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Field Trilogy #3

The Paradise Eater

john ralston saul

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Drunk, businessman, journalist, John Field finds his life becomes much more purposeful when he investigates the death of an ex-lover in steamy Bangkok, Thailand

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 18,1988
Series
Field Trilogy

This edition

Format
256 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published
August 29, 1989 by Fawcett
ISBN
9780449217900
ASIN
0449217906
Language
English

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About the author

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john ralston saul

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Community Reviews

Rating(4.2 / 5.0, 6 votes)
5 stars
3(50%)
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1(17%)
3 stars
2(33%)
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6 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
acepepe
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Me encanto este libro, la trama el desenvolvimiento de los personajes y todo ese tipo de cosas, drogas, prostitución, muerte, todo lo que pasa en una ciudad donde se desenvuelven un sin fin de probabilidades, que te dejan atónito pero con un placer en la mente que te hace imaginar todas las cosas que ahí suceden...
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mistressnicey
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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At first I enjoyed this book, got into the characters, loved the setting, but then it got pretty tedious with the protagonist running around Bangkok with no clue as to what was happening and in the end it resolves itself in a very minor way.
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Gluomme
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Well written, you can feel the rain and the despair of the tropics in the rainy season. Saul's hero is an anti-hero desolate, alcoholic and cynical events propel him to action which ultimately serve others rather than himself. Intention, corruption and cynicism mire the the story in a miasma I couldn't put down. Not for readers who want a simple binary narrative.
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Chalis
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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The novel is packed with seedy atmosphere and sleazy characters, yet the book cries out for a compelling storyline that is never provided. These seamy qualities might have put the lock on a delectable 'noirish' thriller, yet the book ultimately fails to satisfy.
John Field is an Canadian expatriate journalist who has lived in Bangkok for over twenty years, and has never once been back to the west. He no longer is in the writing trade and makes a spotty living as a kind of 'middleman' putting together business deals for various shady characters, and his life basically consists of hanging out with his pals, drinking and carousing with local prostitutes. He gets caught up in an international heroin smuggling operation involving powerful and shady figures in the military and national government, he's implicated in a vicious double murder, he buys the contract of a young prostitute to get her 'out of the life', he raises his daughter to be an educated Thai, and finally contracts an STD seemingly impervious to treatment.
However, it's a real letdown when the reader realizes how little excitement is generated. The book is fairly well-written, yet the storyline reflects more 'bumbling around' than 'hard hitting' drama. All the elements are in place to make John Field the Jason Bourne of The East but unfortunately, not much tension or drama is introduced. This really could have taken off in a big way, but, unfortunately, it never does.
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Memerulesworld
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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An unexpectedly good Bangkok novel and, a rarity for a city that mostly exists in genre fiction, an exceptionally writerly one. The plot is of a journalist with incurable gonorrhea and a disastrous personal life who gets tangled up in a drug caper involving Thai generals, Sino-Thai bankers, the Lao military, and all strata of Thai and farang society. But best of all, the book wonderfully captures 1980s Bangkok and especially the character of a Bangkok Post newspaper columnist here called Henry Crappe but representing the real and legendary nightlife columnist Bernard Trink. It's hardly a perfect; from midway through the plot begins to meander, and its final section does not wrap up as quickly and tightly as it should. But the writing is solid, the atmosphere is thick, and it's a wonderful snapshot of Bangkok in a sort of golden era for expats.
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