Duong Thu Huong
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8
Average rating: 4.0 of 5
Novel Without a Name, a very realistic book 4 out of 5 stars.
25 of 26 people found this review helpful.
Novel Without A Name by Duong Thu Huong is a terrific novel that lets the reader into the head of a Vietnamese soldier fighting for the North Vietnam side during the Vietnam War. A twenty-eight year old man, Quan, is the narrator of Novel Without A Name. Quan's view of life is much different from what it was when he was a naive 18-year-old, enlisting in the army with his childhood friends. Back then, Quan had thought of war as a glorious time; a time when heroes and legends were made. At this point, Quan has begun to see the Vietnam War for what it really was; a brutal massacre needlessly killing his fellow Vietnamese people. Luong, once Quan's childhood friend, and now his commander who's life has become the Communist Party, sends Quan on a mission to find Bien, their childhood friend. The other task that Quan is given is one that Luong does not report to the officials, he asks Quan to go to their home village. Luong wants Quan to do this for a variety of reasons. First, he knows that the war will be going on much longer than was ever intended, and he knows that Quan misses his home. Second, Luong wants Quan to reassure all the families back home that they are doing well, even if this is partially a lie. Quan sets out on his long journey, and unfortunately is met with bad news. The war has driven Bien to insanity. This insanity was caused by the fact that Bien has a life threatening form of malaria, which he got from a mosquito; a very common occurrence during the Vietnam War. The cell that holds Bien was on par with others during the War, but was nonetheless despicable. The crazy man eats, lives, and sleeps in his own waste, and is malnourished.
After seeing Bien, Quan returns home to his village. He finds that it is not only he who has changed during the 10 years that he has been absent. His childhood girlfriend, Hoa, whom he had planned to marry, has become pregnant by a passing soldier. Her life is in shambles and there is nothing he can do to help her. In addition, Quan learns that his brother had died. This came as a shock, as Quan had not even known that his brother had enlisted. After Quan learns that it was his father who encouraged Quang to join the army, he is enraged. His father, like many other fathers during the time, had been sucked in by the Communist propaganda. He had volunteered his son as a way to attain some personal honor. The shaky relationship between the father and son grows worse, and Quang leaves his home village unhappy with his life.
During the course of the book, Quan encounters many people, all who give the reader an idea of what the society that existed in Vietnam during the war was like. Novel Without A Name by Duong Thu Huong is a great book. Because the book was told from the point of view of a boi doi, otherwise known as a soldier, the book seems so much more real. By reading Novel Without A Name I feel that I have learned so much about the Vietnam war in a way that was much more interesting than a book full of dates and facts.
Reading this book also gave me information about the Vietnam War that could never have been obtained from a textbook. No textbook could have fully expressed the horrors of the Vietnam war like Novel Without A Name did. A textbook would not have told the real life experiences people went through. For example, Quan, the narrator of the Novel Without A Name tells of a skeleton he discovered in the forest. The decomposed body was lying in a hammock hidden by trees deep in a Vietnamese forest. Quan deduces that the man must have become lost in the maze of trees, and after becoming too week from starvation to move on, made a hammock and died a painful death. After searching the area, Quan found a knapsack with items of clothing, and a letter requesting that the soldier's remains be brought to his mother. No textbook would have told this story. I never would have known about how notorious the Vietnamese forests were for being traps that easily ensnared humans passing through. Basically, Novel Without A Name took me behind the scenes of the Vietnam War. There are thousands of books on the Vietnam War, but these books cover only what occurred on the battlefields, not what was going on in the lives of the people living in Vietnam during the time of the war.
Another example of how Duong Thu Huong took me behind the scenes of the war, was her description of a woman with whom Quan came into contact on his journey. This woman who collected the bodies of the dead in her area, was beastly, but kind. She took Quan into her home because he needed food and shelter. During the course of the novel, two other families took in Quan when he was in need of food and shelter. During the Vietnam War, people throughout the country pulled together and took care of their men in action. This was a common practice during the Vietnam War that I would not have known had I not read the book.
Novel Without A Name can at times be gruesome, but thus is the nature of war. If a book about the Vietnam War did not include parts that sickened one, then that book would not be accurately be informing readers of what occurred during the Vietnam War. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Though by reading Novel Without A Name I do not know about all the battles that took place or the famous commanders that reigned during the war; I can honestly say that I understand what happened during the Vietnam War.
Editorial Review:
The author of Paradise of the Blind, the first novel from Vietnam ever published in America, traces a young man's experiences fighting for North Vietnam, in a novel banned in Vietnam for its subversive content. Reprint. 10,000 first printing. NYT.
