Another Bangkok: Reflections on the City

Description

The essential book for anyone visiting Bangkok - a wonderful mixture of history and culture - from the author of Lost Japan One of Asia's most extraordinary cities, Bangkok is also one of the most baffling. It is filled with remarkable people and glittering golden palaces and temples, but is also a maze of concrete and twisting overhead utility wires. Alex Kerr has spent over thirty years of his life living in Bangkok and is uniquely qualified to write about it. As with his bestselling books on Japan (Lost Japan and Another Kyoto), he revels in the secret, tucked-away corners, the great contemporary artists and the sheer wonder of so many aspects of Thai dance and design. While deploring the loss of much of old Bangkok, he is never merely nostalgic for a past but finds inspiration in Thailand's dynamic modern fusions. Another Bangkok will delight both those who think they know the city well and those visiting for the first time. Kerr is a uniquely wry and eloquent guide to everything from ceramics to puppetry, from flower patterns to old houses.

Alex Kerr is an American writer and Japanologist whose previous books include Lost Japan, Dogs and Demons and Another Kyoto (with Kathy Arlyn Sokol). He was the first foreigner to be awarded the Shincho Gakugei Literature Prize for the best work of non-fiction published in Japan. First visiting Bangkok in the 1970s, since 1990 he has lived half of each year in Kyoto, the other half in Bangkok.

Praise for Another Kyoto * (2018) * Kerr's way of questioning and puzzling through is hugely enjoyable in its own right, and pleasingly infectious. -- Christopher Harding * Spectator * Captivating, informal ... Kerr is the perfect guide. -- PD Smith * Guardian * Rich ... Kerr's combination of instinct and erudition serve him well ... there is something fresh and chirpy about the text, even when it deals with the most esoteric or arcane of subjects. -- Stephen Mansfield * Japan Times *