The Force of Karma by Pira Sudham Search Amazon for other books by or about Pira Sudham. Rating: Reviewed by: John Walsh

Prem Surin is an ethnic Lao from the province of Isaan who has had the good fortune to escape from the poverty of his background and studied in London and traveled through other parts of Europe in the company of the rich and influential. He has to thank for this, at least in part, the billionaire heir Dhani Pilakol, whose father is a leading politician and whose mother rules an extensive and diversified empire mostly aimed at enriching the family and despoiling the rest of the country. Prem and Dhani, together with a small cast of European friends and acquaintances, travel around the world, help to relieve poverty in Prem's hometown and act as witnesses to some of the significant events to shape modern Thai history.

Pira Sudham is a Thai writer from the Isaan region, which is the poorest part of Thailand and one which has suffered perhaps more than most from the corruption and environmental destruction inflicted upon the country. From the sale of children into factory sweatshops or brothels to the forced removal of people from their homes to accommodate new eucalyptus plantations that will poison the land, Pira Sudham has been a faithful and compassionate witness to the trials and tribulations of his people. Unusually, he writes in English – a choice that means that his work is beyond the reach of the majority of the people about whom he writes. Sudham's intention is to write for other people, to demonstrate and explain the nature of Thailand (or Siam, as he prefers) and the Thai and Lao people of Isaan. His writing is most powerful in the rather slight short stories of People of Esarn (Isaan) and Tales from Thailand that describe individual lives and experiences, most commonly of misery and poverty, of course. Nevertheless, those stories are the best written and most humane. The Force of Karma, on the other hand, is structurally a bit of a mess.

The timespan of the novel is approximately the 1980s, extending at the latter end to the massacre of 1992 and with some comments to include the early years of the twenty-first century, although it is rarely clear at any moment exactly when anything happens, although it is clear that the experiences the characters consider are those hat occurred during the course of the previous Towards Monsoon Country, which outlined the themes of East meets West and the contrasts between rich and poor, with the systematic suppression of the Isaan people.

The characters oscillate between Bangkok, London and the small Isaan village of Napo that is the home of the central figure Prem Surin (who is of course the author), with little justification other than to provide a suitable background for the characters to go through whatever emotional reflections the author believes suitable for the moment. The overarching structure of the effect of karma coming back to haunt those who have done ill does not really work, largely because the plot device which drives it (Operation Norma) happens off-stage to the extent that the action when revealed is incomprehensible. The language is occasionally inelegant and varies in quality from section to section – some chapters are interpolated lectures and journalism on the poverty of Isaan, included for no explained reason, other than as important documentary background.

Nevertheless, despite all of these problems, this is still an extraordinary achievement. The reader who brings to the novel a modicum of knowledge about Thai society and a healthy interest in the ways in which other people live and the forces that shape their destinies will find much here that is enlightening and delightful. This semi-autobiographical novel is recommended for anyone with an interest in Southeast Asia.