Flesh [Hardcover]

Khanh Ha (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2012

The setting is Tonkin (northern Vietnam) at the turn of the 20th century. A boy, Tai, witnesses the beheading of his father, a notorious bandit, and sets out to recover his head and then to find the man who betrayed his father to the authorities. On this quest, Tai's entire world will shift. FLESH takes the reader into dark and delightful places in the human condition, places where allies are not always your friends, true love hurts, and your worst enemy may bring you the most comfort. In that emotionally harrowing world, Tai must learn to deal with new responsibilities in his life while at the same time acknowledging his bond, and his resemblance, to a man he barely knew-his father. Through this story of revenge is woven another story, one of love, but love purchased with the blood of murders Tai commits. A coming-of-age story, but also a love story, the sensuality of the author's writing style belies the sometimes brutal world he depicts.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Review by Serena Agusto-Cox:

savvyverseandwit.com/2012/06/flesh-by-khanh-ha.html

Review

In this dark, violent, and poetic saga, with cinematic vignettes that make it read like a screenplay, characters are not who they seem. While this makes for a thrilling finale, what lingers . . . is Ha's descriptive prose. --Publishers Weekly

Set mostly in turn-of-the-20th-century Hanoi, this debut novel begins and ends with gruesome beheadings. Bearing witness to both executions is Tai, a poor teenage village boy quickly forced into manhood. In an effort to reclaim his betrayed bandit father's severed head and finance an auspicious burial, Tai spends the next year on an odyssey about his father, their troubled family, and his own unsure self. Indentured to a geomancer who sells his contract to a wealthy Chinese merchant, Tai glimpses the backstreet Hanoi life of opium dens, desperate coolies, and the lawless rich and has his first experience of falling in love.... Readers who enjoy epic sagas set in faraway lands will find absorbing satisfaction here. --Library Journal

"Read Flesh to lose yourself in a vividly-described colonial Vietnam, with its poverty and hopelessness, its people’s industrious nature at work to better their lives and the lives of those dear to them, all wrapped up in beautiful prose." --Drey's Library

Flesh, Khanh Ha's debut novel, is almost dreamlike. A dream in that early hours of a hot morning where you are still in between sleeping and waking up. Ha is a talented writer; he does a wonderful job setting the dark, yet poetic, mood and a fine job describing settings in vivid, smells, colorful imagery. --Seattle Post Intelligencer

FLESH brings Vietnam – at around the turn of the last century – to life. Life was hard, and this book does not spare us. The book opens with a scene . . . an execution. Ha's powers of description are good, and we are brought into the scene and witness this act. I would recommend this book. Part of what I (and many of you, I suspect) love about reading is being whisked off to an exotic place for an adventure. And FLESH fills the bill! --LibbyBooksBlog

A lush, poetic tale, takes readers on a journey far beneath the surface of a land most have only glimpsed superficially in clichéd Hollywood films. . . .readers willing to venture off the beaten path to an unfamiliar land will find great pleasure exploring Khanh Ha's —Book Reviews by Elizabeth White

The story is a sensual one. . . . The prose of Khanh Ha’s debut is laden with sensory details that pull readers into multi-dimensional scenes. . . . The outstanding element of this novel is the solid invitation extended to readers, to enter this world which Khanh Ha has created in Flesh.--Buried in Print

This book was really something to read!. . . Somewhere along the way, it broke my heart. . . . The author did not sugar coat this story one bit! It is so unlike anything I have ever read. . . . It blew my mind towards the end and I would love to know what you think!--Mary Bearden (Mary's Cup of Tea Blog)

Unique. The ending was amazing. . . . Ha has the writing skills to make the reader imagine every scene he sets, each mood, every setting. The prose felt poetic at times. Author Khanh Ha is truly a talented writer. I enjoyed the novel and it sits on my shelf as a DARN GOOD READ.—Reading Rendezvous Reviewz

The realism of the book certainly made an impression on me. . . . Ha is a master at detailed descriptions to the point that you can see it happening the way the author intended you to. The brutality in the book was descriptive but not to the point that I had to "look away."—Ruth Hill, My Devotional Thoughts

Review

"Flesh Ha, Khanh. Flesh. Black Heron. Set mostly in turn-of-the-20th-century Hanoi, this debut novel begins and ends with gruesome beheadings. Bearing witness to both executions is Tài, a poor teenage village boy quickly forced into manhood. In an effort to reclaim his betrayed bandit father's severed head and finance an auspicious burial, Tài spends the next year on an odyssey about his father, their troubled family, and his own unsure self. Indentured to a geomancer who sells his contract to a wealthy Chinese merchant, Tài glimpses the backstreet Hanoi life of opium dens, desperate coolies, and the lawless rich--and has his first experience of falling in love, which incites his own vengeful violence. VERDICT Written in a cowboyish twang filled with "yup," "ain't," "em," and "gonna"--possibly meant to simulate the vernacular of the day--the novel never quite loses its anachronistic feel. One more edit might have trimmed some of the meandering passages and extraneous characters, but the fast-paced story pushes briskly to the finish. Readers who enjoy epic sagas set in faraway lands will find absorbing satisfaction here.--Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC Library Journal, March 15, 2012"-- LIBRARY JOURNAL

"Vietnam-born Ha's beautifully described yet murkily executed first novel, set in his native country at the turn of the 20th century, opens with an infamous yet respected bandit being beheaded in front of his wife and their two young sons. This beginning casts a pall over the tale as Tai, the eldest son, embarks on a far-reaching journey to retrieve his father's skull, find a suitable burial site, and seek revenge on the man who betrayed his father's trust. Through a series of twists and turns--some more developed than others--Tai trades two years' service to a wealthy entrepreneur for land on which to bury the father's remains. During that time, Tai loses his heart to Xiaoli, an indentured servant working in an opium den, and will do anything--including holding off on vengeance and killing a French soldier--to protect her. In this dark, violent, and poetic saga, with disjointed cinematic vignettes that make it often read like a screenplay, characters are not who they seem. While this makes for a thrilling finale, what lingers more than the somewhat weak plot is Ha's descriptive prose." (May)--PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Black Heron Press (June 15, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0930773888
• ISBN-13: 978-0930773885
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 1.3 x 5.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,455,243 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Khanh Ha was born in Hue, the former capital of Vietnam. During his teen years he began writing short stories which won him several awards in Vietnamese adolescent magazines. He graduated from Ohio University with a bachelor's degree in Journalism. He is at work on a new novel.


Visit the author at:

www.authorkhanhha.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A lush, poetic tale July 18, 2012

By Elizabeth A. White

Format:Hardcover

Author Khanh Ha's moody and atmospheric debut novel, Flesh, takes place in Annam (modern-day Vietnam) around the turn of the 20th century and follows several years in the life of Tài, a poor, young villager we meet as he and his family are forced to watch the execution by beheading of his father.

Though Tài's father was a bandit, he was respected amongst his people and his killing places upon Tài, now the eldest male in his family though only an early teen, the obligation of preserving the family's honor. To do so, Tài must accomplish two tasks: seek vengeance upon the man who betrayed his father, and unify his father's skull with his body so that he may properly be laid to rest.

Told in a series of almost dream-like reflections by a now septuagenarian Tài, Flesh follows the brutally fast coming of age Tài is forced to endure as he ventures from his sheltered village life out into a city teaming with exotic sights, sounds, and smells. And dangers, as along the way Tài finds both love and peril, learning that the two often go hand in hand and that everything in life requires a price to be paid.

A lush, poetic tale, Flesh takes readers on a journey far beneath the surface of a land most have only glimpsed superficially in clichéd Hollywood films. And though the dialog and character interactions are at times a bit stilted, that's not what you will ultimately take away from Flesh. Where Khanh Ha excels, and what you will be unable to easily shake, are the deeply evocative descriptions of daily life in Annam. From the hand-to-mouth struggle in the villages to stave off disease and starvation to the enticing sensuality of the city's opium dens, Khanh Ha coaxes Tài's world to life in a vibrantly palpable manner.

A boldly confident coming of age story of a young man psychologically scarred by violence and driven by familial loyalty and societally imposed moral obligations, readers willing to venture off the beaten path to an unfamiliar land will find great pleasure exploring Khanh Ha's Flesh.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost Dreamlike July 14, 2012

By Man of La Book

Format:Hardcover

Flesh by Khanh Ha is a novel tak­ing place in Viet­nam and China. It is a com­ing of age story in a dark time of a young man's life.

Life in Annam (Viet­nam) is hard and ugly. A young boy named Tai wit­nesses the behead­ing of his father, a known ban­dit, and swears to bring back his skull to be buried with his body. On his quest, Tai becomes an inden­tured ser­vant, get involved in the opium trade, meets a girl and learn more and more about the father he hardly knew.

As I read Flesh, Khanh Ha's debut novel, it seemed to me that the story is almost dream­like. A dream in that early hours of a hot morn­ing where you are still in between sleep­ing and wak­ing up. Your con­scious mind taps into your unfor­got­ten but repressed mem­o­ries which lash out in vicious force with unfor­giv­ing sto­ry­lines. While not always bad, these dreams have a ten­dency to shape the day or the week with their bru­tal hon­esty and, quite hon­estly, make excel­lent stories.

The novel starts with a behead­ing and ends with a behead­ing, both of them wit­nessed by the pro­tag­o­nist, Tai, a teenage boy who is thrust into man­hood after his father is exe­cuted (behead­ing #1 - this is not a spoiler, it hap­pens on the first few pages). In accor­dance with his beliefs, Tai goes on a quest to reunite his father's skull with the rest of his body and hence to bring him peace.

Much of the story takes place in 20th Cen­tury Viet­nam, where life is harsh and peo­ple do what it takes to sur­vive. The jour­ney through­out the book, whether through light or dark­ness, is fas­ci­nat­ing, vio­lent and even heart­break­ing. I do think that the book could have been a bit tighter, but that did not dis­tract me from the adventure.

Mr. Ha is a tal­ented writer; he does a won­der­ful job set­ting the dark, yet poetic, mood and a fine job describ­ing set­tings in vivid, smells, col­or­ful imagery. Each chap­ter reads like a long lost mem­ory, as if Tai was recall­ing his life in an older age and telling the story to a grand­child or an engaged reader.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Flesh January 14, 2013

By P. Woodland

Format:Hardcover

Flesh is not an easy book to read. It starts with and ends with a beheading and there is much in between that does not make for a light and happy tale. But sometimes I like a book that challenges me and this was definitely one of those books. The synopsis intrigued me but sadly had little to do with the actual story - I really hate when that happens. Fortunately Flesh was strong enough to survive my aggravation. For what our young hero Tai, really seeks is not to avenge his father's death but rather to maintain his family's honor. Far more challenging a task for a child born in poverty in turn of the century Tonkin (now Vietnam.)

The book is full of characters that are fully developed and each one important - even the dead. Tai returns from watching his granduncle behead his father for raiding another village. He and his brother fall victim to small pox and only Tai survives. Tai is now head of the household and must find a way to keep his mother and maintain the graves of his father and brother. He becomes an indentured servant and experiences a way of life that his time in his very rural village would never prepare him. The opium dens, the big city, the women all become overwhelming and Khanh Ha has, at times a way with words that is so poetic you almost want to cry. But at other times the writing can be somewhat - oh, I don't know, stilted? awkward? I'm not sure how to describe it. It's surprising that both writing styles came from the same author.

It doesn't totally detract from the power of the novel, though and Tai's story is one to be read. It's not easy as I wrote earlier but it is worth the effort.