Paradise of the Blind
- Book Review,
by Duong Thu Huong
From Publishers Weekly
This staunchly unsentimental, evocative novel, originally published in Huong's native Vietnam and beautifully translated by Duong and McPherson, offers a narrative rich in detail and free of cliche. The author, who lives with her children in Hanoi, depicts the complexity of Vietnamese culture--the allegiance to family and ancestors, the symbolic value of food, class distinctions and the continuing sense of desperation mingled with pride. The protagonist, Hang, a physically fragile young woman of the '80s, recalls Hanoi in the previous decade. While there are subtle allusions to war and peacetime, Huong's focus is on the shifting, uneasy relationships between modernized Hang and her traditionalist mother, a merchant who peddles food; Hang's selfish, hypocritical uncle, a communist peasant; and Hang's comparatively wealthy, unconditionally loving aunt. Contrasts between young, old, urban and rural, help to convey the full variety of Vietnamese lifestyles. McPherson's introduction provides essential background information without spoiling the plot of Huong's unquestionably powerful tale. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
YA-- Huong's exquisite book, banned in her own country, introduces readers to daily life in Vietnam under Communist rule in the 1970s. Readers will be captivated by this story of a young girl growing into womanhood under a regime that negates many of the people's old values and customs and tears families apart. Hang grows up seeking the name of her father and the circumstances of his disappearance and death. Concomitantly, her mother becomes more and more desperate and distant in her struggle to earn a living as a street snack seller, a job decried by Uncle Chinh, a loyal Communist, as reminiscent of old capitalist ways. Her mother is also tied to another remnant of the past; she will sacrifice health, food, and her own self-respect to cater to Chinh's needs and expects her daughter to do the same. As a young adult, Hang is sent to work in Russia, and the author describes that country with equal skill. The book captures the enormous beauty and sensory delights of this unique land, as well as the degradation and grim realities of the post-civil-war period. The translator's notes guide readers through the politics.- Virginia Ryder, West Potomac High School, Fairfax County, VACopyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Duong Thu Huong was once a member of Vietnam's Communist Youth Brigade and defended her country from Chinese attack in 1979. She has since been expelled from the Communist party, and her works are now banned in her country. Paradise of the Blind is her gripping story of a young girl growing up in contemporary Vietnam. Hang is a timid, thoughtful child often overwhelmed by the fierce love of her mother and her aunt. Her education cut short by family and economic pressures, Hang relinquishes her dreams and becomes an "export worker" in the Soviet Union. Through Hang's eyes we perceive the importance of family ties and understand the role that food, ritual, and ancestor worship play in Vietnamese society. We see the Communist legacy as relatives and friends turn on one another in an effort to become the "king of the mountain," and we feel the pain of women living in a male-dominated society where they are on equal footing only with servants. Highly recommended for Asian studies and women's studies collections.- Peggie Partello, Keene State Coll., N.H.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
A novel of contemporary Vietnam--billed as ``the first Vietnamese novel ever published in the United States''--by a former Communist turned political dissident whose works have been recently banned in that country. The story is broadly of three women struggling to survive in a northern village and a Hanoi slum. But the narrative is secondary to the evocative descriptions of life under the Communists, of the countryside itself, and of the old customs that still prevail. Narrator Hang, a young woman working in the Soviet Union as an ``exported worker,'' has been summoned to Moscow by her uncle Chinh, who claims to be dying. On the long train journey through the icy Russian landscape, Hang recalls how Chinh, her mother's brother and a dedicated Communist, tore her family apart and destroyed the relationship between her mother and herself. An important Communist, Chinh brutally imposed the land-reform measures in his native village--an act that led to Hang's father fleeing, her redoubtable aunt Tam being impoverished, and her mother becoming a street-vendor in Hanoi. The regime moderates its excesses in time, though it is increasingly corrupt, and Aunt Tam rebuilds the family's wealth so that Hang will not have to suffer- -but she cannot forgive Chinh. Hang, caught between her mother's traditional deference to male relations--she starves Hang in order to provide money for Chinh--and her aunt's bitterness, is finally able to break with the past after her trip to Moscow: ``I can't squander my life tending these faded flowers, the legacy of past crimes.'' Slight, but enriched by vivid characters and telling descriptions of life as it really was in a place of mythic resonances in our own history. A welcome debut. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Holly Smith
The first Vietnamese novel translated and published in North America, Paradise of the Blind is a riveting and revealing view of one family's life over the past forty years. At its heart are twenty-year-old Hang, her mother Que, and her father's sister Aunt Tam. While on a long train ride, Hang, now an "exported worker" in Russia, recalls her family's history. Before her birth, the 1950s land reforms campaigns created a split in her family that has never been overcome. It forced Hang's mother to move to the slums of Hanoi - far away from the home of her ancestors - and work as a street vendor. Hang remembers the neighborhood with "seven different sticky-rice vendors. You could recognize each one immediately by the lilt of her voice. Their dawn cries were the first music of my childhood." Aunt Tam still lives in the hamlet where her family is from, unable to forget the past and determined that her hard work will benefit Hang. Hang is caught between her mother and her aunt, the government's past and present actions, and her own yearnings. The foods, flowers, heat, and rain of Vietnam are evoked to expose the broken world of Hang and her family. Duong Thu Huong, an advocate for democratic political reform and one of Vietman's most popular writers, wrote Paradise of the Blind in response to a government call for writers to use their art to encourage traditional Vietnamese values. More than 40,000 copies sold before it - and her other novels - were banned. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14.
Book Description
A rich, sensuous journey through a Vietnam rarely seen by outsiders, Paradise of the Blind tells the story of three women fighting to maintain their dignity under a government that discards old values and tears families apart. Hang, a young girl growing into womanhood in the Hanoi slums, finally learns the truth about her father's disappearance and death during the era of government-imposed land reform. Meanwhile, Hang's self-sacrificing mother, a struggling street vendor, watches helplessly as her life is shattered by the political machinations of her own brother. And the mysterious Aunt Tam, who has accumulated wealth and bitterness in equal measure, fights for her niece's loyalty -- and future. Long banned in its own country, this moving novel captures the hunger, pride, and endurance of ordinary people in a land of intoxicating beauty ... as it provides a rare, insightful look into a changing Vietnam.
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Vietnamese
About the Author
Duong Thu Huong is one of Vietnam's most popular writers. She was born in 1947, and at twenty volunteered to lead a Communist Youth Brigade sent to the front during the Vietnam War. During Chinas's 1979 attack on Vietnam, she also became the first woman combatant present on the front lines to chronicle the conflict. A vocal advocate of human rights and democratic political reform, Duong Thu Huong was expelled from the Vietnamese Communist party in 1989 and was imprisoned without trial in 1991 for her political beliefs. Paradise of the Blind is her fourth novel and her fourth novel to be effectively banned by the Vietnamese government. She is also the author of Novel Without a Name, which was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Duong Thu Huong is not allowed to leave Vietnam. She lives and writes in Hanoi.
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