Siam, Or The Woman Who Shot A Man by Lily Tuck, The Overlook Press, 1999

 

Lily Tuck is one of the few contemporary writers I am always excited to read, and Siam is yet another cool, elegant, and intelligent novel about women coping with personal dramas in foreign countries, where the personal and the political artfully merge (or collide).  

This is the story of Claire, a young American woman who travels with James, her government/military contractor  husband, to Thailand in 1966, where he is overseeing the construction of runways in the northern jungles to facilitate the bombing of Viet Nam.  His frequent trips to the north leave Claire alone in Bangkok, in a house with a pool and several not-entirely cooperative servants.  She becomes obsessed with the mysterious disappearance of Jim Thompson, the (real) American man who reinvigorated the Thai silk industry.

The United States' corroding involvement in Southeast Asia is slowly and slyly revealed as Claire's activities and liaisons make her more aware of her own and her country's nefarious presence in the larger world.  As always Tuck writes with stylish aplomb -- her view of the world, even seen through (or slyly around) Claire's rather deluded eyes, is always crystal clear and bracingly complex.  Her writing is assured, sensual, and compelling.  I'd read anything by her.