A majority of these stories is set in Thailand. A shot rings out in a Bangkok slum; not far from Pattaya a portly Thai banker is taken by a shark; a Western adviser, at the end of his tether, sits at the feet of a meditation teacher in the Thai Northeast; in his Bangkok penthouse an English lecturer - the Occidental Adam of the title story - is offered 'the firm, fresh apple' of a student's breast. Even beyond the Southeast Asian locus, the protagonists of these perceptive stories are looking back on and learning from their experience of the East. John Cadet is well-qualified to write of East and Southeast Asia. He has made his home there, teaching and engaging in journalism, as well as researching Thai literature, since 1961. The shorter of his stories have appeared in newspapers and magazines throughout the region and beyond, mostly under the pen-name Charles Browne.Cadet has something worthwhile to say. (his) characters - from lissome students to diplomatic mediocrities = embody human frailties which make them...real. Occidental Adam ... is thoroughly recommended and deserves to be widely read." (Bangkok Post Newspaper)