Pacific Dream: Mari Mango and the Accidental Orphanage
by Chet Nairene
Rating: ***
When twenty-three-year-old Marielle Margaux's life unravels, she impulsively decides to leave Chicago behind and books a flight to Bangkok. A chance encounter with a young, pregnant, and abused Thai woman, Chloe, sparks the creation of the myth of “Sister Mari Mango,” as Marielle comes to be known.
From sheltering Chloe and her newborn baby, Mari’s altruism extends to other Thai women, victims of the sex trade, who find themselves pregnant. The “Merry Mango - Home for Angels,” Sister Mari’s orphanage, is created. But not everyone in the coastal town of Lukchang supports Sister Mari, and her ersatz holy identity is causing her problems too…
Pacific Dream is the third novel in Nairene’s Pacific Trilogy series*, though all are standalone reads. Before introducing the reader to Mari, Nairene sets the scene in Lukchang. The novel opens in April 2017, at the Songkran Water Festival, as Tommy Shanks, an Australian expat, and his drinking buddy, American soldier Buzz, watch from the Sawadee Beach Bar.
As with Nairene’s two previous outings, his descriptive prowess brings the Far East to life with vibrant, living color and rich, authentic detail that engages the reader’s senses, immediately transporting and immersing them in Thai culture, language, and climate, while Tommy’s conversation mentioning a foreign ‘farang’ nun is intriguing.
Nairene then shifts back fifteen years to Mari leaving Chicago in 2002. Although Nairene’s sense of place is strong and the emotional baggage throughout Pacific Dream is heavy, the novel handles difficult feelings lightly, with breezy charm and a slightly glib register that smooths away dark complexity with a wink and a touch of humor, sometimes black.
At times, this treatment of substantive issues feels superficial and leaves the characters lacking depth. However, the reader can tell that serious themes drive the story and that an ethical commentary undergirds the quirky, entertaining narrative.
Mari is a curious main protagonist, and the reader is kept guessing, unsure of her motives and desires. Nairene uses her idealism and naivety, which persist in several ways throughout the narrative, to great, occasionally slapstick, effect.
Again, however, the “Sister Mari Mango” alter ego comes with poignant framing, and Nairene explores interesting territory, examining the nature of personal identity and the consequences of its misassumption.
Primarily, the novel is centered on the Orphanage and its daily trials and tribulations. Mari is joined by a core team of women, Nong, Porn, Tuk, and the catalyst, Chloe. Each is distinct, and the constant smattering of Thai as the native women speak is skillfully done, absorbing the reader without interrupting the narrative flow.
It’s relatively obvious who is or will be the problem among the women, however, all of them raise skepticism at one stage or another. The lack of confrontation and accountability, while reflecting Thai customs and social norms, becomes frustrating in the story's context.
Additionally, the novel is a touch bloated and could definitely lose some weight with a more thorough edit. Nonetheless, there are some wonderfully astute and often amusing character studies. Khun Toy and, although brief, Beehive, the clerk, are particularly strong.
The biblical comeuppance involving the corrupt Lukchang Mayor Faro, his puppet, Police Chief Chu, and whoremonger, Mr. Shine, is ingeniously done with a comedic gloss, although, as with the majority of Pacific Dream, there is a deeper moral spine to the shenanigans.
Vivid, fantastical, and marked by flashes of brilliance, Pacific Dream is another exotically engaging exploration of Far East authenticity by Nairene, unfolded in his gloriously whimsical, witty, and inimitable voice. Well worth a look.
*Click here for my review of Pacific Dash: From Asia Vagabond to Casino King
*Click here for my review of Pacific Odyssey: The Curious Case of Lew 2.0
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