PositiveThe Georgia Straight (CA)The collection\'s six stories and a novella reflect Thailand as felt and observed by adolescents living there ... Each story skirts the paradox of exotic paradise in the land of cockfight and draft lottery ... This reality is appealing as literature, but it no longer seems fresh ... In each story, though, Lapcharoensap provides a different tour guide. All come with a teenager\'s gift for the simultaneous sarcastic quip and heartfelt emotion, each fits memorably into the short story\'s coming-of-age subgenre ... The writing is often very sloppy. But often enough it\'s also tight and taut and yet as fat with con- and subtext as short stories are meant to be.
