Lola

edited by George McBliar

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Audio Book

Lola

“In such narratives, perception mattered more than fact.”

Set between Bangkok and Hua Hin, this short story follows Professor John MacLeod and his long relationship with Lola, a Thai bargirl whose life has advanced far beyond ceremonial introductions: family visits, shared trips, financial support, and a vividly coloured private life. Yet the more MacLeod gives, the less certain he becomes that Lola truly “likes” him, let alone loves him in any conventional, novelistic sense.

Lola, it turns out, remembers their first meeting in meticulous detail, while MacLeod remembers almost nothing. Behind the inscrutable “Siamese smile” lies a mixture of old resentment, polite convenience, and what might be called economic gravity—supporting her mother, grandmother, and daughters back home in Isaan, while carefully managing how the world sees her generous farang.

Weaving together Thai concepts of merit-making and restraint with MacLeod’s own Presbyterian Scottish reflections, the story asks whether affection can be misread across cultures, or whether it was never really there at all—until, around 2020, reality reasserts itself and the relationship comes to its end.

Read the full document in the interactive flipbook below.

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