Free book - Cocktail Boyz - for a limited time

[fountainhall]

I note that Nicky's OP states it's all a true story. Yet there is the usual blurb at the front of the book about its being a work of fiction and all characters a fiction of someone's imagination. Which is it? Real - or what we would like to believe to be real?

[Oliver]

I hope it's "true" , in other words accurate and authentic. Good novels are invariably based on the author's experiences or at least draw on other people's....even historical novels.
I assume that this novel is real and that the depictions of places and events true to life. And for obvious reasons, the names of the characters will be changed even if they are closely based on "real" people. Sometimes, of course, a novelist creates a character who is an amalgam of two or three "real" people. But the character who emerges from this process is nonetheless, true to life and real in the context of the novel.. If he/she isn't, then the author has failed. And the same is true of events portrayed; timelines: dates and so on are altered to make the novel more interesting. But the events remain "true."

[fountainhall]

In that case, Oliver, isn't it perfectly usual for that specific information to be included in the brief preface - something like "Crystal Boyz is a work of fiction but is based on real people and actual events"? It would not state categorically as in Cocktail Boyz “All characters appearing in this work are fictitious, Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.” That’s pretty clear that it is not factual!

[jvt22222]

Wondering if it is available anywhere as a torrent???

[pennyboy]

I've just started reading this and my first impression is of a poorly written novel. Whether the familiarity of the place will be enough to keep me going I'm not sure. At least it was free.

[arsenal]

Pennyboy: As you said the book is free and it's also written by a Thai. So for you to describe it as "poorly written" seems rather uncharitable to say the least. Or am I being sanctimonious?

[francois]

Nicky is a Thai?

[Oliver]

This is news to me. I always thought he was a falang using the name as a nom de plume. When the website started, there were many photos of a particularly cute Thai guy who was identified as "Nicky" but I never believed that the text was written by anyone but a falang. Was I wrong?

[paperboy]

just to put the record straight, nicky is a late 60s man called Guy, he lives in seim reap with his cambodian bf

[francois]

I agree with you, Oliver. Also thought "nicky" moved to Cambodia awhile ago.