Duong Thu Huong

Taking advantage of the holiday season I finished another novel of Duong Thu Huong, The Lost Life (Quang Doi Danh Mat, 1988), and am on my way to a third, Paradise of the Blind (Nhung Thien Duong Mu, 1988). Among Vietnamese and expatriates alike, she is well known for her principled stand against the current government in Vietnam and the war it conducted in the 60's and early 70's. A few years back I first sampled her writing through one of her earliest novel, Journey in Childhood (Hanh Trinh Ngay Tho Au, 1985). It was a delightful little book especially when read in Vietnamese.

Her writing from 1985 to 1988 provided a distinctive feel of steady progression toward open but polite rebellion. In fact her dissent began much earlier according to the many interviews available through the web, notably the one conducted at the NY Public Library in 2006 and referenced below. She personally dated her questioning of the conduct of the war in 1969 upon encountering the first batch prisoners of war who happened to be all Vietnamese and no "white men, with sharp noses and blue eyes".

Whatever your views of the Vietnam War and its extensive ramifications, Duong Thu Huong's voice must be heard. Her undeniable literary skills have been much publicized and there is no need to expand on the subject here. Above all, she's a woman of courage and conviction, highly articulated albeit at times feisty and raw when attacking the Vietnamese Communist Party. The NY Public Library interview contains many gems, especially her discussions of the visceral fear that people have when dissenting against a powerful organization, and how to overcome such fear by understanding and accepting one's righteous course of action, by living the present and not wondering about tomorrow. The strength of character was quite evident.

Personally I felt she might be a bit too colored by the dark side of the Vietnamese Communist Party, and justifiably so. It's just too bad that she never had the opportunity to experience the incompetence and corruption of successive South Vietnamese governments of the late 50's through early 70's. She might come out with a more balanced view of Vietnamese history and the evolving struggle of its people from feudalism towards democracy. Politics is not for the light-heart and there is no free ride. Duong Thu Huong is doing her parts and paying her dues by staying on the side line and vociferously protesting.

Politics aside, her literary skills alone make her novels worth reading, especially when you don't grow up in North Vietnam during the war years.

All the novels cited above were written and published in Vietnam until banned. Of course, there are still many others to digest: Beyond Illusions (Ben Kia Ao Vong, 1987), Memories of a Pure Spring (2000), Novel Without a Name (Tieu Thuyet Vo De, 1991), No Man's Land (Chon Vang, 2002), and more recently after self exile in Paris in 2006, Dinh Cao Choi Loi, translated into French as Au Zenith. (2009).

First installment of the NY Public Library 2006 interview, thanks to Youtube, which nowadays we can't live without: