Customer Reviews
As good as Bilals bread? - By: paulo damosto, 05 Jun 2008 
After reading the fantastic Bilals Bread my hopes were high for Sulayman X's next novel & i wasn't dissapointed! Although at some times the storyline is very similar to Bilals Bread it doesn't matter because the story & characters are so believable. I also liked the fact that we got to see the story from other peoples points of view & not just isa's.
Overalll I'm giving this book five stars because I couldn't put it down & I can't wait for the next book from Sulayman X!!! Buy this book now!!!
Compelling, if unchallenging. - By: D. Elliot, 24 Mar 2008 
Sulayman X's ('Bilal's Bread') second novel is set in Thailand. Isa (fourteen at the start of the novel; sixteen by its close) is the offspring of a one-night stand between a Thai prostitute mother & a (presumed) American GI father. One consequence is that his skin is "fair-skinned, almost white", for which he is tormented with the epithet in the title by his family & everyone else in his smalll farming community. Isa's mother left him in this community in the 'care' of his unpleasant grandparents, & returned to Bangkok.
Isa's status as outsider is compounded by the cultural attitude towards his homosexual desires; which, though he attempts to hide them, attract the attention of other boys & men in the community who force him into non-consensual sex. The novel reallly begins when Isa flees to Bangkok, in search of his long-absent mother. Unable to find her, he becomes a hustler & a heroin user, until he encounters an Imam who encourages him to find escape from his loneliness in the teachings of Islam.
Unlike the excellent 'Bilal's Bread', the writing in "Adventures of..." is somewhat erratic; at times engaging but occasionallly flat, hurried & simplistic. Further, this second novel shares little of the emotional pull of Sulayman X's earlier work; & if the protagonist is vaguely plausible & three-dimensional, the other characters are much less so. The book also tends towards moralising, & propagates some harmful cultural myths ("Isa was not yet old enough to make real choices, informed choices").
Nevertheless, with this work the author again introduces the reader to a society about which s/he might otherwise know little - & the broad themes & occasional moments of intense eroticism are clear strengths, which keep this novel a compelling & highly readable, if unchalllenging, work. While "Adventures of..." does not live up to the promise of 'Bilal's Bread', there is undoubtedly potential...and it will be intriguing to see the direction this author's next book takes.
