Customer Reviews

A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I was browsing through Pulitzer Prize winning books when I came upon this book. Admittedly, being a Vietnamese immigrant, I was very skeptical that a white man can ever capture the true experiences of the hardships of coming to America. I was quickly stunned at how some of the stories jumped right out of the pages and poured back into the back of my memories. It didn't seem like I was reading a fictional account of Vietnamese assimilation; it was more than that, it was as if I was reading into the history of my time in America. Most notably of all the stories in the collection is the story of the American soldier trying furiously to bring his Vietnamese wife and daughter to America. As you read through his letters and realize his intentions, you can't help but feel frustrated for this man. It is no surprise that this book was a Pulitzer winner. It is that good.

When I first learned that Butler was a Caucasian man living in Louisiana, I was a little reticent about reading the book. As a Chinese immigrant, I have read numerous accounts of the "Asian experience" from the non-Asian perspective. Often times, the writers oversimplify their subjects' feelings and don't have a good sense of the material.

Nothing could be further from the truth about Butler's book. After I read it, I bought numerous copies and sent them to my friends. Butler has an acute understanding of the Vietnamese experience, and in particular, the immigrant experience in the US. How did he know these feelings? How did he get such a good grasp of the culture?

It is a extremely moving book. Several times I had to put the book down because I was so choked up. Butler is an incredible writer. Each chapter is a self-contained short story. Sometimes told from the perspective of a woman, other times a man. In either case, Butler's keen awareness of Vietnamese culture is apparent from the sensitivity of his stories.

In 1993, this book won the Pulitzer - and somehow I'd never heard of it till recently. With great sensitivity, Robert Olen Butler introduces us to the colorful lives of Vietnamese immigrants in Louisiana. This collection of inter-related short stories are told in many different voices: housewives, pregnant woman, a lonely businessman - and we grow to care about each one as a unique individual. Butler's writing in the voice of people of another culture feels so authentic because he served with army intelligence in Vietnam in 1971 and worked as an interpreter to Saigon's mayor.
Terrific collection.

Even if I had not grown up in Lake Charles, LA and attended the university there, where Mr. Butler teaches, I would have loved this book. Funny thing is, I discovered it quite by accident in a public library in San Francisco! The book is about Vietnamese people in and around Lake Charles. The fact that we have this place in common, not only "brought the stories home" for me, but makes me very proud and happy that a writer of such high caliber so masterfully captured the region's unique essence and that of the Asian immigrant's experience there. My own experience in Lake Charles was very much that of the Asian in this race-conscious Southern state. Each story, however, was not so much about discrimination or racial differences as about personal growth and assimilation. Butler's characters demonstrate that there is no ONE Asian personality just like there is no ONE personality for any other race. The people are believable, the place is certainly real, and the author has done a wonderful job of writing. Thank you, Mr. Butler.

This is on my short list of best collections of short stories I have ever read. When I heard it won the Pulitzer it gave me hope for the prizes, unlike some other selections. These stories are haunting, melancholy and beautiful. Depressing, too, as some naysayers have complained, which does seem to limit their appeal to some. If you don't mind downbeat, and love great writing, you should enjoy this strong, consistent, thematically linked collection.

I am a Vietnamese and I have been shocked when reading this book. The author described the Vietnamese characters so gloomily. They are very strange. I have never met someone similar to one of them in my whole life, and I am 54 years old. I see that the author has too much imagination about Vietnamese people. He put the traits of the characters in William Faulkner's books into the Vietnamese characters in his book. (By the way, I don't like Faulkner's writings). It looks like they are backward kinds of people, who are incoherent in their thinking, crazy in their behaviors, superstitious in their beliefs, and sad in their moods. I wish these kinds of books would not appear in the world's literature. Those books make the stereotype about Vietnamese people in the mind of Americans becomes stronger. It's not surprising that the book got the Pulitzer prize: because the judges for the prize were not Vietnamese. If they were, the book would not have gotten the prize.

Robert Olen Butler was ordered to Vietnam, like several hundred thousand young Americans of his generation. But while he was no stranger to the visceral terrors of that politically, tactically and morally awkward war, Vietnamese culture was not opaque, puzzling and frustrating to him, as it was to most American soldiers. Because of his facility with language, Butler was first assigned to master the complexly musical Vietnamese language, so that he could serve as a translator-liaison between the American military and their South Vietnamese counterparts. Once in Vietnam, Butler used his fluency for a more humane pursuits: When off-duty he went into the streets in civilian garb, conversing with common people in doorways, homes and businesses -- a crucial tutorial in their character, attitudes, history and culture. Butler says that this uncommon access compelled him to "fall in love" with the Vietnamese people and their ancient culture, and that love shines in the remarkable set of stories compiled in "A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain." The unifying aspect of these touching stories, which captured the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, is that each is told in the gentle voice of a Vietnamese dislocated by war and resettled in southern Louisiana, The Vietnam War and its aftermath are addressed in dozens of books, but this compilation offers a unique and revealing perspective on Vietnam for a country still haunted by that doomed, ambiguous war. Poetic without being precious, sentimental without being maudlin, sensitive but far from enervated, these stories are a must-read landmark of literary humanity.

Anyone who appreciates brilliant writing and great literature -- especially those who enjoy short stories -- will bow their heads in awe at this collection. It doesn't get any better than this...

At turns tragic and tender, comic and cosmic, this stirring collection of short stories passes the core test of great fiction: its power is both particular and universal. On the level of the particular, the author succeeds in opening a window on the soul of the Vietnamese, a people whose lives and communities are torn apart by a war not of their own making, a people struggling to assimilate--without disappearing--in this strange new world called America. Yet Butler's vision is also universal: the pain of loss, betrayal, and dislocation, the hope of love, survival, and forgiveness--these are experiences which resonate across the spectrum of humankind, all the more so because Butler effectively balances narrative voices both young and old, male and female.

There is a wonderful contrapuntal force to these stories. As you move through Butler's seamless blend of anecdote, reminiscence, and fairy tale, themes and motifs continually recur, subtly reinforcing one another: the grip of tradition, the power of ghosts, the shallowness of American materialism, the call to ancestor worship, the scars of war, the deep-rootedness of ethnic division. Highly recommended for anyone who cares about: (1) the Vietnam War; (2) the immigrant experience; or (3) great fiction. Read the whole collection, but if you must be selective, my favorites were "Open Arms," a poignant tale of culture clash and true belief, "Love," a laugh-out-loud revenge story, and "The American Couple," a deeply psychological account of catharsis and recovered love.

This book made me think, about life and our every day living. It showed me that the Vietnamese people are very spiritual. When you read each story and think about it, it brings out so many feelings about yourself and the meaning of life, and how precious it is. In many of the stories I cried, and I laughed. I now see life with different eyes. I taught me to pay attention to life. Fantastic book.