Nguyễn Thanh Trịnh’s What If We Were in Love (Ví dụ ta yêu nhau, 1974) is a clever frame narrative about romantic love set in the Republic of Vietnam (RVN, or South Vietnam). The book starts with a letter from an unnamed young man urging his love interest, Nhỏ, to imagine that they are in […]
Nguyễn Mộng Giác’s One-Way Street (Đường một chiều, 1974) is an absolute page-turner. Set in the Republic of Vietnam (RVN, or South Vietnam), the novel starts with the shocking murder of Thúy while her husband Major Lộc is away fighting in the Central Highlands as part of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. There’s
Bình Nguyên Lộc’s Thoroughfare (Đò dọc, 1959) is a charming novel about migration and dislocation in southern Vietnam in the mid-1950s. Nam Thành and his wife are originally from a village in Bạc Liêu province in the Mekong delta, but they flee with their daughters to Saigon during the early years of the Resistance War
FUN READS: MIGRATION AND DISLOCATION IN BÌNH NGUYÊN LỘC’S THOROUGHFARE (ĐÒ DỌC) Read More »
When was the last time I read a Vietnamese book for fun? I’m sad to say I can’t remember. Probably years ago. I’ve written elsewhere about the challenges of teaching and learning Vietnamese as a heritage language in the diaspora. I grew up in the US in the 80s and 90s and learned Vietnamese from
FUN READS: AN INTRODUCTION Read More »