Book Review: A Broad Abroad In Thailand By Dodie Cross
- Posted by Essays Blog in Essays Blog |
- December 15th, 2008 |
- Comments
This is to have the least an interesting and entertaining read that covers far more ground than the appellation implies. Told with a huge amount of humor we follow Dodie on her stay to Thailand, where things do not exercise as planned. As she ruefully reflects on in the final chapters, what seems like a great opportunity at the time, had enough flashing warning lights that she should have patterned early on.
The account opens with our heroine employed a mundane office job during the day, and helping out part time at a local golf course in the evenings. Here she meets he husband to be, the club Pro Dick. Although not exactly sweptback off her feet in passion, they do eventually become lovers. It transpires that Dick prior to becoming a Golf Pro has had considerable experience in the construction class. Happenstance puts Dick and Dodie in a position where a two-year contract for a construction project in exotic Thailand is theirs for the action. A free house, bags of determine free money, what more could you ask for? Of course thither is one minor hitch, for Dick to get the full company benefits, he must be married.
Whats a fun loving, adventure search gal to do? Advantageously if your name is Dodie Cross you of course get married, and start packing! Minor things like ‘love’ can be worked on later!
It doesn’t accept our adventurous author long to discover that the ‘land of smiles’ may advantageously be full of smiles, but the company compound where everyone must live is anything but Eden. A repressive management, or to be exact the manager’s woman, has created her own variant of hell on Earth. Endless lists of rules and regulations, the company not only owns the employees, but their wives and families as advantageously. Must-attend meetings, shopping trips, card games, and parties are all part of the cultural calendar.
None of this sits advantageously with Dodie, and she of course decides to buck the group, even worsened she discovers that Dick is a 60 year old activity maniac! Accent at home, accent from “the bosses,” all start to weigh heavily on Dodie, an sudden medical problem also adds to her growing list of issues.
A Broad Abroad In Thailand is a great read, it is written in a real humorous communication, I particularly enjoyed the Pigin English dialog with the local Thai people. That on its own makes this book a hit! Dodie, undismayed by minor and in any cases major setbacks,’bags and crashes’ her artifact finished life. This is a must read book for anyone contemplating living and employed in a foreign land, from marital to medical, the problems are so much greater than being at home.
About Dodie Cross: she is a freelance writer who has received numerous awards for her writing and poetry, among them the prestigious Confederate California Writer’s Conference First Place Award for “Best Nonfiction,” as advantageously as First Place in their inaugural Poetry Award. She has accrued first and 2nd place prizes in her published articles. Dodie has cosmopolitan the class, writing about her life in foreign countries much as Iran and Thailand, as advantageously as American locales much as New Orleans, Orange County, California and Lake Chelan, Washington. Look for her next book: One Strappy-Sandaled Foot Ahead of the Mullahs: An Expat’s Life in Iran Before and During the Revolution.