Adventures of a Bird-Shit Foreigner Book

This extremely powerful book is NOT for your average LGBT teen. Sulayman X is an American who converted to Muslim and has founded the Queer Jihad. There is a definite autobiographical feeling to this book.

This is the story of Isa, whose mother worked in the whore district of Bangkok and whose father is an unknown American GI. Isa, being what is called in Thailand a "half and half" and "bird-shit foreigner", is sent to a rural village with his grandmother and grandfather, who have the same negative feelings and are just as vicious as the members of their community. Isa learns quickly about his attraction to men; he attempts to use it as a way to become a friend to other boys, and also gets raped by his grandfather's employees. Eventually Isa leaves his grandparents' home and goes in search of his mother in Bangkok. And thus begins his adventures.

This book does NOT play games. The descriptions of rape, sodomy, oral sex, prostitution, and other negative sexual acts are rather explicitly described. However, throughout the book are powerful descriptions of emotions -- what happens in the mind of a child who has not experienced love; a child who does not understand what friendship is, who thinks he is deserving of such negative treatment in life. All of these sections take place within the cultural context of Thailand. As a result, the Thailand of 1983 becomes a suffering experience for a child who does not belong -- to anyone, any home, any place, any environment.

I would recommend this book ONLY to very, very mature LGBT readers. To me, the readers should be senior high school or college. I cannot deny, however, how well written this book is; the narrative sections focusing on emotional responses to the action are outstanding.