What’s in the Book?
I get a lot of folks asking what I talk about in the book. I suppose if I had to simmer it down to cocktail hour chit-chat I might say that Next Life in the Afternoon is a first-person anthropological look at the cultural dichotomies that are broken down and reformed upon stepping out of one culture and into another.
Or something like that. I would never really claim that, partly because I could never get all those syllables out of my mouth while sipping highballs.
Really what’s in the book are some views of one culture in light of another. It all comes down to this: what we learn from traveling is less about other cultures and more about our own and ourselves.
Also I discuss things such as Buddhism, giant bats, elephant spoor along the road, getting held up in highway traffic by wandering cows, tiger attacks, being assaulted by Thais and other farangs, living in monasteries and with monks and even Thai children singing a Barry Manilow song to me when I stood in for a teacher.
No joke.
It’s an exciting tale and it’s been a lot of fun to put this together. Thinking back on that journey, I miss Thailand for some reasons and really don’t miss it for other reasons. Why the two-sided feelings? Keep reading here. Subscribe to the blog and get updated on each new post. Better yet, call up your cousin, who is an acquisitions editor somewhere, and tell her to call me about my book.
Technorati Tags: book, Next Life in the Afternoon, culture, travel, Buddhism, bats, spoor, cows, assault, farang, monk, Thai, Thailand, acquisitions editor
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