The document provides a summary of Owen Jones' first novel "Behind The Smile", which follows the story of Lek, a Thai bar girl from Pattaya. Lek comes from a farming family, but after her father's death, her family faces debt and financial hardship. They send Lek to Pattaya to earn money, where she finds work in a small bar. The novel examines Lek's life and experiences working in the bar industry in Pattaya, exploring her thoughts and the challenges she faces.

1. Behind The Smile
A Review of The New Novel By Owen Jones
- by Owen Jones
(c) Owen Jones - All Rights Reserved
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'Behind The Smile: the story of Lek, a Thai bar girl in Pattaya' is the first
novel of Owen Jones. It became available on April 19th. 2012. Behind the Smile
is a book that Mr. Jones says he has been attempting to write for many years. It
is set in Thailand, but the sort of people concerned are to be found in most
countries in the world.
The story is not an uncharacteristic one in richer as well as poorer countries:
a young woman gets married but her husband soon realizes that he is too young to
be tied to one woman and live a life of drudgery. He starts carousing and
sleeping about. His wife, not being willing to put up with this, divorces him.
The difficulty arises in Third World countries that people have no state funds
to fall back on, which is why family ties are so all important. You could easily
die without the support of your family. This usually works well, but not always.
In Lek's case her father dies at an early age and leaves massive debts to the
bank with the farm held in security. The future looks bleak as Lek's mother
cannot do more than she is already doing.
Lek can begin to help out, but a farm girl's wages are a pittance. One brother
is already working, but the other is too young.
At a family pow-wow, they unwillingly decide that there is no alternative but to
send Lek away to a big city to earn, where she will at least be able to pay the
bank's repayment installments off every month.
Lek goes to Pattaya where a relative owns a small bar. She is given a position
as a barmaid and she loves the thrill of the work. The bright lights, loud music
and attentive men are new to her.
A month or so thereafter, she realizes that she is pregnant with her ex-
husband's child. That is a major disaster, because it threatens her capacity to
pay off the bank, which would ruin her mother and siblings.
This book, 'Behind The Smile', looks at Lek's life from her own standpoint and
follows her through her fun and frustrations. It attempts to demonstrate her
thought processes and tell you, the reader, why she takes certain courses of
action and what she might rather be doing instead.
You become privy to Lek's hopes and fears as the book takes you through a very
important part of her life. You meet her friends, family, colleagues and
boyfriends and you get to see what makes Lek tick
A basic theme of this book is not to judge a book by its cover; not to be to
quick to judge at all, in fact, and above all, to be wary of what you wish for
in case it comes true and there are unforeseen consequences
The title of the book, 'Behind the Smile', derives from the fact that Thailand
is well-known as The Land of Smiles.
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Owen Jones has just published his first book which is called <a
href="http://behind-the-smile.org">Behind The Smile</a>. If you want to learn
more about this insightful new book, just go to our web site now.
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Word Count: 648
Char width: free form
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Keywords: Behind The Smile, Book Review, smile, lek, thailand pattaya
Category: books, reviews, fiction, biographies
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Description: Lek is an ordinary farm girl from the northern rice belt. Her
father dies suddenly leaving the family in dire straights. They send Lek to
Pattaya to work, but she drifts into the sex industry.
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Author Bio:
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but has just
finished his first novel 'Behind the Smile' which is set in Pattaya on the Gulf
of Thailand. A sequel is sure to follow.
Author Photo:
http://plr-articles.the-real-way.com/images/Owen_small.jpg
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