Reviews
Suzie Wong has moved to Bangkok. Now she has a cell phone and accepts wire transfers. But some things never change: true love is seldom true, you can have as much fun as you can afford, and you can find all the trouble you're looking for. This book of humorous ballads and poems raises a toast to human foibles and double-dealing ironies. While Robert Service famously commemorated the Yukon gold rush, Mr. Barrett tells tales of the gold fields of the Bangkok red light district, a crossroads of fate and chance; of those already lost and those looking to get lost." - Iconoclast
“Far and away the most versatile author on the continent is Dean Barrett. A Yank who has lived in Asia since the Vietnam War, he’s a Chinese linguist and speaks Thai fluently. He pens fiction, non-fiction, fairy tales, in The Go Go Dancer who Stole My Viagra, poems and ballads. This work yet again demonstrates that Dean Barrett is a multifaceted author.” - Bernard Trink, Bangkok Post
“That Bangkok wordsmith Dean Barrett has done it again! If you are into poetry, then Barrett is supplying a feast, with 34 in the section Poems on Thailand and another 22 in the Poems Beyond Thailand grouping. My favorite was the one entitled Flight to Bangkok. Just in case you imagine that writers have great lives, he has a chilling few pages of prose dealing with the final chapters of many author’s lives. Called “Writers Lead Stable Lives” he details the deaths of the famous writers such as Christopher Marlowe (murdered), Chatterton (suicide), Federico Garcia Lorca (executed), Hemingway (suicide) or John Berryman who jumped off a bridge, waving to bystanders. ..Definitely worth a browse if you are into poetry.” – Lang Reid, Pattaya Mail
"Poetry and Bangkok nightlife might seem, to most of us, to go together as well as peanut butter and mustard, not to say that we haven’t heard an occasional besotted punter wax poetic about some Isaan damsel in white gogo boots. Fact is, prose has been the most popular literary vehicle for describing contemporary Bangkok, and it takes, we think, a brave man with all his bills paid to write a book of poetry about life in this city of angels. Dean Barrett has taken the bull by the horns (or better said, the tuk tuk by the handles) and written a magnificent book of poetry that chronicles the life lived by thousands (millions?) of Thais and expats, The Go Go Dancer who Stole My Viagra & other Poetic Tragedies of Thailand, We first read the wonderfully tongue-in-cheek, autobiographical 'The Silly Old Man with the Young Thai Girl in the Texas Lone Star Saloon' back in 2004, and eagerly waited for it to appear in book form. It’s here, along with witty, sardonic, funny, and thought-provoking poems concerning lifestyle and philosophies. Fans of poetry may detect a bit of Robert Service or a touch of Charles Bukowski, but they’re really all Dean Barrett, who embodies today’s Bangkok just as much as those writers characterized Los Angeles and the Frozen North. The Go Go Dancer who Stole My Viagra is worth a long-time read, and you can buy it at your local bookstore without having to pay a bar fine."
- Geoff Alexander, ThaiOasis.com
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