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Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: Greenfeld is an accomplished writer with a terrific sense of humor. The book chronicles his career and travels as a disgruntled english teacher in Japan and a freelance journalist trotting around the Far East and India. Along the way he delivers poignant tales featuring shady characters and fellow expats who engage in Asia's riches, while inking his growing dependence on mind altering substances. Greenfeld now serves as Time magazine's Asian news editor. If you're interested in journalism, enjoy travel writing, and can appreciate an American sense of wit, you must pick up this book.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: Greenfeld is an accomplished writer with a terrific sense of humor. The book chronicles his career and travels as a disgruntled english teacher in Japan and a freelance journalist trotting around the Far East and India. Along the way he delivers poignant tales featuring shady characters and fellow expats who engage in Asia's riches, while inking his growing dependence on mind altering substances. Greenfeld now serves as Time magazine's Asian news editor. If you're interested in journalism, enjoy travel writing, and can appreciate an American sense of wit, you must pick up this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Simply Standard
Review: I found this book to be sloppy, half-assed, lame and generally disappointing. Several of these essays appeared long ago on the Web for free, like on Salon, so why should we have to pay for the privilege of rereading them in print? Speed Tribes was a great book because the author spent a lot of time getting deep into his subject and presenting us with original portraits of people we'd rarely encountered before, at least at that time (1994). Standard Deviations, on the other hand, when not padded with retread essays, is padded with endless digressions about how Greenfeld has long aspired to be a Great Writer. Yawn... Why didn't he put the same effort into this book that he did with Speed Tribes? The essays about Naddy the Pimp or the two ashrams he visited in India would have been far more interesting without the confessional biographical stuff he loads (and loads) on and instead presented with the same amount of research and behind-the-scenes interviewing that underpins Speed Tribes. But I guess writing expose-type essays like that would have required too much time and cut into his quality party time. The best essay is the title piece because it presents us with a fairly wide-ranging view of the sociology of Jakarta's high society just before the economic crash, and this obviously required a lot of research; noteworthy, too, is the fact that this superior essay contains little of Greenfeld's own navel-gazing authorial presence (too bad about the title, though, a rip-off of the economics-jargon/personal-life metaphor idea that Jonathan Franzen already used in last year's The Corrections). Most of the other essays, however, are hackneyed and have already been done better elsewhere. William T. Vollmann and Alex Garland, for example, have written far superior books about Thailand's sex and expat party scenes, and the number of mediocre travel books set in Southeast Asia is already far overblown and in need of some taming; this book adds nothing new at all to the genre. Anyway, what I object to most is Greenfeld's constant posturing about how "cool" he is and how cool he thinks the people he hangs out with are, and how he wants to hang out without ever cooler people in the future. I'm sorry, mate, but how cool are stock brokers, airline travel-mag writers and Roppongi gaijin trash? There are tons of very cool people in Japan, for one, that never seem to enter Greenfeld's radar of cool, from zinesters to punks to tattoo artists to filmmakers to you name it. This book contained about a hundred references to Conde Nast but mentions not one Japan-based zine; how "cool" is that? This book mentions plenty of cheesy, sleazy Roppongi bars, and name-drops Simon Le Bon once, but where are all the cool Tokyo acts like Guitar Wolf or Cornelius? In his first essay, Greenfeld slams English teachers in Japan for being too uncool for his school, yet there are dozens of English teachers in Japan who also put out very cool zines that are far more hip and with-it than this book, from Matt Exile of Exile Osaka to Peter Hoflich of Head Cheese. All I gotta say is, if you have to worry about how "cool" you are all the time, you probably ain't. This book is hardly deviant; it is simply standard. I'm still waiting for Greenfeld's next great book; unfortunately, this sure ain't it.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Times on the Sinking Continent of Asia.
Review: Karl Taro Greenfeld, now the editor of "Time" Asia, departed the USA in his early twenties for Asia to fulfill his writing dreams. The excursion's motive became hazy as the "booms, busts, drugs, sex, violence, magic" of Asia overshadowed the craft of writing. "Standard Deviations" is a chronicle of the author's descent into the mired lives of sex workers, crooked businessman and their pocket politicians, and the young foreign ravers who all have one thing in common-leeching the Asian "bubble" economy.
The inevitable crash of Greenfeld's life (he becomes a drug addict) and the insubstantial economy is a disturbing account of life being led without the forethought of any consequences. Greenfeld is able to bring the reader close to the riots of Jakarta, a free-sex ashram in India, and the speed slums of Bangkok easily since he has ridden the Asian roller-coaster ride from the 90s to the end of the century. "About me are flea-infested dogs and puddles of stagnant water several inches deep with garbage, and all around is the stench of smoldering trash."
The book's greatest asset is the author's ability to be brutally honest with himself and the culture surrounding him. The tempo is quick and unrelenting, think Hunter S. Thompson; at times it moves too fast as a different setting is suddenly on the page. But the writing is beautifully lucid; the author brings the darker images of Asia alive in an unflinching manner. "And I know a hit of the mad medicine is the easiest way to make it all seem bearable. Taking a hit, I know, is a surefire way to feel good. Right now. And I want it." Lastly, the book also allows us to see redemption is possible from the lowest of points.
Rating:
Summary: new kidn of book about asia?no temples, much sex and drugs
Review: sometimes it's fun to read a book where the protagonist is [a jerk.] there's a certain amount of pleasure to be derived from loathing someone, especially if their escapades are salacious. karl taro greenfield, whose real-life adventures in asia are detailed in this memoir, is an instantly dislikeable fellow. he's a spoiled half-asian rich kid from new york whose obsession with coolness and disdain for anyone who doesn't meet his exacting standards of coolness ooze from every page. greenfield starts off the book as an english teacher in japan, but he very quickly packs in it, moving into freelance journalism and devoting himself primarily to the pursuit of sex, drugs and hedonistic travel experiences. (it's not this pursuit that makes me dislike him, as i share it to a certain extent; it's just that he's so honest about his shallowness and fixation on appearances that you can't help but be repelled.) greenfield's last book, "speed tribes", was an excellent pop-treatment of the underbelly of japan-- speed freaks, biker gangs, etc. standard deviations is in a similar vein, but more personal. in theory greenfield travels around thailand, india, japan, etc. looking for some kind of enlightenment, but in reality (and he is at least upfront about this) his travels are an attempt to run with the cool kids-- the tribes of disaffected rich europeans who treat asia as their personal playground, jetting from raves in malaysia to the beaches of goa with disaffected ease. i am a sucker for real life stories of drugs, debauchery, sex and mayhem, and "deviations" fits the bill. definitely not your standard asia travelogue, and worth picking up if only to shake your fist periodically and go "oooh! i hate him so!"
Rating:
Summary: drugs, sex, a cheeky half in asia
Review: sometimes it's fun to read a book where the protagonist is [a jerk.] there's a certain amount of pleasure to be derived from loathing someone, especially if their escapades are salacious. karl taro greenfield, whose real-life adventures in asia are detailed in this memoir, is an instantly dislikeable fellow. he's a spoiled half-asian rich kid from new york whose obsession with coolness and disdain for anyone who doesn't meet his exacting standards of coolness ooze from every page. greenfield starts off the book as an english teacher in japan, but he very quickly packs in it, moving into freelance journalism and devoting himself primarily to the pursuit of sex, drugs and hedonistic travel experiences. (it's not this pursuit that makes me dislike him, as i share it to a certain extent; it's just that he's so honest about his shallowness and fixation on appearances that you can't help but be repelled.) greenfield's last book, "speed tribes", was an excellent pop-treatment of the underbelly of japan-- speed freaks, biker gangs, etc. standard deviations is in a similar vein, but more personal. in theory greenfield travels around thailand, india, japan, etc. looking for some kind of enlightenment, but in reality (and he is at least upfront about this) his travels are an attempt to run with the cool kids-- the tribes of disaffected rich europeans who treat asia as their personal playground, jetting from raves in malaysia to the beaches of goa with disaffected ease. i am a sucker for real life stories of drugs, debauchery, sex and mayhem, and "deviations" fits the bill. definitely not your standard asia travelogue, and worth picking up if only to shake your fist periodically and go "oooh! i hate him so!"
Rating: 
Summary: Need Tribes?
Review: There is little doubt that Greenfeld is a talented journalist and writer, good at spinning engaging phrases and balancing details with commentary. But he's best when he's not writing about his own life, and unfortunately this book is a little too encrusted with self-referential blathering to make it as worthwhile as his much better work "Speed Tribes." Reading "Standard Deviations" felt a bit like gorging on sickly-sweet chocolate cake: there is as always a pleasantness and ease to immersing yourself in Greenfeld's writing, but the end result here is a bloated, nasty feeling. Perhaps part of the problem is that Greenfeld, and the Asian expat scene, and indeed myself as a reader are all a bit older and a little more played out now. The sheen is off the gold lame, as it were. Greenfeld, to his credit, recognizes this and even as he struggles to come to grips with the nasty hangover that inevitably follows a youth of excess, his saving grace is that at times he is able to poke fun at his former aspirations and illusions. To some extent. But at other times, he comes across as a still bit too enraptured with his role as a minor-league Brett Eston Ellis of the Far East. I guess that cocktail bars, hustlers and [women], Roppongi and Patpong, place-and-people name dropping and designer clothes all to be where it's at when you're in your early 20s. Then there comes a time when examining the shallowness and idiocy of it all also seems to be a worthwhile effort. Then finally the whole topic seems stale and boring. Greenfeld seems stuck uncomfortably between the latter two categories here, jammed crosswise into his 30s. Rather than having come to any conclusions or wisdom looking back on a life of dissipation now firmly in the past, he comes across as somebody who has sorta kinda stopped partying, maybe. Or at least for now or something. I guess if you are a fan of his and an avid reader, you could do worse than pick up this book. But there isn't much in here his target audience doesn't already know and hasn't already experienced for itself. I'm hoping that his next book will take us back to the objectivity and groundbreaking novelty of "Speed Tribes."
Rating:
Summary: new kidn of book about asia¿no temples, much sex and drugs
Review: This guy set off and did many of the things that alot of us do when we first go to Asia-full moon partis down in Thai islands, patpong girls, the crazy stuff-and reading reminded me of my first trip to SE Asia a few years ago. I didn't go for the culture, I went for the good times and I found them. So did Greenfeld as he partied hard around the region. Okay, too hard as he becam addicted to the lifestyle and the drugs and finally crashed. The book is a great read, basically one night and I burned through the whole thing and thought about all the stuff I've done and could my stories be better than his? Probably not, but they're not that different. Boyz will be boyz, we love getting loaded and laid in strange lands, and that's what this book is about. Great travel stuff.
Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Look at the Asian Underbelly! A Must Read!
Review: What can I say other than Karl Taro Greenfeld has done it again. His first book Speed Tribes gave us an all-access pass to the seedier side of Japan. This time around Mr. Greenfeld has treated us to much more of Asia (i.e. Japan, Thailand, India, and Indonesia). This book is written in the same personal narrative that Speed Tribes was written in. However, it is a much more personal project, in that Mr. Greenfeld exposes his own inabilities to stay out of the very frivolities that haunt the people that he writes about. However, I feel that it is a very well-balanced book, that does not overindulge in the author's story over that of the people he writes about. I could not put this book down. I kept promising myself one more chapter before bedtime, and ended up staying awake until I had finished it. Congratulations Mr. Greenfeld, you have written yet another wonderful book that can keep even the most jaded reader interested. Please write more books!!
Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Look at the Asian Underbelly! A Must Read!
Review: What can I say other than Karl Taro Greenfeld has done it again. His first book Speed Tribes gave us an all-access pass to the seedier side of Japan. This time around Mr. Greenfeld has treated us to much more of Asia (i.e. Japan, Thailand, India, and Indonesia). This book is written in the same personal narrative that Speed Tribes was written in. However, it is a much more personal project, in that Mr. Greenfeld exposes his own inabilities to stay out of the very frivolities that haunt the people that he writes about. However, I feel that it is a very well-balanced book, that does not overindulge in the author's story over that of the people he writes about. I could not put this book down. I kept promising myself one more chapter before bedtime, and ended up staying awake until I had finished it. Congratulations Mr. Greenfeld, you have written yet another wonderful book that can keep even the most jaded reader interested. Please write more books!!
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