Morning Coffee-“Talk Thai” -a memoir
Talk Thai: Adventures of a Buddhist Boy
CONTACT: Sherri Rosen 212-222-1183
E-mail: sherri@sherrirosen.com, www.sherrirosen.com
454 Manhattan Ave., Suite 3J, NYC 10026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
A Richly Told Tale of One Boy’s Life Growing Up
as a First-Generation Thai-American in 1980’s America
Talk Thai: The Adventures of Buddhist Boy
by Ira Sukrungruang
University of Missouri Press
168 pages, 5 ¼ x 8
978-0-8262-1889-6, $24.95 cloth
Publication date: March 26, 2010
New York, NY (February 2010) — On one side of the door, the enticing smell of sweet, spicy food and the calm of Buddhist devotion; on the other, the strangeness of a new land.
When Ira Sukrungruang was born to Thai parents newly arrived in the U.S., they picked his Jewish moniker out of a book of “American†names. In this lively, entertaining, and often hilarious memoir, he relates the early life of a first-generation Thai-American and his constant, often bumbling attempts to meet cultural and familial expectations while coping with the trials of growing up in 1980s America.
Young Ira may have lived in Oak Lawn, Illinois, but inside the family’s bi-level home was “Thailand with American conveniences.†They ate Thai food, spoke the Thai language, and observed Thai customs. Ira’s bedtime stories were tales of Buddha and monkey-faced demons. On the first day of school his mother reminded him that he had a Siamese warrior’s eyes—despite his thick glasses—as Aunty Sue packed his Muppets lunch box with fried rice. But when his schoolmates played tag he was always It, and as he grew, he faced the constant challenge of reconciling American life with a cardinal family rule: “Remember, you are Thai.â€
Inside the Thai Buddhist temple of Chicago, another “simulated Thailand,†are more rules, rules different from those of the Southside streets, and we see mainstream Western religion—“god peopleâ€â€” through the Sukrungruang family’s eyes. Within the family circle, we meet a mother who started packing for her return to Thailand the moment she arrived in America; her best friend, Aunty Sue, Ira’s second mother, who lives with and cooks for the family; and a wayward father whose dreams never quite pan out.
Talk Thai is a richly told account that takes us into an immigrant’s world. Here is a story imbued with Thai influences and the sensibilities of an American upbringing, a story in which Ira practices English by reciting lines from TV sitcoms and struggles with the feeling of not belonging in either of his two worlds. For readers who delight in the writings of Amy Tan, Gish Jen, and other Asian-Americans, Talk Thai provides generous portions of a rich and ancient culture while telling the story of a modern American boyhood with humor, playfulness, and uncompromising honesty.
About the Author
Ira Sukrungruang has published fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in numerous periodicals and coedited What Are You Looking At? The First Fat Fiction Anthology and Scoot Over, Skinny: The Fat Nonfiction Anthology. He is Assistant Professor of English at the University of South Florida and lives in Brandon with his wife and three dogs.
Talk Thai is available at local bookstores, online retailers, or directly from Chicago Distribution Services.
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April 8th, 2011 at 8:01 am
I have been absent for some time, but now I remember why I used to love this website. Thank you, I will try and check back more frequently. How frequently you update your website?