Gen X Invades Asia : Who needs culture when there's drugs, sex and parties?

Every year about 100,000 Americans, Brits and Australians between the ages of 18 and 35 hit a "circuit of work, travel and partying" that runs in a triangle from Tokyo to Goa to Bangkok. Back in the 1980s and early 1990s, Karl Taro Greenfeld was among this herd of revelers. His new book, "Standard Deviations: Growing Up and Coming Down in the New Asia," follows Greenfeld, then a struggling writer with dreams of greatness, deep into the heart of this self-indulgent backpacker culture of drugs, sex, endless parties and beaches. Along the way we meet some fascinating characters: beautiful Thai prostitutes who turn out to be men masquerading as women; a Russian gangster named Naddy, and "Tommy," a prescient Indonesian stockbroker and member of the ruling oligarchy. And of course, there's the beautiful English woman with Balinese tattoos and a gift for sage insights such as "Your fears, they're like a person you keep seeing over and over again--they follow you around until you find a way not to be afraid anymore." All the while, Greenfeld is gradually spiraling into drug addiction.

It's almost hackneyed by now to refer to Generation X as nihilistic and self-indulgent. But in some ways it is this jaded Gen-X cynicism and its consequences that "Standard Deviations" is really about. Even thousands of miles away from Western club scenes, a pretentious and cliquish ethos prevails. Greenfeld and his cronies endlessly sort people into categories of "cool" and "uncool." To the reader, the travelers all come across as vacuous, materialistic and utterly uninterested in the cultures around them.

It's a far cry from the ideals and mores that centered the great expatriate novels of the past. Ernest Hemingway spoke for his generation with tales ...