Title: Son of the Wind
Series: N/A
Author: Clyde Abbott
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Novel (332 pages)
Publisher: MLR Press (November 22nd, 2013)
Heat Level: Low
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥3.5 Hearts
Reviewer: Eli/Mandingo
Blurb: Tattooed, pierced, tough-boy, Muay Thai champion battles poverty and murderous foes unaware that a rich American guy visiting Thailand has fallen in love with him.
Khit, a twenty-three-year-old championship Muay Thai boxer, fights his way out of poverty while a vengeful boxing promoter and a murderous cousin plot attacks. Raising a younger brother, caring for a pair of otters, and fathering twin sons complicate his challenging life. The son of a Scottish father with a mysterious past and a Thai mother, Khit meets a rich English-American, Rad, in his beautiful hometown of Krabi, Thailand. Rad falls in love with him. Khit remains unaware of Rad’s love as their friendship deepens. When illness strikes, Khit comes to a new understanding of his true self.
Purchase Link: http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?book=CASNWIND
Review: Two boys meet in the aftermath of the tragedy of a tsunami, and a bond is forged between them through their shared loss. Many years will pass and the men will take on vastly different paths in life before they are to come together again. Khit is a talented sportsman who has stunted his emotional growth in lieu of taking on the responsibility of caring for his sibling. Rad, also an accomplished sportsman, has had to overcome his feelings of loss and inadequacy and has finally come to terms with himself and where he is in life and where he’d like to go.
The book is a rich tapestry and a cornucopia (like that word?) of many things. It starts out as a coming of age story of a young man who is a Muay Thai boxer and the reader is introduced to the history and customs of the sport and thus the Thai culture. Then the story moves to understanding the politics and the seamy illegal and corrupt underbelly of the sport and how it can destroy lives in its wake. The two young men, Rad and Khit, are then reunited and the story then takes on a more philosophical feel as the reader experiences Thai life, and the philosophy of Buddhism and how you can improve your life through meditation and constant awareness. The young men coming full circle back to each other is not fully understood until the end of the story, but the influences of Buddhist philosophy foreshadow many of the occurrences in the story.
The story covers a lot of ground. The boys have to meet, overcome a myriad of obstacles and issues, often involving life threatening and altering situations. In other circumstances, it should appear far- fetched and fantastical, but there is something that grounds the story and makes it seem not quite so fairytale-like and keeps the healing, redemptive spirit alive. As the story progresses from being a sports story to being a coming of age story to being a love story and then finally a mystery, the piece that glues it all together is that Khit and Rad are soulmates. The Buddhist teachings do not have any negative teachings against same-sex love and so it makes Khit once he fully focuses on his Buddhist teachings able to embrace his feelings for Rad and the ground they must cover as they move along in their relationship. The phrase, Sometimes you have to die in order to live, is very apropos here.
But even after the men acknowledge their feelings for each other, the drama continues as the action-adventure and mystery portion of the story heats up. The reader is taken to exotic locations and allowed to enjoy the lifestyle of the rich and famous as Rad and Khit bond. The story ends with some amazing revelations and the coming full circle, as was foretold by Khit’s aunt when she did a reading on him. The story closes with a neat bow being wrapped around the whole plot.
The story moves quickly, but the writing is choppy and disjointed in some places – almost seeming rushed. However, either the reader gets used to the style or the writing appears to smooth itself out about half way through. It was nice, however, to not have some of the story elements drag on forever and be brought to quick fruition and resolution. This works since there is so much going on in the story, the author however, does them sequentially, which allows the reader to easily follow along and not get too lost in the various events.
Because this story covers so much, there is more focus on the spiritual and emotional bond between the men than the physical one. There are love scenes in the book, but they are not as steamy as with other books in the genre. This, however, does not detract from the relationship between Rad and Khit. A plot twist that allows the reader to identify with the two men is their shared love of music and singing and they spend a significant amount of time using this as a communication tool – Taking the time to YouTube the songs throughout the book does help to add a dimension to the book that lends to the romance and the mysticism of their relationship which is very much aligned with the whole Buddhist philosophy which underpins the entire story.