The Tapestries: A Novel [Paperback]

Kien Nguyen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 2003

- The novel was inspired by the life of the author's grandfather, a tapestry weaver in the last imperial court of Vietnam.- A selection of Minnesota's Talking Volumes book club.- A brilliantly textured historical romance that is sure to be a favorite with reading groups throughout the country.- Hardcover ISBN: 0-316-28441-6

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Nguyen follows his acclaimed memoir, The Unwanted (2001), with a daringly complex and vividly imagined debut novel about a boy who fights to reclaim his family's royal legacy in Vietnam at the turn of the century. Seven-year-old Dan Nguyen is married in childhood to a 27-year-old family servant named Ven, who hides and protects the boy when rivals come to execute Dan's parents. But Dan's strange union with Ven is disrupted when Ven contracts malaria and she is forced to sell him into slavery to the mayor's family. Dan's stint as a slave proves fateful, though, when he becomes the personal servant of the beautiful Tai May and the two fall in love. In spite of Dan's station, Tai May chooses him over a wealthy young suitor. When the spurned suitor spies on Dan and finds out about his marriage to Ven, Dan is forced to flee the family. The dizzying intricacy of the plotting occasionally becomes a bit overwhelming as Nguyen tracks Ven's tragic fate and Dan's search for Tai May while attempting to piece together a treasure map that has been laid out as an interlocking series of body tattoos. But the beauty of Nguyen's stately, ornate prose-perfectly suited to the rigidly formal customs of Vietnamese royalty-serves him well as the complex plot unfolds. The scope of the tale and its grace and power make this a formidable first novel.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Nguyen follows up The Unwanted, his memoir of growing up Amerasian in postwar Vietnam, with a first novel based on stories from his grandfather's past. Nguyen relates an epic tale of family, greed, revenge, and love set in Vietnam during the early decades of the 20th century. During this time, there was growing discontent with colonial rule as well as greater acceptance of Western ways. The hero, Dan Nguyen, is married at the age of seven to Ven, nearly 20 years his senior. Shortly after their marriage, Dan's family falls victim to local rivalries and revolutionary intrigue, and the newlyweds witness the brutal murders of Dan's father and two of his three wives. Ven urges her reluctant child-husband to seek revenge, but his quest stalls when he falls in love with his enemy's granddaughter. An exciting tale that takes many twists and turns before finally ending with Dan's telling his stories to his young grandson, this work is marred somewhat by its fairy-tale qualities and minimal character development. Recommended for public and academic fiction collections.
Rebecca Stuhr, Grinnell Coll. Libs., IA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books (October 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316735604
• ISBN-13: 978-0316735605
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #666,115 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful, quintessentially Vietnamese story., January 8, 2003

By 

alainviet "alainviet" (Indianapolis, IN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tapestries: A Novel (Hardcover)

I have read many books written in English about Vietnam, but found only a few that clearly reflect the soul and spirit of the Vietnamese: "The tapestries" is one of them.

The story took place between 1916 and 1932 in a small village near Hue, the Imperial City of Vietnam. This is a book about commoners, middle class people and royalty. It deals with a wicked magistrate and his granddaughter Mai but also a heroine Ven, who at age 15 was given in marriage to then seven year-old Dan. There are also a minister, a eunuch, the queen's lady-in-waiting, and a time-teller (similar to Quasimodo in the Hunchback of Notre Dame).

The story then moved to Hue and we are given a glimpse of the slowly fading monarchy. There were plots, murders, injustice, hate, love, and redemption throughout of the book. The plots were as thick as the tropical jungle (like any Vietnamese story) with a twist at every corner. The author kept us guessing (wrong most of the time) and held us in suspense until the next chapter.

I found the novel remarkable and I am certain the reader will appreciate and thank the author for bringing something exotic to the American public.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I deeply appreciated this brilliantly woven tale! Highly recommended., January 18, 2006

By 

Donna K. "bookcrosser" (Long Island, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tapestries: A Novel (Hardcover)

Wow - this amazing book is so remarkably well-written that it's hard to imagine this is the author's first novel. He has brilliantly crafted a vividly stunning story, immersing the reader into a mysterious and exotic culture that is often misunderstood by those of us who live in the modern Western world. The detailed descriptions of the setting and of the various traditions and rituals were fascinating! Despite difficult to endure scenes of torture, severe injustices and executions, this story held a tragic beauty that was spellbinding. Full of action and suspense, it very artistically and soulfully captured the true spirit of the Vietnamese people. It has all the qualities of a classic epic novel, yet it's fast-paced and not an overwhleming number of pages.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Flawed Gem, June 6, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Tapestries: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is a gem of a book with many qualities that have obviously endeared it to the other reviewers here. It's a good read for most readers, even if it suffers from several flaws.

The writing is mostly good, if somewhat artificial at times, especially when the author seemed to overreach in trying to be too lyrical. Behind the words, the story struggles to be told, even though one has probably guessed what it would be after the first two chapters. The historical background seems of uncertain authenticity and could have benefited from better research.

Somehow I wish that the author had not yielded to his editors and done things like reversing the traditional order of Vietnamese names, or making them easier to pronounce in English but unrecognizable in Vietnamese. After all, how would Americans feel if they were to read a Vietnamese book where George Bush is referred to as Bush George?