Thai-Riffic

Oliver Phommavanh (author)

read by Stephen Pease

Louis Braille Audiobooks: 2010; 4 CDs

Genres: humour, realistic fiction

Issues: cultural differences, friendship

Albert just wants to be like every other Aussie kid; he wants to get take-away from Maccas and KFC, fill up on pizza, learn to play cricket. Most of all he wants to ignore his Thai heritage. Quite how he's going to manage that when his parents run the increasingly popular and punnily named Thai-Riffic restaurant is unclear - but he's going to try!

Now in his first year of high school Albert gets a new nickname and finds Lengy a nice change from the mocking ‘bowtie' of his primary years. He has a fantastic teacher with a wacky sense of humour and even finds some new friends. But, try as he might, Lengy can't seem to find a way to discourage everybody else's interest in his Thai heritage - especially the food his parents cook. He tries everything, even spiking the Multicultural Day dishes with his father's ‘secret chilly sauce' that blows the top off most people's heads. But Fate (or Karma) seems determined that Lengy will come to terms with the difficult feeling of being torn between two cultures - and maybe even learn how to cook, something he's strenuously resisted until now.

Although this is Oliver Phommavanh's first novel, Thai-Riffic demonstrates a strong grasp of tight narrative and humour of various shades - from slapstick to the subtler tones of irony and satire. Phommavanh's teaching experience is reflected in his younger characters, who demonstrate the shifting attitudes, relationships and variable maturity of real children rather than more two-dimensional nature of too many ‘storybook students'. Stephen Pease, always a good reader, has excelled himself. He has obviously researched the correct pronunciation of the various Thai words and phrases but remembers to give a less expert accent to characters who are mimicking Lengy or his family. Pease gives Lengy's parents believable Thai-Australian accents and is consistent in all his character voices, thereby allowing the personality of each to shine through. As with all the best readers, there is the feeling that the story has somehow come alive in one's ear, the reader himself more of a narrator who signals the exits and entrances of the characters who actually speak for themselves. The combination of Phommavanh's lively, modern narrative and Pease's reading make this a very entertaining audiobook.