Thai fiction

March 26, 2007 9:07 PM

Modern Thai fiction, in English et plus en français.
posted by carsonb (12 comments total)

Awesome! Must check this out. I read Utsana Phleungtham's Story of Jan Darra some years ago and loved it. I recommend it to all and sundry.
posted by Kattullus at 9:22 PM on March 26, 2007

And of course, for those without an idea of where to begin, The Twenty Best Novels of Thailand by Marcel Barang, the translator.
posted by carsonb at 9:42 PM on March 26, 2007

I really wish someone would translate Prabda Yoon. He has a book of short stories entitled Probability which got good reviews from the hipster Thai university students I knew when I was living there in 2002. According to an article I read 5 years ago in the Bangkok Post, he uses a lot of Joycean wordplay and formal experimentation mostly unknown to Thai fiction. I can't read Thai and have always hoped he'd get translated into English at some point.

The only work of his I have first hand experience of is the screenplay for Last Life in the Universe, a great film by the best Thai director around, Pen-Ek Ratanaruang.
posted by Falconetti at 10:35 PM on March 26, 2007

Thanks for this.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 10:50 PM on March 26, 2007

Falconetti, I knew Prabda when I worked at the Nation. He used to contribute a lot of stories on the local film industry and film reviews. His journalistic writing was very good, so I've also been very curious about his novel.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 10:57 PM on March 26, 2007

Excellent, thanks.
posted by Abiezer at 11:22 PM on March 26, 2007

Good post, thanks.
posted by languagehat at 6:13 AM on March 27, 2007

You are the best!
posted by ibeji at 8:57 AM on March 27, 2007

Can you get these in Thai if you were learning?
posted by zorro astor at 11:16 AM on March 27, 2007

Thai On-Line Library - Bitext Corpus

"The Thai Bitext Corpus is a collection of Thai and (mostly) English parallel translations or bitexts. The complete library can be searched for usage examples, or individual texts can be read in a variety of layouts."
posted by languagehat at 12:17 PM on March 27, 2007

Neat-O! Thank you languagehat.
posted by carsonb at 4:07 PM on March 27, 2007

That is great, thanks LH.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 10:39 AM on March 28, 2007