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Paradise of the Blind: A Novel, by Duong Thu Huong, Nina McPherson
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Paradise of the Blind is an exquisite portrait of three Vietnamese women struggling to survive in a society where subservience to men is expected and Communist corruption crushes every dream. Through the eyes of Hang, a young woman in her twenties who has grown up amidst the slums and intermittent beauty of Hanoi, we come to know the tragedy of her family as land reform rips apart their village. When her uncle Chinh‘s political loyalties replace family devotion, Hang is torn between her mother‘s appalling self–sacrifice and the bitterness of her aunt who can avenge but not forgive. Only by freeing herself from the past will Hang be able to find dignity –– and a future.
- Sales Rank: #94730 in Books
- Brand: Dng, Thu Hng/ Duong, Phan Huy (TRN)/ McPherson, Nina (TRN)
- Published on: 2002-08-20
- Released on: 2002-08-20
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.00" h x .61" w x 5.31" l, .45 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 272 pages
- William Morrow Company
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, VA
Copyright 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.
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Loved this novel
By Jessica M Castiilo
This is an excellent novel. I enjoyed it so much. The relationships between mothers and daughters parallel with the setting of Vietnam as the home country and Russian the Communist motherland was an interesting look on how devoted the two could be and how easily that devotion can be used against one another. I enjoyed this novel so much. It's the story of a young girl and her family that had been torn apart during the division of Vietnam during the Communist's reformation of the north and her adaption to the various places she lives. Her life is torn between the traditions that have been in her family for generations and the appeal of Western freedom and indolence.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Brilliant but Yet Flawed! Still Beautiful Translation and Writing! Must be on Nobel Short List!
By Sylviastel
Duong Thu Huong should be on everybody's best writers' list. She is a brilliant Vietnamese writer who can't even be able to read in her own country. Sadly, her novels and works are forbidden to be read by the people she writes about. If Vietnamese were able to read her books freely in their own country, they would be able to appreciate her genius, her love of country and of humanity as well.
The author writes about Hang who gets a letter about her sick Uncle in Moscow in the then Soviet Union. She takes the long journey by train from Vietnam to Moscow. During her journey, she recounts painful family history, divisions, grudges, and bitterness. Much like Vietnam itself, the author subtly analyzes and writes about her country along with a family's intense battle of the soul.
Huong's Vietnam is brought to life in one family's struggle to survive and thrive in Communist Vietnam. While Huong tries not to be political or biased, her writing is to be appreciated, revered, and celebrated especially because she is still in Hanoi, Vietnam and forbidden to travel abroad. If she won the Nobel Prize in Literature, it is doubtful that she wouldn't be there to accept the honor in Stockholm, Sweden.
Huong would be a worthy recipient since her novels aren't political nor biased but beautifully written like poetry. Huong can make magic with words in her writing. She captivates you with images that awaken you entire senses. Huong is one of then best writers alive about anything. When you read about Huong's Vietnam, you are transformed and transfixed on a world that isn't foreign to you but you become a shadow in the novel's mist like a visitor. You just can't help but loving Huong's writing.
I deducted one star because I felt that her novel ended strangely. I still think it's one of the best novels ever read but I believe that the author left out some mystery regarding Hang's relationship with her uncle once in Moscow.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
A Chess Game With Heaven
By Dan Cragg
Just the very title of this book must have troubled the Hanoi politburo hacks but the way PARADISE OF THE BLIND ends frightened them so profoundly they banned it and put its author in jail.
Reading Duong Thu Huong's lyrical novel about life in post-war Vietnam I am reminded of a line from Nguyen Du's classic narrative poem, THE TALE OF KIEU, particularly Kieu's song, "Cruel Fate," which mourns "all women in soul-rending strains." I am also reminded of the resiliency of Vietnamese women, of all women in general, especially those who come from Confucian societies. Well, Duong has taken a leaf from the great poet with PARADISE OF THE BLIND.
Although PARADISE is translated into colloquial modern English (kudos to Phan Huy Duong and Nina McPherson for this), a radical departure from the classic six-eight verse of Nguyen Du, still, the descriptive power of Duong's prose comes through with the "indestructible purity of a countryside at peace" even when she's describing "purple flowers radiant in the middle of the filth...the purest balm and the most overpowering poison of my existence." The metaphor of flowers for people, the yin and yang, the balance of life, conjures a powerful image that is often found in Vietnamese literature and Hang, Duong's heroine and the narrator of this tale, is one of the most compelling of those "flowers." We follow her through this story as she tries to find the balance of her own life. Note that often in Vietnamese literature that balance is only found at great cost to the seeker which Duong reflects on in Chapter Eight, when she writes, "Separation, this ancient pain, perhaps the greatest of all human sadnesses."
Food is another metaphor Duong uses skillfully. Food is the element that connects all the characters in this story, from the middle-aged Russian man on a train to Moscow who gives Hang a piece of fruit, to elaborate banquets hosted by Aunt Tam, Hang's patron and mentor, to the simple fare of Hang's poor, widowed mother.
And over all hangs the oppressive pall of socialist bureaucracy. To us Duong's criticisms sound much less vitriolic than our own so we may be surprised they landed her in jail. But remember, communists have little sense of humor. Remember the "Beggar's Opera," that line that goes, "When you censure the age be cautious and sage lest the courtiers offended should be. If you mention vice or bribe, tis so pat to all the tribe, each cries `That was leveled at me!'" Well, look for Aunt Tam's putdown of her village vice president in Chapter Nine, indisputably an all-time classic. And don't be surprised to find out that Vietnamese people can be very "earthy" when the occasion calls for it.
The reader should bear in mind that Confucianism, with its emphasis on obedience to hierarchy, is much more compatible with Communism than the Western idea of democracy that emphasizes individual choice and action. To us it may not seem an epiphany when Hang decides, against her aunt's dying wish, to sell their home with its altar to their ancestors, and hit out on her own. But by that decision to leave the past where it is Hang not only rebels against the Confucian system but the Communist system as well. No wonder Hanoi doesn't want ideas like this to spread among the Vietnamese people!
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