The Happiness of Kati (review)

Nine-year-old Kati has been living quietly with her grandparents in a rural Thai village, the home of Grandpa's retirement after his career as a prominent lawyer, and while Kati loves her peaceful and orderly life there she misses her mother, whom she has not seen for years and who is never mentioned. It's therefore a shock when a visit to Kati's mother is planned out of the blue, and Kati learns that her mother suffers from ALS, the disease that left her unable to take care of her daughter, and that she is dying. This Thai import, translated into English by the author, is gently descriptive rather than sentimental; for the first section of the book, Kati's mother's absence is mentioned in every chapter subtitle ("In the house there were no photos of Mother"; "Kati wanted Mother to pick her up from school sometimes") but evaded in the main text, an obliqueness that effectively conveys Kati's constant awareness of this void even as it's never manifestly acknowledged. The writing is direct and straightforward as it describes Kati's reunion with her mother and her mother's illness and death, but the sadness of the situation is tempered by the constant presence of loving relatives and friends; there's also a sense of relief in Kati's finally getting answers to the questions that have long plagued her about her mother—and about her mysterious father. The emphasis on descriptive narrative passages over dialogue, the stately pace and the slow unfurling of the conflict, and the flashes of adult perspective make this best suited for a patient and sophisticated reader, and some underexplained plot points seem to exist largely for dramatic effect—Kati's grandparents' silence about their daughter, for instance, and Kati's father's brief appearance in her mother's history. The description will be a plus for American readers intrigued by the details of daily life in a Thai river village, though, and they'll understand Kati's satisfaction when "there were no more lost or discarded pieces of her life to find."