| Gold by the Inch Contributor(s): Chua, Lawrence (Author) |
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ISBN: 0802136494 ISBN-13: 9780802136497 Publisher: Grove Press OUR PRICE: $12.60 Product Type: Paperback Published: September 1999 Annotation: Called "striking" by The New York Times Book Review, Gold by the Inch is the story of a young New Yorker of Asian descent who has returned to the country of his birth following a disastrous relationship and his father's death. In a Bangkok drunk on the nation's financial miracle -- and high on an assortment of other things -- the narrator meets Thong, a young, beautiful male hustler who works at a nightclub. As his romantic obsession with Thong grows, the narrator tries to convince himself that it transcends its commercial nature, but he is quickly forced into a hard look at the connections between desire and exploitation, personal and national identity. Lawrence Chua vividly combines Southeast Asia's troubled history with evocations of its modern face -- its polyglot culture, its colonial past, the cool futurism of its skyscrapers and its sex industry. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction |
| Dewey: FIC |
| Physical Information: 0.6" H x 5" W x 8" (0.55 lbs) 224 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Asian - Cultural Region - Southeast Asian - Ethnic Orientation - Asian |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Called striking by The New York Times Book Review, Gold by the Inch is the story of a young New Yorker of Asian descent who has returned to the country of his birth following a disastrous relationship and his father's death. In a Bangkok drunk on the nation's financial miracle - and high on an assortment of other things - the narrator meets Thong, a young, beautiful male hustler who works at a nightclub. As his romantic obsession with Thong grows, the narrator tries to convince himself that it transcends its commercial nature, but he is quickly forced into a hard look at the connections between desire and exploitation, personal and national identity. Lawrence Chua vividly combines Southeast Asia's troubled history with evocations of its modern face - its polyglot culture, its colonial past, the cool futurism of its skyscrapers and its sex industry. Written in hard-bitten, dazzling prose, Gold by the Inch is a stunning debut. |