Voices and Visions sweeps the reader along on Carolijn Visser's four-month journey through Vietnam and gives voice to the remarkable cast of characters - from prostitutes to princesses, from soldiers to singers, from peasants to priests - who inhabit Vietnam today. Join Visser as she roams the Mekong Delta, wanders through Saigon and Hanoi, ventures into the Central Highlands and explores the old imperial capital of Hue - and discover a country ravaged by decades of war but fortified by its history, its culture, its geography, its vision for the future and its people.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In this unconventional and involving record of a quest for understanding, Visser, a Dutch travel writer, turns to good advantage her distance from what the Vietnamese call "the American war." For four months in 1992 she wandered around Saigon, Hanoi, Hue, the Mekong Delta and mountain villages on buses and motorbikes, drinking beer, attending parties and weddings, listening attentively, observing acutely, delicately posing difficult questions. She was rewarded with friendships and revealing stories. With a gift for conveying character, ambience and dialogue, Visser introduces us to communists, noncommunists, ex-communists, opportunists, idealists, writers, musicians, shopkeepers, clerics. The elegant reserve of the North Vietnamese, the easy openness of the Southerners, the landscapes, architecture, enduring cultural impact of the French occupation, ambivalence toward the U.S. all inform her report, as does the continuing impact of the war. In Hanoi, when a disillusioned communist wonders what they fought for and why so many died, the puzzlement echoes what Visser heard everywhere.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
A translation of Hoge Bomen in Hanoi (High Trees in Hanoi, published in Amsterdam in 1993), this is the first of Visser's works to appear in English. A popular travel writer in her home country of Holland, she relates her adventures touring Vietnam from Ho Chi Minh City through the Mekong Delta and back, then through to Hanoi and the old imperial city of Hue. Along the way, she meets a number of fascinating people, including ex-GIs from every side of the Vietnamese war, a family of antique dealers, members of some of Vietnam's ethnic minorities, dissident writers, a poet, and a surviving princess. She tells her stories with a keen eye and a quick wit, and her portraits of the people she meet stick in the memory. A very entertaining book. For popular collections.
Chuck Malenfant, Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Chuck Malenfant, Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Opinionated author,
By
This review is from: Voices And Visions: A Journey Through Vietnam Today (Hardcover)
The book is only fair....As a vet and a four time visitor to Vietnam, I experienced some of the relationships the author did in Vietnam. I find resentment in her opinions of the US. participation in the war. She seems so naive at times about the war and the people involved. She should have been at Jane Fonda's side in Hanoi. On the other hand, her perceptions of the southern Vietnamese still hold true today. They hold no resentments, are fun loving and hard working people.Some my friends here in Washington State were "boat people" or refugees from "re-education" camps. This phenomenon was glossed over by the author.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must read for armchair travelers,
By
This review is from: Voices And Visions: A Journey Through Vietnam Today (Hardcover)
I came across this book by chance in my library and decided to read it with no expectations. I am so lucky that I did!!! This book is an absolute gem. The book is filled with human stories about post war vietnam, how people have coped with most difficult situtations arising out of war and occupation. The stories are very poignant and leave you with a sense of what human spirit is capable of...now go and read it!!!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great travel read,
By A Customer
This review is from: Voices And Visions: A Journey Through Vietnam Today (Hardcover)
As one of the many who spent a year in Vietnam wearing olive drab in the late sixties, I've always been intrigued with the land and the people. Most of the combat yarns are not about the sense of place I remember. Ms. Visser writes a wonderful book that captures the essence of Vietnam, especially the differences between the button-downed North and free-wheeling South. She doesn't have an ax to grind about the origins and blame of the war but is nonetheless intrigued with what it all meant to the Vietnamese. Good book.
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