I had ordered this book after hearing the author interviewed last month on the KFOG "Morning Show" with Dave Morey here in the SF Bay Area, hearing him talk deeply and thoughtfully about his childhood living in Vietnam and post-traumatic stress that he was only able to heal through a year of solitary confinement in a Vietnamese reeducation camp. When I read the book, I felt as as though he were telling me his story in his own voice: he delivers an excellent narration and does write as he talks.From a very self-effacing point of view, the author is remarkable in how he is at once delivering his personal life experience from the very naive, and immature attitude of a teenager making the break from home in 1983, who as it would happen has a number of lucky events occur meeting a journalism mentor and invited on the treasure hunt, much in the spirit of what Joseph Campbell called "following your bliss". At the same time speaking from the point of view of the adult author he is now, looking back at the young and impetuous person he was. A rich mix!
The author's manner in which he delivers the historical background of each place (part one is Thailand, and part two is Vietnam) as the young teenager he was grows from naive idealist to mature and responsible adult is in no way intrusive and makes "The Bamboo Chest" a solid piece of work.
I would recommend this book to anyone who has wondered "what if?": "What if I took that life path, and not this one?" If you are interested in the history and culture of Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam from a very non-politically correct, honest, and accurate depiction of Southeast Asia, then this book and "Shadows and Wind" by Rober Templar are for you.
If you prefer to get a more politically correct and inaccurate depiction of modern Vietnam, benefiting only American coporations and those benefitting from cheap labor, then get David Lamb's book. For a round eye, Mr. Graham spins a very lucid rendition of Southeast Asia.
Product Description
Finally, the whole, uplifting and extraordinary story can be be told: $20 Million in Captain Kidd's treasure on an island off the coast of Vietnam;an eighteen-year-old photojournalist from California, haunted by the VietnamWar. Travel with Frederick "Cork" Graham in The BambooChestfrom San Francisco to Thailand and a Socialist Republic of Vietnam political prison on anamazingly healing adventure that will capturethe world's imagination for years!
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