Andrew K. (kuligowskiandrewt) -
Disco for the Departed is author Colin Cotterills 3rd visit to Dr. Siri Paiboun. At this point in his long life, Dr. Siri thought hed be enjoying a light workload or even retirement, instead of struggling to support the post-Vietnam war Peoples Democrating Republic of Laos government by providing coroner services. Further complicating his golden years is that the ghosts of the dead can occasionally communicate with Dr. Siri and sometimes they seem insistent while other times they seem vague.
There are two plots running through this book. First, preparations for a governmental celebration in the mountains near the border are interrupted by the discovery of an arm without any body connected in concrete at the former presidential palace. Dr. Paiboun must not only solve the mystery of who this person was and why he or she died, but also walk a tightrope of political considerations. Meanwhile, many of the aforementioned spirits congregate nightly in an event which gives the book its title.
In a concurrent plot, Geung, the developmentally challenged morgue assistant, has been placed in charge of keeping the place tidy while the good doctor is away. Unfortunately, he is visited and informed that he has been drafted into the military and must leave immediately. Geung declines because he made a commitment to the absent Dr. Siri, but he is not given a choice until he is able to escape his captors and begins a long adventuresome trek back to the morgue.
Cotterills sardonic view of governments, governmental regulations and red tape, and the functionaries and leaders who inhabit this world, oozes through each paragraph of the book. This cynicism might overpower the work if it werent for the basic goodness and common sense of Siri, Geung, and previously unmentioned Nurse Dtui. The reader is blessed with the ability to rise above any situation and laugh along with the protagonists, rather than having to dwell in the procedural mire of the new Communist regime.
It is always a joy to hang out with Siri.
RATING: 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 stars where applicable.
There are two plots running through this book. First, preparations for a governmental celebration in the mountains near the border are interrupted by the discovery of an arm without any body connected in concrete at the former presidential palace. Dr. Paiboun must not only solve the mystery of who this person was and why he or she died, but also walk a tightrope of political considerations. Meanwhile, many of the aforementioned spirits congregate nightly in an event which gives the book its title.
In a concurrent plot, Geung, the developmentally challenged morgue assistant, has been placed in charge of keeping the place tidy while the good doctor is away. Unfortunately, he is visited and informed that he has been drafted into the military and must leave immediately. Geung declines because he made a commitment to the absent Dr. Siri, but he is not given a choice until he is able to escape his captors and begins a long adventuresome trek back to the morgue.
Cotterills sardonic view of governments, governmental regulations and red tape, and the functionaries and leaders who inhabit this world, oozes through each paragraph of the book. This cynicism might overpower the work if it werent for the basic goodness and common sense of Siri, Geung, and previously unmentioned Nurse Dtui. The reader is blessed with the ability to rise above any situation and laugh along with the protagonists, rather than having to dwell in the procedural mire of the new Communist regime.
It is always a joy to hang out with Siri.
RATING: 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 stars where applicable.
