beyond without paradise memories

books:

6 reviews
Duong Thu Huong, Nina McPherson

Penguin (Non-Classics), 2001

Tragedy, desperation and sin without redemption
Duong Thu Huong's "Memories of a Pure Spring" is not a novel that rests lightly with the reader. Instead, it insinuates itself into your being and sticks uncomfortably in your conscience. It's set in Northern Vietnam, in the aftermath of the "American War," but despite its exotic locale, it grips the heart with a sense of sorrow and exasperation almost too familiar, too painful. This, you know ...

Paradise of the Blind: A Novel

24 reviews
Duong Thu Huong, Nina McPherson

Harper Perennial, 2002

An Uncomprising Critique of "Revolutionary" Vietnam
A short response to any book by Duong Thu Huong is a good deal like a short response to the Bible--it will be lacking. This is especially the case with Huong's 1988 work Paradise of the Blind, the story of a young Hanoi woman, Hang, forced to give up her university studies and work in the Soviet Union in order to support her mother. This is only half the story though. Hang reached adulthood ...

Novel without a Name

8 reviews
Duong Thu Huong

Penguin (Non-Classics), 1996

Terse vivid prose unfurls a war story from the other side
It should be noted that Duong Thu Huong has done prison time for her writings. How interesting to see the other side of the same Vietnam War coin and find such vivid prose delineating a story of endless sacrifice, party corruption and bitter cynicism. U.S. soldiers had 13 month tour of duty. The North had as long as it took- 15 years in the hero's case. She writes expertly and hammers ...

Beyond Illusions : A Novel
Duong Thu Huong, Phan Huy Duong, ...

Hyperion, 2002

Now available for the first time in North America, Huongs first novel is a brilliantly spun tale of a young woman who marries her professor because she so admires his idealism. When he sells out everything he believes in order to support her, her love goes. Only when they are both beyond illusions can they try again for a real relationship. Deeply lyrical and wholly believable, this early novel is illuminated by the haunting language and ...