Gold by the Inch

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Gold By The Inch is a novel about a nameless narrator who grew up in New York, was born in Penang, Malaysia, and travels to Thailand and Malaysia after visiting his dying father in Honolulu.

In Thailand, he visits his brother Luk, who works as an architect. There he meets Thong, a Thai sex worker, and falls in love. At first their relationship seems mutual, but it’s soon clear Thong is often after money. Thong invites him to live with his family, revealing that he comes from a wealthy background. The narrator’s stay in Thailand deepens, and his feelings mix with questions about money, power, and belonging.

The narrator then goes to Penang, Malaysia, where his father’s troubled history is revealed. His father had a difficult relationship with his Malaysian relatives and, later, left his wife for an American woman. During this visit, the narrator remembers his past with Jim in New York, a relationship based on Jim’s money and the narrator’s appearance, which ends when Jim can’t quit drugs. In Malaysia, the narrator also contemplates his father’s death and tries to keep his family in the dark about it.

Back in Thailand, the narrator and Thong cross paths again. They move into Thong’s house, but their bond grows distant. Jealousy and the narrator’s drug use intensify, and Thong eventually breaks up with him. Luk and friends try to help the narrator recover. He realizes that he has been an American visiting Thailand, trying to fit in a place that may not feel like home. The story ends with him deciding to return home, though the book leaves where “home” really is unclear.

Themes include searching for identity and homeland, the ways language and culture shape who we are, and how sexuality is understood differently in Thai and Western contexts. The novel also explores class, money, and the tension between where a person comes from and where they belong.