Overview
In this tender, elegant debut novel, a queer child from a Thai immigrant family must ask himself how much he is willing to forsake and what he is willing to forgive in order to keep his family together.
In Phet Buri, 1972, a teenaged Manda Sulakorn overhears her parents whispering that they will be sending one of their girls to the Outer Country – to America. As the eldest, and protector of her younger siblings, she assumes it will be her. But to her great shock, it is Siripon, the perfect, obedient second sister, who will be bound for Los Angeles. With one parental choice, the sisters become rivals.
After years of cool separation across continents, it is Siripon’s son, Ben, who brings them back together. Though Manda intends to visit Monterey Park for only a year, she decides to stay as she becomes a second mother to Ben, who fills her with fierce joy. As the child grows increasingly effeminate, her joy turns to worry. Believing that a spirit of a young woman has attached itself to her beloved nephew – and that her sister won’t do what has to be done – Manda arranges a Theravadan exorcism in secret. The ceremony culminates in a ritual purge that sets off a decade of anxiety-induced vomiting, with Ben becoming known as "Puke Boy" at school, even as his memory of the ritual fades into early childhood oblivion.
As Ben grows into his own queer self-becoming, he must confront the scars of his exorcism and learn how to live amidst the family damage, where one has to tread softly. When Manda and Siripon's husband fall into a clumsy affair, their betrayal becomes another silence to keep as well. But how long can a family go on with secrets so large pressing on their chests?
From Phet Buri banana groves to a modest stucco bungalow in Monterey Park to the ivy and sandstone quadrangles of Stanford, The Outer Country is at once epic and intimate in scope, a breathtaking journey across borders and generations.
In Phet Buri, 1972, a teenaged Manda Sulakorn overhears her parents whispering that they will be sending one of their girls to the Outer Country – to America. As the eldest, and protector of her younger siblings, she assumes it will be her. But to her great shock, it is Siripon, the perfect, obedient second sister, who will be bound for Los Angeles. With one parental choice, the sisters become rivals.
After years of cool separation across continents, it is Siripon’s son, Ben, who brings them back together. Though Manda intends to visit Monterey Park for only a year, she decides to stay as she becomes a second mother to Ben, who fills her with fierce joy. As the child grows increasingly effeminate, her joy turns to worry. Believing that a spirit of a young woman has attached itself to her beloved nephew – and that her sister won’t do what has to be done – Manda arranges a Theravadan exorcism in secret. The ceremony culminates in a ritual purge that sets off a decade of anxiety-induced vomiting, with Ben becoming known as "Puke Boy" at school, even as his memory of the ritual fades into early childhood oblivion.
As Ben grows into his own queer self-becoming, he must confront the scars of his exorcism and learn how to live amidst the family damage, where one has to tread softly. When Manda and Siripon's husband fall into a clumsy affair, their betrayal becomes another silence to keep as well. But how long can a family go on with secrets so large pressing on their chests?
From Phet Buri banana groves to a modest stucco bungalow in Monterey Park to the ivy and sandstone quadrangles of Stanford, The Outer Country is at once epic and intimate in scope, a breathtaking journey across borders and generations.
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