#vietnameseliterature

[williamkergroach55]

Shadows and Lights on the Mekong

I watched the lights of the Ninh Kieu district from the heights of my room at the Sheraton Hotel in Can Tho. At night, the Mekong was a dark and restful patch on which the lights of men vainly reflected. This battle between shadow and light was fascinating.

The city, during the day, had no charm. The river was muddy, the sky was gray, and the wide avenues were crushed by the sun. I had cast a distracted glance at the singularly narrow buildings, typical in Vietnam, whose walls were black, covered with saltpeter and sticky gray dust. I read the signs without being able to make sense of them: "Hoang Anh... Hao Lien... Phong Ky..."

The inhabitants rode Japanese mopeds, loaded with plastic bags. During my car rides, I watched these people, dressed in meaningless t-shirts, with their feet free in dusty flip-flops. I did not like the Asian crowd. I did not like the way they stared at me and then looked away. This continent did not allow me to move anonymously. Undeniably, these people were brilliant, carried by ancient civilizations, but when I observed them, I saw foolish ants, biology without character. Again, I had to meet individuals, as everywhere in the world, to find interest. And that happened at night.

During the day, I stayed in the hotel. I enjoyed the spa, the outdoor pool, and the fitness room. Of course, I had brought a stock of books, notably by Vietnamese authors, to better understand the atmosphere of the country. I had read, in particular, "The Land of Sorrows" by Duong Thu Huong. The novelist told the story of a woman who had remarried after the death of her first husband, supposedly killed in action during the "ten-thousand-day war." This is how the Vietnamese referred to the Vietnam War, which pitted the Communists of the North against the military of the South, supported by the United States Army. Happy with this second marriage, which had brought her love and a child, the heroine saw, as in a nightmare, her first husband return from the war and claim her. Under societal pressure, she was forced to leave her child and second husband to join this man imposed on her. The personal struggle of the author, Duong Thu Huong, fascinated me. This woman had fought on the front lines during the war. A brilliant personality, she had refused the honors of the Hanoi regime, noting the corruption and injustice generated by the profiteers of the war of independence. Duong Thu Huong allowed me to see the reality of a controlled society, something my stay in Vietnam, especially behind the walls of a Sheraton, would never have allowed me to grasp.

I had also read "The Sorrow of War" by Bao Ninh. Again, it was about a man trying to heal from the traumas of war.

Finally, I particularly appreciated "The Mountains Sing" by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai. The novel traced the history of the Tran family in Vietnam from 1930 to 2017. The story began in 1972, in the midst of the Vietnam War. Young Huong and her grandmother endured American bombings on Hanoi. The pages of the novel described children playing among the ruins and veterans returning from the front. The grandmother was already recounting her survival during the agrarian reforms of 1954, after the victory of the Việt Minh over the French at Diện Biên Phủ.

The people I saw running, laughing, arguing in the markets were a traumatized people. Burned by napalm, crushed under bombs, tortured through several wars, deprived of freedom by an authoritarian regime, the Vietnamese people were probably trying to exorcise their suffering. I understood that, and I respected it, but it was not the story I wanted to engrave in my life. I decided to be extra cautious not to be caught up in the suffering of this people.

[cloudlin222]

Who can tell me what this Vietnamese play is trying to convey? The woman continuously struggles in agony, yet rises again and again. Just when I think it's over, she immediately gets up and moans once more. This keeps happening numerous times.

[descalibrary]

A Pho Love Story follows the story of Bao and Linh, two Vietnamese teens whose parents own and run competing Vietnamese restaurants. When they finally meet again after many years, the sparks fly between them but sadly their families' feud and the past catch up with them. This book has elements of romanticism but also dramatic moments related to the diaspora Vietnamese families. The racism, stereotyping, war-related trauma and questioning their roots are all there. The writing may be mediocre and the love story may be so cheesy but they delve into some really serious personal experiences like the trauma and the grief from escaping from the Vietnam war and living in a new country they do not even familir with in order to start a new life. So yes! My opinions of this book are two-fold. The mediocrity is not the reason tho. What brough this down for me is the slow facing esp. in the beginning of the book. It's incredibly slow causing me the urge to put the book down so many times. Add Linh and Bao's relationship that does not hook me that much. But heck it's okay and pretty entertaining tho for an easy reading. “It saddens me that you don’t recognize this. It’s an unfortunate reminder that as much as my community represents the true American Dream- building a foundation out of uncertain hopes and dreams- people like you would rather be ignorant or spread hate than accept this reality. But your racism has no power here. Your words mean nothing in Little Saigon. So whatever you hoped to accomplish- in person and online- you have failed." Des ✨ #bookishindonesia #bookaholic #bookstagram #bookstagramindonesia #bibliophile #bookreview #bookreviewer #booknerd #bookaddict #bookblogger #bookaesthetic #bookenthusiast #booksbooksbooks #descalibrary #descaslibrary #descareading2022 #fictionbook #literaturejunkie #nonfiction #igreads #igbook #instaread #instabooks #ReadTheWorld22 #riotgrams #BookstagramReels #LoanLe #VietnameseWriter #VietnameseLiterature #APhoLoveStory (at Bangkok, Thailand) https://www.instagram.com/p/Ck2W_j9SmLt/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[mizamour]

Drawn Together by Minh Le and Dan Santat I was so saddened to hear about the recent attacks on elders in the Asian community! One ethnic group baselessly blaming members of another for "spreading disease" is all too common in history - but it is absolutely untrue and unacceptable. Our elders are some of the people most vulnerable in this time of pandemic and economic uncertainty, and we should be supporting them, not lashing out! It's easy to feel helpless in the face of awfulness like this, but thankfully, books always provide a way to build empathy and connection, and this one does it so beautifully. In this story, told in few, carefully chosen words by brilliant Minh Lê and eloquent pictures by Caldecott-winner Dan Sentat, a boy struggles to connect to his grandfather because of the language barrier between them. Their worlds seem so different - that is, until the boy discovers that his grandfather shares his live of drawing. As they interact through art, the boy learns of his grandfather's culture, with its creatures and heroes of legend, and his grandfather realizes his grandson's appreciation for archetypes like the ones he reveres. As they draw, their creations merge, manifesting scenes of epic adventure together, and when distance between them threatens again? They pick up *each other's* tools of creation to defeat that dragon! I can't say enough about how absolutely gorgeous these illustrations are - the grandson's bright-hued, crayon-magicked wizard and the grandfather's lavishly detailed, monochrome hero of epics are a truly dynamic duo, and the way the art styles blend and meld? As the book says, it's "a new world that even words can't describe." And the message? So powerful, for all ages. Everyone can gain so much from this fantastic book. #minhle #dansantat #drawntogether #weneeddiversebooks #vietnameseliterature #ownvoices #diversesuperheroes #diversebooksmatter #multigenerational #grandparents #diversekidlit #diversechildrensliterature #disruptingracismwithpicturebooks #diversechildrensbooks #childrensbookstagram #childrensbooks #childrensliterature #illustrator #kidsbooks #kidsreading https://www.instagram.com/p/CL7n5R0Bc5q/?igshid=6g0x3fyt9fxk

[neaato]

#Repost @veewoolf Remembering Vietnam through reading #graphicnovels#thebestwecoulddo#thibui#christophergoscha#historyofvietnam#vietnameseliterature#vietnamesewriters#theamericanwar#barackobama#vietnameseresilience https://www.instagram.com/p/BoeZl39BNEg/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1dv8mmprv768d

[minajintrash]

Authors just write about people's love, not their marriages.

nguyễn nhật ánh, give me a ticket to the childhood.

[descalibrary]

My weekend starts early. So I decided to put my armour: my rainbow socks and a cheesy but sweet reading. Happy weekend! Des ✨ #bookishindonesia #bookaholic #bookstagram #bookstagramindonesia #bibliophile #bookreview #bookreviewer #booknerd #bookaddict #bookblogger #bookaesthetic #bookenthusiast #booksbooksbooks #descalibrary #descaslibrary #descareading2022 #fictionbook #literaturejunkie #nonfiction #igreads #igbook #instaread #instabooks #ReadTheWorld22 #riotgrams #BookstagramReels #LoanLe #VietnameseWriter #VietnameseLiterature #APhoLoveStory (at Bangkok, Thailand) https://www.instagram.com/p/CkxMnRNyL8q/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[descalibrary]

A once-young soldier is now in commands of leading an exhausted veterans and naive new soldiers group to a nameless hills behind the enemy lines. During this journey, his mind goes back and forth recalling his life journey: the love he had, the longing for his family and his psychological warfare. Told by a female writer, using the male perspectives as the narrator of the story, the prose of this book is very rich with sensory imagery leading the readers to imagine a vivid series of the scenes happening in the book. It's also rich of the symbolism. The actual battles told here shows the brutality and the violence used for the ideas of fighting for the bullshit sake of a "greater and peaceful world" whether it is nationalism, patriotism and defending such ideologies. I am left in awe not only because the lyrics and realities of wars reflected throughout this book but also because I just feel like I was dragged into the story. I have never read anything which can be so enlightening yet disturbing too at the same time. The impression post my reading lasts and remains longer in my mind. What a courage Dương Thu Hương has to write such a beautiful book. Des ✨ #bookishindonesia #bookaholic #bookstagram #bookstagramindonesia #bibliophile #bookreview #bookreviewer #booknerd #bookaddict #bookblogger #bookaesthetic #bookenthusiast #booksbooksbooks #descalibrary #descaslibrary #descareading2022 #fictionbook #literaturejunkie #nonfiction #igreads #igbook #instaread #instabooks #ReadTheWorld22 #riotgrams #BookstagramReels #DuongThuHuong #VietnameseWriter #VietnameseLiterature #NovelWithoutAName (at Bangkok, Thailand) https://www.instagram.com/p/CkxB_NcyAd1/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[descalibrary]

I am just half way through this book: Chinatown by Thuận, a Vietnamese author. The book was translated by Nguyễn An Lý and published by one of my favourite publishers Tilted Axis Press. But: I was smiling because of the word "Xerox," which reminds me of a small printing (we called it photo copy back then) shop in the corner of the street I always passed when I was in elementary school. And most of all: I cannot help myself but to think about one of my first love in erotic literature: Margueriete Duras and her sexual awakening with her Chinese lover she met while crossing the Mekong river. The Lover will always hold a special space in my heart. I hold it so dearly. Thinking: the book has everything: the age gap, racial, cultural, social and status differences. She is white and he is oriental. He is rich and she is poor. The movie version is as beautiful as the book. Ah such reminisce of the (sweet) past. Des ✨ #bookishindonesia #bookaholic #bookstagram #bookstagramindonesia #bibliophile #bookreview #bookreviewer #booknerd #bookaddict #bookblogger #bookaesthetic #bookenthusiast #booksbooksbooks #descalibrary #descaslibrary #descareading2022 #fictionbook #literaturejunkie #nonfiction #igreads #igbook #instaread #instabooks #ReadTheWorld22 #riotgrams #BookstagramReels #Thuan #chinatown #VietnameseAuthor #VietnameseLiterature (at Bangkok, Thailand) https://www.instagram.com/p/CjCHq2zLvzK/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[mizamour]

(The Magic Fish review continued, part 4) The tale also links to Tien's personal story, as he struggles with whether to come out as gay to his mother (without having even a word for the concept in Vietnamese), but is ultimately forced to by his school (a sea-witch analogue, denying him his voice?). But this is where Tien's mother takes over the telling, picking up at the point when the Little Mermaid's sisters tell her to pierce the prince with a knife in order to return to them, for she has not found the genuine love that would allow her to stay in her new world. The mother adeptly changes the ending - though the mermaid has not found love with the prince, she learns that she has found truer love - with the girl who has been a friend to her since her first day on land, a fellow female ballerina. Though Tien's mother lacks the language to explicitly name Tien's identity, she understands its spirit deeply - the desire to find love and be true to oneself. Throughout the story, the gorgeous, CLAMP-like illustrations of the fairy tales echo elements of the real-world stories, with characters' hair or eyes or demeanor being similar within the tales, but just enough to suggest similarities - none are outright allegories. The theme of fairy tales representing universal experiences that are simultaneously different for each individual who experiences them is woven throughout the work, and movingly so. This book was beautiful, haunting, poignant, transcendent. It's essential for any graphic novel collection, and it will be an essential piece of my future school library collection. #weneeddiversebooks #yabooks #yabookstagram #diversebooks #middlegradebooks #vietnameseliterature #lgbtqbooks https://www.instagram.com/p/CJJpiZ6siVz/?igshid=hogkejq8o21h

[mizamour]

(continued from last post, The Magic Fish) The second fairytale, the Vietnamese Cinderella-story Tấm Cám, is The Magic Fish of the title. The story unspools mostly like the traditional Cinderella up to the point where the fairy godmother appears in European versions - in the Vietnamese tale, this is a magic fish, actually the spirit of Tấm's mother, who guides her. When Tấm's stepmother discovers her bond, however, she cooks and forces Tấm to eat her beloved fish - and Tấm must experience other horrors, including dying at the woman's hand, before she finally finds her happy ending. This tale is read by the realistic-fiction family at the time Tien's mother is devastated by the death of her own mother in Vietnam, far away from her - distance and forced circumstance serve as the evil in the real-life tale, and Tien's mother's feelings of alienation as she returns to her home country for the funeral and finds herself adrift in a place so different from her life now. But like Alera in the first fairytale, Tien's mother has her aunt to help and guide her, and help her reconcile her past with her present. Finally, the last fairytale in the story is a retelling of The Little Mermaid. The illustrations here are a fusion of European and Vietnamese culture, as the mermaid wears a traditional ao dai, and, once given legs, dances in European ballet. In the story, the mermaid must give up her undersea family and voice in order to gain entry to a different world - and love in the old and new worlds conflict as she is pulled between her sisters and the new people she loves, as well as her new passion as a ballerina. The connection to immigrant experiences is clear, and Author Nguyen makes it explicit in his author's note, where he states, "The mermaid is a stand-in for Helen's (Tien's mother's) experiences, a woman who wanted to escape to another world and manages to make it there at the cost of her ability to communicate." #diverseya #bookstagram #fairytaleretellings #fairytales #weneeddiversebooks #vietnameseliterature https://www.instagram.com/p/CJJo_q7sAb3/?igshid=53hb21nsumbw

[mizamour]

"Inside Out and Back Again" by Thanha Lai is so beautiful and powerful!!! The free verse style reminded me of authors like Karen Hesse and Ellen Hopkins, poetry spare but imagery-rich, bursting with emotion as strong as the smell of papayas, a motif that runs beautifully throughout this stunning middle - grade book. Portraying the journey of a Vietnamese girl who finds herself in Alabama, a refugee from the war in her home country, struggling with culture shock, bullies, learning a new language and straining against the roles others try to push upon her, this book is a raw and honest portrait of an immigration experience. The girl, Ha, is a compelling character whose spirit, wit, deep familial bonds, and passion make her reach beyond the pages. Some of my favorite quotes : "Some words switch all over just because. I am, she is, they are... Would be easier if English and life were logical." and "it grew from a seed I clicked into the back garden. A seed like a fish eye, slippery shiny and black." and "she makes me learn rules I've never noticed, like a, an, and the, which act as little megaphones to tell the world whose English is still secondhand." and "this year I hope I truly learn how to fly - kick, not to kick anyone so much as to fly." And so many others. And the other characters that populate this poetic novel are phenomenal too, like Quang, her politically aware, passionately opinionated brother, and Khoi, her gentle, animal - adoring brother. I love everything in this book! there's no wonder it won a Newberry! #insideoutandbackagain #vietnameseliterature #asianliterature #historicalfiction #diverseperspectives #read #diversechildrensliterature #diversebooksforkids https://www.instagram.com/p/CGEPgG0B1Pl/?igshid=1o57v29nghrgi