‘I started off the usual peepshow into our he-man stories. Pud-knocking, if you prefer. I said, I ever tell you about Bangkok?

I think so, Selly said, but he appeared uncertain. That the one with the dancers?

I shook my head and huffed into my drink. Not the dancers. Me and the kickboxers.

Nah. I forget. Which was Selly’s way of saying you better tell me again.

All these years, sometimes the facts got confused.’

 

The Bryant boys, Bishop and Selly, meet at a sports bar to rehash family parables and the rough attitudes of their youth. Selly maintains his tough guy pose while Bishop enters a settled marriage with Patricia.

 

A respected school administrator and Bishop's personal mentor, Patricia inspires him to move up the career ladder from classroom teacher to assistant principal. Taz, their daughter, makes her own ascent through honors classes and applications to highly competitive colleges. The sessions with Selly betray the finer values that accompany this new life, and Taz calls her father out on it. She also informs him of Patricia's infidelity.

 

As the gauntlet of school life thrusts him from one crisis to the next and his marriage collapses, Bishop questions the choices he’s made. He still feels it’s his job to change his younger brother for the better. When tragedy strikes twice, he must help his family forge a path to redemption.

 

SLUGGING MY WAY OUT OF BANGKOK delivers powerful portraits hewn by confrontation, grief, and reconciliation.