FLYING WITH CORMORANTS

Seeking Sanook

or

Flying with Cormorants

A debut novel by Mel Christie William M Christie

The plan was to spend a year in Southeast Asia, China, and Japan, in search of life, love, and meaning. But with mercenaries, hustlers, jailers, and a Brotherhood of Nigerians in the way, the search took much longer—and it would require going further afield.

For fans of THE WHITE LOTUS, this genre bending work is the budget version—think less Four Seasons, more Four Cockroaches in a Dorm. Its protagonist navigates the traveler guest houses with antics like Rick Steves in ON THE HIPPIE TRAIL, but the stories ratchet up the drama and pressure the unexpected, rather than remain wholly faithful to memory. Similar to Elizabeth Gilbert’s ambitions in EAT PRAY LOVE, the interconnected narratives of Seeking Sanook focus on our ever-youthful desire for escape while offering even more locations to get lost in.

So how did it come to this?

Sanook (สนุก)

Pronunciation: sà-nùk

Noun: Fun

Usage: The Thai word for ‘fun.’ Fun can mean different things to different people and different cultures; however, in Thailand, Sanook is more like a mindset or a way of life.

Cormorant (鵜)

Pronunciation: ˈkȯr-mə-ˌrant

Noun:

1. A large aquatic bird once prized in Asia for its use in catching fish.
2. A gluttonous, greedy, or rapacious person.

The Cormorant Crowd can be any group, typically tourists or travellers, in search of new experiences but who can be like cormorants, catching fish but unable to swallow because of the noose.

Usage:

In Japan, Cormorant Fishing is called Ukai (鵜飼): To control the bird, the fisherman ties a noose near the base of the bird’s throat. It doesn’t stop the bird from swallowing small fish, but it prevents it from swallowing the larger ones. When a cormorant has caught a large fish in its throat, the fisherman brings the bird back to the boat to retrieve it.

Guess Where?