Now available for the first time in North America, Huongs first novel is a brilliantly spun tale of a young woman who marries her professor because she so admires his idealism. When he sells out everything he believes in order to support her, her love goes. Only when they are both beyond illusions can they try again for a real relationship. Deeply lyrical and wholly believable, this early novel is illuminated by the haunting language and unflinching honesty that have led critics to hail Huong.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Vietnamese dissident Duong's first novel, now available for the first time in the U.S. (the writer's previously published books in English include Memories of a Pure Spring and Novel Without a Name), is an exposure of the corruption beneath the facade of postwar Vietnam. At the heart of the novel lies a triangle. Linh, a beautiful young woman, is married to her former professor, Nguyen. They live in relative comfort in Hanoi with their daughter, Huong Ly. Gradually Linh learns that Nguyen, who now works as a journalist, has become a mere hack for corrupt higher officials, lying on cue. In her revulsion, she separates from him. The book follows both Linh and Nguyen through Hanoi society after their breakup. Linh falls in love with a smooth-talking composer and artist, Tran Phuong, whose libidinal boldness disguises his fundamental timidity. He is married to Hoa, whose connections in the party support him; eventually, he even allows Hoa to berate Linh. Meanwhile Nguyen, who is disconcerted by his wife's desertion, has a brief affair with a promiscuous writer, Ngoc Minh. Her bohemian ways don't suit Nguyen, however. He drops his experiment of living with her just as he is assigned the task of spinning the news about an imprisoned cadre, Nguyen Thanh Hien, who has been accused of raping a series of women. He is also, Nguyen finds, in possession of probably illegal wealth, which he has used to bribe his way out of previous scrapes. Nguyen decides not to cover up Hien's crimes, but to expose him. The book does not, however, make Nguyen's redemption the excuse for reuniting the couple. Linh, like her author, is a woman who realizes that her fate is in her own hands.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The first book written by the author of the critically acclaimed Novel Without a Name and Paradise of the Blind is now available to American readers. Set in Vietnam, it is an intriguing tangle of tales detailing the lives of couples who have loved and lost. As the novel opens, we meet Nguyen, a college professor who is the father of a young daughter. Nguyen's wife, Linh, becomes disenchanted with her husband and falls into a secretive affair with actor/composer Tran Phuong, who is trapped in a loveless 20-year marriage and has had numerous affairs, including one with Linh's aunt, Lan. Although the plot may read like a superficial who's who of extramarital relationships, Duong's work actually digs more deeply into the human condition as she easily crosses cultural boundaries and examines the hearts, minds, and souls of her characters. While this first novel is less steeped in the political element and easier to read than some of Duong's other works, it is similar in its focus on the human element and in its portrayal of the political climate of Vietnam. For larger fiction and Asian literature collections. Shirley N. Quan, Orange Cty. P.L., Santa Ana, CA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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