Thai Times

'Thai Times' takes the reader through the thirty-two years Jeff Sparks has spent in Thailand. Focusing on the Thais he has come to know over those years, we are led through a variety of characters: from Jeff's wife, family, and village neighbours to a kaleidoscope of Thais of various social backgrounds resident in Bangkok. The book consists of three parts. The first seven chapters concern the years from 1987 to 1998, a time of initially rapid economic growth and visa liberalization in Thailand when work and opportunities were aplenty for newcomers. As Jeff tries to make sense of the country he instinctively feels is home, the reader meets an array of personalities he encounters in his daily life, both at work and at home. In stories laced with both comedy and pathos, we are witnesses to a full display of the human condition with its contrasting features of ambition, hope, indifference, and despair. The second section of the book, from chapters eight to seventeen, depicts village life in rural north-east Thailand as Jeff settles down to raising a family. The vivid descriptions of the challenges and joys of rural life; extended family relations, neighbours, and attempts to make a livelihood, are portrayed with candour, admiration, and love for a people and way of life so marked in contrast to life in Bangkok. The final part of the book is a mixture of stories and reflections about motorbikes, Buddhism, and aspects of Thai mores.