Take half a dozen old women, a monk, sundry vendors,
a few kids, a movie director, a madman and a half-wit;
add a soda bottle and the silver shadow of lotuses;
shake well; and presto:
rich and taut and sweet and tart, Time,
crowned by the 1994 SEA Write Award,
is a masterly cocktail of laughs and tears.
A must-read for all over forty
– and for all those of all ages who want to understand
the changing values of Thai society
and the unchanging urges and mores of man.