Published on January 19, 2006

The journey from childhood to adulthood is the thematic link for these 12 short stories, all of them handed awards by such prestigious institutions as Cho Karaket, Thai PEN International and SeaWrite.

But the collection is more than that. It’s symbolic of the soul-searching and, ultimately, the pride of accomplishment that editor Pichet Saengtong shares with the writers he’s carefully selected.

The literary critic extends his unrestrained celebration of southern writers to this assembly of the best crop in 50 years. His selection and presentation seem more propelled by a desire to remake literature in his own image, and this gives the collection as a whole a larger dimension than individual efforts.

Pichet calls the collection “Waves of the Southern Sea” as if to relate it to the tsunami, and indeed the stories are metaphorically as forceful, artistically and socially. For this we must thank the insightful editor, especially those who missed the opportunity to read them when they were first published years ago.

In many ways the stories’ conflicts and settings are ordinary, but the skill of the eight authors makes them compelling. All are delightful, rendering common folk and mundane surroundings unforgettable with the sights and sounds of the South.

All of the authors have a narrative intensity that holds without necessarily being persuasive. They range in age from the early 40s to 72, but share an intellectual heft regardless.

All have been writing fiction seriously since youth. Most have lived independent lives, though occasionally working within the establishment. A few have become academics. Three - Pinyo Srichamlong, Paitoon Tanya and Staporn Srisatjang - are accomplished poets.

The most senior author, Pinyo, offers “The Race of the Shadow Puppeteers”, in which disparate generations compete in a clash of identities and schooling, despite their shared love for the art form.

The period details could only have been mastered by someone who’s intensely embedded in the culture itself.

Pinyo is the exception among a group influenced by the grand narrative of “literature for life” that dominated writing in the 1970s. The rest display the effects of that time, when the leftist movement, which had so fervently championed the exploited masses, disintegrated.

Their stories taken together produce a new narrative of light and lively storytelling and apply it engagingly to the changing economic and social patterns in the South.

Kanokpong Songsompan’s “The Small World of Salman”, first published in 1990, and “The Broken Bridge”, from a year earlier, are exceptionally compelling.

Salman is a small-time fisherman who refuses to sell his coastal property to an hotelier, only to find his shanty enveloped by a crescent-shaped hotel that treats its guests to a view of his rustically authentic fisherman’s hut.

What makes the tale so fascinating is the casual tone of the narrator, a writer on holiday looking for fresh inspiration. Like most people, he can only observe and benefit from the conflict between the hotelier and the fisherman.

In “The Broken Bridge”, two brothers end up on opposite sides in a battle between the state army and the people’s army in the late ’60s and ’70s. Again, the psychological tension derives, not from the grander story of government oppression, but by the recollection of childhood war games and toy weapons.

Jamlong Fangcholjit’s “The Hand-woven Cloth of Songkla” and “Dad’s Last Legacy” are probably the most shocking entries in the collection, in that local institutions, such as traditional weaving and funeral rites, are commercialised to the fullest extent.

Pramual Maneeroj, Kajornrit Raksa and Attakorn Bamrung explore the same theme, but in different settings and situations.

Pichet adds to the compendium historical background on southern writers of the last century and an in-depth analysis of each of the stories. Biographies and bibliographies on the contributors are also of good reference value.

All of the stories, in one way or another, reflect the editor’s belief that literature reflects society at the time when it’s written. This collection contributes greatly to both our wealth of literature and our understanding of the South, which today, regrettably, is plagued by serious worries.

By Sukanya Hantrakul

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