A Voice for Independent Authors

“You can kill a book quicker by your silence than by a bad review.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri

REVIEWING TODAY: LIVES OF THAI TEMPLE BOYS BY MAITREE LIMPICHART

One expects to encounter in Maitree Limpichart’s collection, Lives of Thai Temple Boys, a set of drastically informative revelations about a completely foreign way of life. While deftly managing to do exactly that, these deceptively brief and simple glimpses into the life of various young Thai boys brought to live inside the temple walls are even more amazing for the decided familiarity of their experiences. One is tempted upon reading this biographically-based recollection of the author’s youth to acknowledge an old but meaningful cliché: boys will be boys. For one is immediately struck by the similarity of these youngster’s interactions to those of young males everywhere. The most foreign element to this insider’s view of temple life comes from the environment itself – introducing us to a culture based on compassion for the poor with an emphasis on adolescent education – where those responsible for the children are themselves reliant on the generosity of others for their sustenance.

The tales told so candidly and succinctly by Maitree Limpichart in Lives of Thai Temple Boys, however, are more about the vagaries of growing up than they are about the specific culture in which that happens. One finds himself smiling at the lessons common to all cultures, in which these young members of a confined community take on roles and purposes indicative of what they shall later encounter as adults. They are the diplomats and the peacemakers, the bullies and the con-artists, the leaders and the followers, and of course the observant ones, like the author, who watch carefully in order to write about the others later. Limpichart is the consummate observer who diligently notes the tiny, mundane details that together serve to demonstrate the most important of life’s complex lessons. That he does so with such simplicity denotes the artistry of his writing.