Andrew Vachss

Tara Allison (allison@indirect.com)
Tue, 08 Aug 95 14:03:13 -0700

I just wanted to comment on your review of Andrew Vachss
forthcoming Batman novel.

It is not "Batman Forever." That is quite a disservice! ;) The
title is "Batman: The Ultimate Evil." It has nothing to do with
the movie currently in theatres.

I have not read the book, but I have read the end of it, titled
"Child Sex Tourism" which I wish you would mention. Vachss
doesn't care at all about batman, he just wrote this book to try
to reach a mass audience on the subject of child sex tourism in
Thailand. It has become so ingrained in the lives of the people
of Thailand that selling their children into prostitution has
become a part of their culture. Children are bought, gang-raped
until they get too old, say 9 or so, and then killed for fun. If
you go to Thailand you can buy a child for whatever purpose you
want him/her for. Rape it, murder it, you name it. And the Thai
government supports this (though not officially to the rest of
the world, how would it look?)

The whole point of the novel is to try and make people aware of
this evil and to try and get people to do something about it.
Mr. Vachss hopes that people will quit buying any products made
in Thailand and will push for a national boycott of the country.
The only way we were able to make a difference in South Africa
was to economically boycott them. That's what we need to do to
Thailand to force a change.

If nothing else, you should recommend that even if people don't
read "Batman: The Ultimate Evil" that they at least read the
essay at the end so that they know what horrors are being
committed in Thailand.

Hope you enjoy his next book, "Footsteps of the Hawk," due out
the end of this month.

And as a fan of his work, I'd hate to see him waste his time
writing about the murder trial of Susan Smith. Even though
children were murdered, I don't think that really falls into his
category of child crimes.

- David Munier

P.S. Since you mentioned that you think Mr. Vachss has a good
book in his (and imply he hasn't written it yet), have you read
"Shella" ?