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Book's Description
An unparalleled first-hand account that provides a fascinating, shocking and often hilarious picture of Phnom Penh and the bizarre collection of expats who make it their home.
Customer Reviews
What's the point? ,30/05/2006
I'm a big reader of travelogues, and after a brief visit to Cambodia, I picked this up to try and supplement my own tame trip to Siem Reap. What I didn't realize until I started reading the prologue is that this isn't a book about Cambodia or Phnom Penh, but rather, as the author explains: "This book specifically focuses on those people in Phnom Penh that live (as judged by 'normal' Westerners) 'indecent' and extraordinary lives." As such, the book doesn't make any pretensions that it is an accurate representation of the city or its mainstream culture. So, there's ultimately little point to reading this unless you really want to learn about the worst excesses of the expat community who lived there a decade ago.
Most of the subjects of this book are so-called "English teachers" (some of whom could barely string together a grammatical sentence) whom the author met during multiple trips to Phnom Penh between 1996-98 and tended to congregate around the Majestic guest house. The exploits of these Swiss, German, Australian, English, etc. men -- most of which revolve around buying sex, often from girls aged 12-16 -- are neither shocking or particularly funny, but merely a depressing window into the worst side of human nature. Gilboa makes it very clear that he finds their activities utterly despicable -- and yet he's fascinated enough to write a book about them, and admits that he can understand the attraction of the lifestyle. The gist of this lifestyle is that on one's lunch break, instead of swinging by McDonald's for a $5 combo meal, you can swing by a brothel and have sex with a beautiful teenager for $2-$5, and then on the way home pick up a huge bag of pot for another few dollars. Whee!
The book is poorly organized and would have benefited from a strong editorial hand to arrange and shape the material. Gilboa alternates between a chronological narrative of his visits to Cambodia and thematic chapters (Lawlessness, Sex, Drugs, Work). There
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decent enough ,26/06/2006
this writer seemed to whore his way through Cambodia back when that was the main reason that expats were living there. His story is interesting enough and has some anthropological value though he is not a very charming writer. He describes it all with such prosaic numbness, not for any literary effect but because he is not really a very skillful writer. Still, for fans of writing about the Asian underworld, this is a good read, just don't expect literature.
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Over-heated and over-rated ! ,07/03/2006
To the reader,
I'd avoid this book and either go to Phnom Penh myself or read some of the expat blogs about Cambodia.
The tone is pretty sensationalistic, talking about guns, girls and drug-ridden expats exclusively.
The author possibly wanted to be another Hunter Thompson.
He gives lip service to being impartial,saying briefly in the introduction that his descriptions of the expats and Khmers were not meant to imply that all were drug addicts/losers/pedophiles/whores/corrupt.
But after chapter after chapter of lurid descriptions what will the hapless reader remember?
Orgies of cannibus,smack and under-aged bar-girls?
Gun-toting, gun shooting, wife-beating,corrupt Cambodians?
He also does have a PC "holier-than-thou" attitude, never partaking of the bar-girl scene but doing the cannibis smoking route.
His endless trashing of men is suspect, he's either trying to gain a share of the feminist reading public which loves to hear how foul men are or feels guilty himself for being male.
In short if you are an angry feminist who needs more fuel to feed an irrational hatred of men, this is a great book for you.
If you are a rational,sane male read this book with a pound of salt.
Claw
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Insight Into Another World ,13/09/2005
The subtitle on the book wastes no time telling you what this book is about: "into the dark heart of guns, girls, and ganja". Think Detroit is bad? Wait till you hear about late 90's pre-coup Phenom Penh.
Amit Gilboa does a fantastic job describing the surroundings and the atmosphere of both his experience in the capitol of Cambodia and those of his contemporaries, between which a solid distinction can be made.
I've spent the last year of my life living in third world countries and I have yet to encounter the kind of sleaze that's described in full detail between the covers of this book. If you're reading this review, you're probably on the edge of jumping into this third world gonzo rant. Go ahead and take the dive. I wouldn't call it a classic, but I would certainly recommend it.
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Preachy tone ruins book ,30/09/2005
As other reviewers have mentioned, I was drawn to this book by the title and, of course, the photo on the jacket. The 'Time' quote at the bottom of the cover also helped. 'Like a gonzo rant from Hunter S. Thompson.' But believe me, this book is as far from Hunter as can be. Unfortunately for us, Amit Gilboa comes across as someone who has never seen whores, grass, or misery, and it becomes hard to believe that he is actually a journalist. I would guess that perhaps he is even still a virgin.
When he merely describes, he does have a good eye for detail. The descriptions are generally quite vivid. He has clearly done some research, and in doing that research, very obviously put himself into occasional danger. However, he often strays into judgmental diatribes about the characters he describes. Most of the ex-pat characters, in his words, are 'losers,' and much more than that. He would be better off not telling the reader what to think about these people and improve his writing skills so that we can come to that conclusion on our own.
Hey, Time Magazine! Hunter S. Thompson he is not. A quick, informative read, but on the whole, disappointing.
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