REVIEW
Hello My Big Big Honey!
- the Book, by… D. Walker & R. Ehrlich
TIME Magazine wrote:
- the Book, by… D. Walker & R. Ehrlich
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Sightings
Thailand -- Letters from The Heart
MANY PEOPLE ASSUME THAT MEN WHO patronize brothels view prostitutes as single-use, disposable sex objects. "Hello My Big Big Honey! Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews" may surprise those who subscribe to that assumption. In an intimate portrait of Patpong Road, Bangkok's red-light district for tourists and foreigners, two journalists based in the Thai capital have gathered letters written by 71 European (and American and other) men who fell in love with women, whose sexual services they had bought in places like the Peppermint Bistro and the Pussy Connection. Interspersed are interviews with 12 of the bar girl correspondents.
Does love conquer poverty, cultural barriers and the fear of AIDS? Sometimes, according to the authors. Though many of Bangkok's thousands of prostitutes turn to drugs, succumb to disease or commit suicide, a surprising number parlay their trysts into marriage and a ticket to the West. While waiting for their (Western) lovers to return for them, the women of Patpong Road receive air-mail letters containing money and messages such as "You are my only hope, the only person I can live and fight for," and "I am not the best man on earth, but then, if I had been a very good man, I would not have met you," and "Dear Darling, Money for December. Also for teeth. Love..."
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TIME Magazine, International Edition