Following are links to three reviews of Lan Cao’s “The Lotus and the Storm,” an interesting-sounding novel and another work to add to the long and hallowed list of literature about the war between Vietnam and the United States. Amazon describes the novel thusly: “Cao transports readers back to the war, illuminating events central to twentieth-century history through the lives of one Vietnamese American family. Minh is a former South Vietnamese commander of the airborne brigade who left his homeland with his daughter, Mai. During the war, their lives became entwined with those of two Americans: James, a soldier, and Cliff, a military adviser. Forty years later, Minh and his daughter Mai live in a close-knit Vietnamese immigrant community in suburban Virginia. As Mai discovers a series of devastating truths about what really happened to her family during those years, Minh reflects upon his life and the story of love and betrayal that has remained locked in his heart since the fall of Saigon.” Her previous novel, “Monkey Bridge,” was also highly regarded – the NYTimes compared it to Salman Rushdie’s and Bharati Mukherjee’s works – and I personally hope to read both soon. Here’s a very positive review of the novel on Diacritics: diacritics.org/2014/review-lotus-storm-lan-cao-2 Another good review, this time by Kirkus: https://kirkusreviews/book-reviews/lan-cao/lotus-and-the-storm/ The third review I’m posting a link for seems a little more balanced, though it, too, was quite positive: thedailybeast/articles/2014/10/09/a-different-kind-of-vietnam-story.html And finally, a YouTube interview, via LA Review of Books, with Lan Cao about her new novel: https://youtube/watch?v=PeYQaahv5kk And here’s one of her reading from her novel (the two excerpts start with an introduction at 5:20): https://youtube/watch?v=zbKnNgEshBo There are a number of other interviews with her, many in Vietnamese, for those interested in searching for them on YouTube. If anyone has read either of these novels, which were written 17 years apart, I’d love to hear what you thought.
Posted on: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 10:23:33 +0000
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