Sightseeing
SynopsisPlot
One of the most widely reviewed debuts of the year, Sightseeing is a masterful story collection by an award-winning young author. Set in contemporary Thailand, these are generous, radiant tales of family bonds, youthful romance, generational conflicts and cultural shiftings beneath the glossy surface of a warm, Edenic setting. In the novella, "Cockfighter," a young girl witnesses her proud father's valiant but foolhardy battle against a local delinquent whose family has a vicious stranglehold on the villagers. Through his vivid assemblage of parents and children, natives and transients, ardent lovers and sworn enemies, Lapcharoensap dares us to look with new eyes at the circumstances that shape our views and the prejudices that form our blind spots.
Story
About this book
Sightseeing is a short story collection by Thai-American writer Rattawut Lapcharoensap, set in contemporary Thailand. The stories follow ordinary people navigating family loyalty, young love, and the friction between local life and growing Western influence. In the opening story, a teenager working at his mother's beachside motel falls for a foreign tourist, setting off a comic confrontation involving her American boyfriend, thrown mangoes, and a pet pig named Clint Eastwood. In the title story, a young man about to leave for college takes a holiday with his fiercely independent mother, only for the trip to shift course when they must face her approaching blindness.
The collection closes with a longer novella in which a girl watches her father take on a local bully whose family has held power over surrounding villagers for generations. Across the book, Lapcharoensap places his characters in small, specific settings along Thailand's coast and countryside, where tourist economies, generational expectations, and personal pride press against one another.
Lapcharoensap was in his mid-twenties when the book appeared. The opening story won a prize before the collection was published, and the book was widely reviewed upon release. The stories balance humor and candor, grounding larger tensions in closely observed domestic scenes.
