Out of the Loop by Morgan McFinn

Out of the Loop by Morgan McFinn
Scenes from Samui and Other Seascapes

A comedy set in Koh Samui, Thailand’s tropical island paradise

"This is the ultimate beach book. Out of the Loop should be installed in every beach bungalow …" The Nation

"Amusing and thoughtful prose … on-the-nose descriptions … you’re likely to laugh out loud as the pages fly past"Metro Magazine

Ever felt like cashing in your chips and moving to a tropical island paradise?

Well, our man McFinn did just that ….

In dread of waking up one morning twenty years on, with nothing to show for himself "other than one busted marriage, two unpublished manuscripts, three career changes, a four bedroom house, a five handicap at golf, and a six-figure income," McFinn decides to go on the bum and scratch his itch for authorship … quitting his job, selling the house, kissing the old lady, and kicking the dog on the way out.

And so, slipping out of the Chicago Loop, our hero – reinvented as a beach-bum philosopher, humor writer, restaurateur, newspaper proprietor, and maverick-at-large – retreats to the idyllic tropical shores of Koh Samui, making his new home a rustic bungalow "in a seaside compound for impecunious tourists, tramps, vagabonds, and the occasional fugitive … " Most stay a few weeks, but no one stays longer than he does.

Out of the Loop chronicles McFinn’s humorous adventures and misadventures as he ponders the world from his verandah, encountering assorted bums, bores, boors, and beautiful women (with varying degrees of romantic success and disaster) along the way.

As his dear old grandmother used to say , ‘You made your bed; you sleep in it.’ She was one tough cookie, that broad.

Paperback
Bangkok 2000
Asia Books
343 pages
ISBN 9789748303406