Articles

Published in the Fall 2006 edition of the quarterly Vancouver Review, and posted on thetyee.ca on October 19, 2006 WRITERS FEST: South Asian gangster life the stuff of two new novels, one set in B.C.
By Daniel Gawthrop What is it about British publishers and their obsession with street lingo? The hype surrounding Londonstani, a debut novel that won its 29-year-old author a $632,000 (Cdn) advance and a splashy global marketing campaign, focused mainly on ...
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Daniel Gawthrop: Adam & Steve Forever How far have we come? Well, I've gone from closeted to queer opponent of gay marriage to preparing my wedding. By Daniel Gawthrop Posted on thetyee.ca on December 10, 2004 When I first heard the news that the Supreme Court of Canada had affirmed same-sex marriage rights—thus paving the way for Paul Martin's Liberal government to formally legalize queer marriage—the fact it was all happening on December 9 seemed ...
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Posted on theTyee.ca on June 7, 2004 It’s not whether George W. Bush measures up to Ronald Reagan. It’s that too many Americans think Reagan’s legacy is worth celebrating. By Daniel Gawthrop [Editor’s note: Steve Burgess’s article comparing George W. Bush unfavourably to Ronald Reagan, on the occasion of Reagan’s death, drew a number of responses.] Steve Burgess is a darned good humourist, and consistently so. Which is why I was a little disappointed by ...
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Posted on theTyee.ca on April 19, 2004 He spooks official China; he enraptures Goldie Hawn. How to explain the impact of the Tibetan spiritual leader? By Daniel Gawthrop Every time Tenzin Gyatso—better known as His Holiness, the XIV Dalai Lama—lands in a Western country, two kinds of stories abound. The first is political: will the country’s presiding leader grant an audience with His Holiness, thus incurring the wrath of the Chinese government (which on one ...
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Posted on dooneyscafe.com on February 11, 2004 Daniel Gawthrop explains why he can’t bring himself to shell out $11.50 to see Hollywood’s latest hockey metaphor for jingoistic porn. Last week was a busy one for the spin doctors of our national sport. First the CBC, playing the Janet Jackson/Nipplegate card, decided to muzzle “Hockey Night” loudmouth Don Cherry because of outrage over his francophobic comments on “Coach’s Corner”. (A seven-second tape delay and a federal ...
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Published in the Vancouver Sun on Saturday, March 15, 2003 By Daniel Gawthrop BANGKOK—On the surface, it has all the elements of a classic Thai scam. A Canadian drifter claiming to be related to a famous hockey personality shows up in Bangkok and sweet-talks his way into a coaching gig with the new Thai national ice hockey team. He’s supposed to report to training camp in Chiang Mai, the mountainous northern city where the team ...
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WAITING FOR THE LADY
■ CHRISTOPHER G MOORE
Heaven Lake Press Available at leading bookstores Reviewed by Daniel Gawthrop Published in The Nation (Bangkok) on Sunday, March 23, 2003 THIS BURMESE ROAD NOVEL, Chris Moore’s sixteenth work of fiction, follows the adventures of Sloan Walcott, a Bangkok-based photographer and art collector who’s still married to the Japanese woman he met in the early Seventies. Now it’s the spring of 2002. Walcott is turning 53 but ...
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Posted on Dooneyscafe.com on September 17, 2002 Daniel Gawthrop has second thoughts about music, marketing and his own concert reviewing ability after the Bangkok appearance of an old schoolmate-turned-First Lady of Popular Jazz. Not long ago, I published a lousy article in the newspaper I work for in Bangkok. That’s quite an admission to make. Like most writers, I invest a lot of ego and presumptions-of-authority-and-relevance into my work. So allow me to qualify that ...
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Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan
By. Robert D Kaplan Vintage Departures Available at Asia Books, Bt595 Reviewed by Daniel Gawthrop Published in The Nation (Bangkok) in 2002 Before his capture and execution by the doomed Taliban regime last October 26, veteran guerrilla fighter Abdul Haq was one of the brightest lights of the Afghan resistance. The 43-year-old Pashtun commander, a hero of the anti-Soviet war, was widely respected for his ...
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Concert review by Daniel Gawthrop Published in The Nation (Bangkok) on April 13, 2002 An evening with Roger Waters “In the Flesh” was a trip down memory lane on Wednesday night. But that’s exactly how the audience at Impact Arena wanted it. Waters, the 58-year-old, salt-and-pepper-haired co-founder of Pink Floyd, played a nearly flawless three-hour concert that was dominated by great moments from the Pink Floyd catalogue. Backed by an 11-piece band including well-travelled session ...
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