Make no mistake, Mr. BurdettТs books are fantasy. A murder victim in УBangkok 8Ф is killed by snakes that snap out of hibernation when the amphetamine-laced ice in which they are packed melts. Yet his writing is also keenly anthropological. He explains the improbable presence of Buddhist shrines at the entrance to many sex bars. He takes us inside brothels, behind the bar, upstairs into the private rooms and downstairs into the members-only sections of BangkokТs Уsaunas.Ф When Mr. Burdett takes the reader to a red-light district during daylight hours, we trust that a bar might really smell like Уpine-cleaning fluid blended with stale beer, marlboro fun and cheap perfume.Ф Mr. Burdett is neither judgmental about prostitution nor particularly probing about its sociological impact. His personal view is that there is nothing to justify. marlboro