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Gold by the Inch
by Lawrence Chua
Grove Press, 1998
ISBN: 0802116264 (Hardback)

In some ways the storyline of Gold by the Inch may (or should) be familiar to many gay visitors to Thailand - guy becomes infatuated with somewhat disinterested male prostitute, gets sucked down into the mire of the commercial sex/drugs scene in Bangkok and looses it all.

The fact that the visitor is a 23 year old returning to his homeland after a stint in the USA means that he possibly should have known better and the rationale presented for the infatuation, and indeed some of the banal descriptions of this "vile underbelly of Bangkok" don't do much for the credibility of the story. If you can ignore this however, there are some classic scenes, and some subtle humour, and the long diversions into family history, and even Thai architecture, are actually worth the effort of following for their insight into Thai sensibilities.

By the end of the book however I was left with the unsatisfying feeling that I must have missed something along the way, so the book remains in my current reading pile to be read again - but comments on the difficult writing style by others perhaps warns that I may not find whatever it was the second time round either.

While I would not recommend it as an approachable, easy, Thai gay novel, it is one of the few of the genre around, and to be fair it is an interesting (if not completely satisfying) read, and if you can avoid the lurid prose and over-enthusiastic reviews on the dust jacket and just get into the book you may not come away as unsatisfied as I was initially.

Gold by the Inch
by Lawrence Chua
Grove Press, 1998
ISBN: 0802116264 Hardback
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