Vietnam: Spirits of the Earth [Hardcover]

Mary Cross (Author), Frances FitzGerald (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 9, 2001

This volume is the result of an unusual collaboration between noted author Frances Fitzgerald and photojournalist Mary Cross. Both have travelled repeatedly to Vietnam and revisited the country together in 1999. From their extensive experience they have created a vivid look at Vietnam as it is today. This lush picture book of images of life in contemporary Vietnam is divided into three parts to reflect the country's three regions - North, Central and South Vietnam. Among the areas covered are rice culture, Confucianism vs. local tradition, the cult of ancestors, the role of Buddhism, ethnic minorities, handicrafts, the impact and the legacy of French colonialism and the American presence and war, and the tensions within Vietnam society today.

Editorial Reviews

From The New Yorker

In 1973, FitzGerald won the Pulitzer Prize for "Fire in the Lake," her revelatory inquiry into the Vietnam War. Today, a quarter-century after the American withdrawal, she has a gentler story to tell, of a Communist country where people burn paper cell phones as offerings to their ancestors. In counterpoint to the memory of American helicopters lifting away from Saigon, Cross's richly hued photographs detail rural life in the once inaccessible villages of the north. Here tradition and modernity cheerfully collide: snakes curl in a bottle of rice alcohol slowly pickling into wine, while elsewhere a smeary-eyed Asian woman on a giant red billboard coos over her Coca-Cola. This collection returns us to a place of historical reckoning, and, in its careful observations of the land and the people, it documents the daily miracle of continuing.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

From Booklist

Veteran Vietnam correspondent FitzGerald and well-traveled photojournalist Mary Cross explored Vietnam together in the spring of 2000, each using their craft to document the experience. "What struck me, after my long absence," writes FitzGerald, "was not so much how the country had changed but the extent to which it had returned to itself." Accordingly, for a readership that likely has seen only wartime images of Vietnam, she revisits a great deal of the country's history as she explores geography, society, and religion in a half-dozen essays. These informative, stimulating passages draw a picture, and Cross' photos snap it into color, as she eschews landscape and architecture to focus on Vietnam's people and their way of life. The National Geographic-style compositions bring us fairly close to her subjects but have a reserve or formality that slows their pulse. Still, though there is no formal connection between the text and images, they work well together, providing a unique portrait of this complex land, one that is "going back to tradition and forward at the same time." Keir Graff
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 204 pages
• Publisher: Bulfinch (November 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821227424
• ISBN-13: 978-0821227428
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,406,833 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vietnam: Spirits of the Earth, December 4, 2001

By 

Stephen T Schreiber (Princeton, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vietnam: Spirits of the Earth (Hardcover)

Ever since serving in the Army from 1967-71 I have been curious about what Vietnam is really like. I was never sent over while in the army so all I know was what I read and heard. This book is informatively writen and beautifully photographed. This book is not about the war, it is about the country today. Extraordinary in every sense!

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vietnam: Spirits of the Earth, December 4, 2001

By 

Stephen T Schreiber (Princeton, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vietnam: Spirits of the Earth (Hardcover)

Ever since serving in the Army from 1967-71 I have been curious about what Vietnam is really like. I was never sent over while in the army so all I know was what I read and heard. This book is informatively writen and beautifully photographed. This book is not about the war, it is about the country today. Extraordinary in every sense!

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An Educating Glimpse of Vietnam, October 6, 2002

By 

schiff (Tel-Aviv Israel) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vietnam: Spirits of the Earth (Hardcover)

Vietnam: Spirits of the Earth by Frances Fitzgerald, Mary Cross (Photographer) is definitely another one to add to your South-east-Asia booklist. The book is divided into essentially two sections: the first includes the commentary; the second - the photography. The commentary discusses several "down-to-earth" issues and aspects of Vietnamese life and culture and manages to cut through their (only seemingly) simple fabric; the mix of subjects chosen is surprisingly (and refreshingly) esoteric (and authentic). The photography is good, although a bit on the grainy side. All in all - a recommended book for the South-east-Asian culture enthusiast!