieved feeling of waking up from a bad dream and realizing it wasn’t real.

It is a devastating treatment of the traveling American hipster that wants a beautiful experience and looks to exotic Thailand. When our main character encounters multiple versions of herself that she must differentiate herself from, she gets into trouble. She can’t let go of her entitlement and her need to be a better backpack rat than all the other backpack rats in Thailand. Even though her quest is vain, I want her to succeed in her quest because I like her.

The other main character, the boyfriend, Piv, I want him to succeed too. He has his own issues about identity. A question I have for other readers is how they take Piv’s internal dialog, which is in less-than-fluent English. I think this style serves to illustrate a slightly alien mind at work. I could imagine someone questioning it because wouldn’t an internal dialog be fluent? If it was fluent English, would it come across as just slightly alien intelligence? Is it the author’s responsibility to make it happen without relying on missing articles? Piv’s experience with wrestling snakes into panty hose was awesome. It makes me chuckle to think about it now.

The book is also asking, if I’m not supposed to be selling cars and not supposed to be living a freewheeling existence helping to digest the world’s dwindling supply of Rhinos, what AM I supposed to do with this life?

After numerous clues that Robin’s traveling should end, the hammer comes down and it is great reading when it does. There are scary people coming at her from every quarter and I really felt like it was happening to me. People’s faces change from cultured to more animalistic than the creatures she is smuggling. It contributes to a growing darkness in the story.

Criticisms? Her conversations with her dad ring false to me. Maybe I’ve never experienced such an inept father. Anyway, the point is that her father is no help and she has to get out of her situation by her own wits. Better to edit anything about her father out of the story, I think.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Piv and Robin meet, a tentative and touching bond is formed. Piv is a native of Thailand and is a small time hustler, living on the fly according to how his luck is transpiring. Robin, on the other hand, is an American backpacker who has dreams of settling in Thailand after seeing the world one stop at a time. Piv and Robin share the sights, shop and have a great time living amongst the other tourists and natives, but soon their supply of ready money begins to dwindle alarmingly. Through the-rose tinted glasses of new love, Piv and Robin begin to dream up schemes that will enable them to continue their languorous life together. One day Piv decides to take a business chance with a group of foreigners he knows. As Piv and Robin become invested in their new business opportunity, Robin becomes increasingly anxious. Why are these foreign men paying her to smuggle unmarked cartons out of the country? Has she unwittingly become involved in drug trafficking? Though Robin is unnerved with all these things, Piv is much more relaxed and seems to believe that he has no business asking questions, a fact that bothers and shames Robin and sends their relationship into a tail-spin. When Robin secretly opens one of the cartons as it is in transport, she is horrified by what she finds and begins to try to free herself from the situation. But Piv is loathe to make waves with his foreign friends, and although he doesn't plan for it to happen, he becomes an ill-used pawn in a game of international smuggling; a game that Robin can't save him from. This intricate and involving thriller, set in the exotic locale of Thailand, examines the ways in which two innocent people get caught up in a set of strange and dangerous circumstances that endanger both self and other.

As an armchair traveler, I get to experience a lot of the world through the books I read. I've read a lot about many countries in Asia but must admit that reading about Thailand was new for me. Aside from being a thriller/suspense novel, this book really could be included in the travel genre, as it is through the eyes of an American tourist that the outer reaches of Thailand are examined and magnified. Not only was this book taut with suspense, it was also the type of book that seeks to explain the delicate balance that exists between tourists and foreigners and the ways in which this balance can be disrupted or destroyed.

This book is told through the alternating viewpoints of Piv and Robin, and because of this, the story takes on sort of a double life within its pages. Piv is unassuming and naïve, and sees the foreigners as people to emulate and become close to. He carries no high scruples when it comes to his life, casually taking rest in whatever opportunity arises. He has had several short-term relationships with foreign women and laments the fact that he can't seem to find permanence and stability in these flings. When he meets Robin, avenues begin to open up for Piv, and though he recognizes this, it doesn't stop him from continuing to live his hand to mouth existence. While reading the chapters told from Piv's point of view, I came to realize that although he was an adept player in the world he lived in, Piv was an innocent at heart and the kind of person who lets life rush around him and carry him towards his next opportunity. Even his relationship with Robin seemed muted by an innocence that I can't describe properly. Piv was at once worldly, yet sheltered, and though he dreamed big, his mindset kept him forever shuffling to the beat of more powerful drummers.

Robin's personality was a stark contrast to Piv's. She wanted to roam and be free, yet she was still very tied to a foreign belief of entitlement. Falling in love with Piv gave Robin an anchor but it never really filled the hole that was constantly exposed in her soul. In her life with Piv, Robin is the composed foreign woman nonchalantly frequenting all the haunts of Thailand, but upon coming across the real danger and uncertainty that lurks into her life, Robin loses that elegant calm and becomes a frightened girl looking for escape. There was a genuineness to Robin and her emotions that really made me come to care about her, but I couldn't help but feel that at times, she didn't take her share of the responsibility in her and Piv's misadventures. It's true that Robin was pretty much at the mercy of the foreign businessmen, and knowing that allowed me to better withhold my harsh judgement of her, but at times I felt like Robin made things worse for herself by abandoning her coolness and wits.

One of the most interesting aspects of the book was the relationship between Robin and Piv. Both had very different ideas about their future together but this didn't stop them from having an intense and reflective relationship. Piv was not awed by Robin's foreignness, which I had expected he would be, and he didn't constantly deffer to her either. He had an unexpectedly American view of relationships, which was surprising to me, and he really fit Robin like a hand in a glove. Robin was the more needy of the two, and though she didn't have the ideas of permanence that Piv had towards the relationship, she came to rely upon him more and more as the book progressed. Robin's was a difficult situation, for she knew almost no one in Thailand and had to rely on Piv for even the most basic things.

I've deliberately remained obscure about the nature of the smuggling ring in this review because I think it's best to go into this book with limited knowledge of it. The circumstances and players were far-ranging and intriguing, and though I have read many thriller/suspense novels, this one was indeed novel and gripping. Towards the end of the book, everything begins to disintegrate and the danger that was once only a threat becomes painfully real and ominous. It was captivating to be reading this drama from both sides of the action, Robin's awareness growing into fear and dread, Piv's nonchalance and naivety creating a cocoon around him that doesn't fall away until the final pages. I think Zolbrod does amazing things with this story and its characters, bringing two very different lives together seamlessly and with gravity.

If you can't tell by now, I really enjoyed this book despite my apprehension over reading a novel in a genre I'm not crazy about. One of the things I most enjoyed was the perfect alchemy between love story and suspense novel, and I think the unusual premise of the story and the deep exploration of a cross cultural relationship will be exciting and interesting to many readers. If you're looking for a thriller that defies the usual conventions and is far from derivative, you should really give this book a try!

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book focuses on the relationship of Robin, a young American backpacker touring Thailand, and Piv, her Thai boyfriend. Robin and Piv have known each other for only a short time and each isn't quite sure of the other's intentions. Yet they are very attracted to one another--perhaps even in love. Both think vaguely and romantically of some sort of export business they could work together to help them extend their vacation love affair indefinitely. Unfortunately, Robin has run out of money and the two become involved with some seriously shady characters in an attempt to make money and stay together.

Robin and Piv are both sympathetic characters, but they are complicated. Robin's attraction to Piv may largely stem from the thrill of the new, the different, the "other." And Piv, for his part, has made a sort of living off of tourist girls. He is not one to work hard and is always looking for a way to scam himself into a better life. His actions have been fairly harmless to date, but his character is questionable.

The ambivalence Robin and Piv feel towards one another rings very true, especially since they've known one another for such a short time--and since they each have reason to be uncertain about the other. Yet I was rooting for them to be together and to find a way to make it all work out. I saw their relationship as a sort of dramatic stand-in for every relationship in its early stages, when we ask ourselves: "How much do I know this person? Is s/he who I think s/he is? Maybe s/he's a jerk or worse--but damn, I'm so attracted!" Robin and Piv, of course, have it worse since they also face daunting cultural conflicts.

The book is also highly visual--the scenes played out so clearly it was practically as if a movie screen was before my eyes. The action gets intense and the author brings it all to a thrilling climax. But for me, the quieter questions of identity and trust were the heart of this book. Highly recommended.

[Mary Hawley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in Thailand in the mid-1990s, this compelling novel has two protagonists: Piv, a young Thai man who has learned the financial and sexual benefits of flirting in English with foreign women, and Robin, a young American drifting around the world for as long as her credit cards hold out, which won't be for much longer. When they meet, Piv says he will call her "Nok," a Thai nickname that means "one bird." Strapped for cash, the lovers try out different ideas for making money, including Piv's plan to "make some business" with very dubious acquaintances. Piv and NokRobbin are like two birds darting aimlessly around a field, oblivious of the hunters stepping in closer and closer with their nets. The leisurely pace of the narrative only prolongs the suspense. This book is a fascinating exploration of love, culture, trust, and consequences of looking in the wrong places for easy money.

[Stacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are so proud of Zoe Zolbrod's debut novel; first novel in the Morgan Street International Novel Series.

[Melanie Page · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed my time reading this book! Actually, I feel pretty sad that it's done because I was really involved in the world of the story.

[Cherilynn Veland · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books was incredible. She tells it from the perspective of a Thai man and his lover. I felt like I wanted to read more about the characters when the book ended. Highly recommend!