A Good Scent From A Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler

I've been reading these short stories since my holiday in Vietnam at Easter.

I have thoroughly enjoyed each one, so I have no idea why it has taken me son long to get through this book.

Actually, yes, I do.

It's the font and the paper.

My edition of A Good Scent from A Strange Mountain came from an American publisher. It didn't cost very much. It's made with rough textured, off-white (okay, yellowed) paper and the font - type and size - is ghastly.

Australians often bitch and moan about the price of books here, but we pay for what we get. Our books are usually published on good quality paper, well-bound with generous fonts. It costs a bit more money to do this, but I think it is worth it.

I don't enjoy picking up this book.

It feels cheap and nasty.

Which is a shame, because the stories are delightful - poignant, descriptive and insightful.
Like many North American books about Vietnam, it focuses on the Saigon and South Vietnam experience only. Or more accurately, South Vietnamese immigrants living in Louisiana.

Butler served in Vietnam as a counter-intelligence special agent from 1969-1971 and later worked as a translator. So I guess that makes the connection and the reason why obvious.

The truly remarkable feature of these stories though, is how well and how completely Butler enters the Vietnamese character's psyches. It feels authentic and it feels respectful.

As an aside, I was curious to see that Butler has now been married five time!

Winner of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize.

A Good Scent From A Strange Mountain is no.15 in my #15in31 challenge - yay me!
Thanks Andi for the inspiration and encouragement to finish so many books this month. Now I just have to get on top of the reviews!

Man by Kim Thuy

Earlier on in the year I attended an author event with Thuy and read Ru. I adored it. It was beautiful, heart-felt and poetic.

Last week I was in need of some beauty and picked up Thuy's latest book, Man in anticipation.

Once again, Thuy explores the immigrants story. The search for self, family and belonging is teased out thoughtfully via our narrator, Man.

Language and its many vagaries are played with, although sadly, I suspect that reading this book in English means that we miss many of the subtleties between Vietnamese and French.

Thuy/Man also talks about this issue of language,

To grasp the nuances between two related words, to distinguish melancholy from grief, for example, I weigh each one. When I hold them in my hands, one seems to hang like grey smoke while the other is compressed into a ball of steel. I guess and I grope and the answer is often the right one as the wrong one. I constantly make mistakes.

I confess that Man's story failed to engage me in the same way as Ru. It was an interesting, enjoyable tale, but it lacked the vibrancy and beauty that I experienced with Ru.

Perhaps the autobiographical nature of Ru added that personal touch that gave its story an extra edge or immediacy. Maybe the love story at the centre of Man felt unbelievable. I also wanted more food stories.

But there is no denying Thuy's ability to create unique word pictures in both books:

I had learned how to fall asleep very quickly, on command, so that my eyelids would serve as curtains over landscapes or scenes from which I preferred to be absent. I was able to move from consciousness to unconsciousness with a snap of the fingers, between two sentences, or before the remark that would offend me was spoken.

Paris in July

Hourra!!
Vive La Paris!

This is one of my favourite times of year - when all things French and Parisian takes over my life. Thyme for Tea's, Paris in July event is the perfect antidote to freezing cold winter holidays in Canberra and cold, grey July days back at work.

Tamara has already run a badge making contest in the lead up to this month...with the winner, Lisbeth from Content Reader, on display (left).

Despite my anticipation and excitement, I will have to keep my plans low-key and reasonable this year though as we are also moving house soon.
Please excuse any erratic attendance at events or posting deadlines.

One of my winter reading books was picked with this event in mind (as well as my Easter holiday in Vietnam).

The Book of Salt by Monique Truong:

Binh, a Vietnamese cook, flees Saigon in 1929, disgracing his family to serve as galley hand at sea. The taunts of his now-deceased father ringing in his ears, Binh answers an ad for a live-in cook at a Parisian household, and soon finds himself employed by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas.

Toklas and Stein hold court in their literary salon, for which the devoted yet acerbic Binh serves as chef, and as a keen observer of his "Mesdames" and their distinguished guests. But when the enigmatic literary ladies decide to journey back to America, Binh is faced with a monumental choice: will he, the self-imposed "exile," accompany them to yet another new country, return to his native Vietnam, or make Paris his home?

I also hope to add a couple of smaller, lighter reads into the month, time and packing permitted.

Onto matters totally unrelated - today is my 6th blogging anniversary!

Last year I had the time and energy to collate all kinds of interesting stats about my reading and reviewing habits.

This year I didn't even remember the occasion. 

Dear Nancy @ipsofactodotme remembered for me. Thank you Nancy for your attention to detail and ceremony way and above the call of international blogging duty. You are a treasure xoxo

Hopefully life will stop being so crazy busy soon and my blogging routine will return to schedule. Until then dear friends,

Bonne Lecture.

Ru by Kim Thuy

I love it when I discover a new author that simply bowls me over with the beautiful simplicity of her story. Reading Thuy's (pronounced twee) autobiographical novel, Ru has been a magical, moving experience.

"I came into the world during the Tet Offensive, in the early days of the Year of the Monkey, when the long chain of firecrackers draped in front of houses exploded polyphonically along with the sound of machine guns."

Like Thuy, and her protagonist, An Tinh, I was born in the Year of the Monkey, 1968, but our two stories could not be further apart. Yet last night we shared a chat and a laugh and compared comfort foods (Thuy - congee; me - vegemite on toast).

Thuy spent the first ten years of her life in Saigon; most of that time was taken up with post war reconstruction and re-education programs. Her family then fled Vietnam via boat and eventually ended up in a Malaysian refugee camp. Some time later they emigrated to Quebec, Canada.

There is nothing ordinary or usual about this story and there is nothing usual or ordinary about Thuy's writing - it's a mixture of the poetic, the graphic and the sublime.
Thuy reminds us all to see and feel the love in all the different and subtle ways that people show it to us.

I had the pleasure of meeting Thuy twice during the week at the Writer's Festival in Sydney. She confirmed that her books are such a mix of fact and fiction that it's almost impossible to separate the two out.

Her books begin as "fat documents that get simmered down" into word precise vignettes. I loved the image she painted of walking "around the words to see them from every angle" before selecting them or deleting them from each draft. For me, the only flaw with this style of writing is that the vignettes only just hung together and they didn't quite come to a satisfactory end. But Ru was all about the journey, not the destination. It's the writing, the emotions and the memories that stay with you for days afterwards.

I can't wait to get into Thuy's latest novel, Man, also written in French and translated by Sheila Fischman.

Ru has been won several awards since its 2009 publication -

WINNER 2015 - Canada Reads
WINNER 2011 – Grand prix littéraire Archambault
WINNER 2011 – Mondello Prize for Multiculturalism
WINNER 2010 – Prix du Grand Public Salon du livre––Essai/Livre pratique
WINNER 2010 – Governor General’s Award for Fiction (French-language)
WINNER 2010 – Grand Prix RTL-Lire at the Salon du livre de Paris
Longlisted 2013 – Man Asian Literary Prize
Longlisted 2014 – International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
Shortlist 2012 - Scotiabank Giller Prize
Shortlist 2012 – Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation

If you loved Like Water For Chocolate and Perfume, I think you will also love Ru.

Which Travel Guide?

At work I often get asked which travel guide people should take with them on holidays.

In the past I have been known to travel with up to three or four guides tucked into my backpack and suitcases.
I like them all for different reasons - the weight be damned!

Our recent trip to Vietnam gave me a good excuse to work out what it was about three particular ones that I liked and why. We travelled with a Vietnam Lonely Planet, a Vietnam and Angkor Wat DK Eyewitness and one Wallpaper Guide for Ho Chi Minh City.

Personally I am drawn to the DK Eyewitness books.
I like the glossy pictures and full page spreads featuring areas of interest. I like how they go into depth about the history and the culture. I usually find myself reading the DK on the plane heading over to get me excited about what I will be seeing and experiencing. However, some of their information for Asian countries feels secondhand or a little out of date.

It's the Lonely Planet that I turn to for the details that I need.
I can always count on them to give me specific information about tickets, prices and correct addresses. Their writers have been on the ground and checked out the tours and the places of interest.
But the Lonely Planet folk can sometimes sound a bit cynical or jaded. I also I feel that they cater to the younger backpacker more than older traveller.

And that's where the Wallpaper Guide came in.
One of the many, many advantages of being an older (or as I prefer to think of it - a more experienced!) traveller is being able to afford a nicer style of accomodation and dining experience.
When we wanted to know a good restaurant or roof top bar to adjourn to, the WG never led us astray. The whole shopping thing is not really my focus when I go overseas so I tend to skim those sections. But the information in the WG about the architecture and landmarks was fascinating and useful.

There are so many more travel guides for Vietnam - the montage above highlights just a few of the most well-known ones. Maybe we missed something really important or really special by not travelling with one of these?
Or maybe we should ditch all the travel guides? Perhaps we're missing out on a truly authentic, free-wheeling experience by not discovering everything for ourselves and working it all out as we go along?

In today's modern world it's also nigh impossible to travel without our modern technologies. Supplementing our Vietnam travel books, our recent holiday also relied on dear old google maps and tripadvisor. Is all this easy information and sharing a good thing or not?

Do you like to travel with a guide or two?
Which travel guides do you like to travel with and why?

I hope to plan another holiday again soon so I can research this very interesting topic in more depth!

The Frangipani Hotel by Violet Kupersmith

The Frangipani Hotel is a collection of contemporary short stories predominantly set in Vietnam - which made for the perfect holiday read whilst travelling through said Vietnam.

The stories featured Saigon, Hanoi, the Mekong, the USA and a convent. The cast of characters included refugees, nuns, siblings, ex-pats, soldiers and ghosts.
Plenty of ghosts in fact, as well as haunts, the walking dead and even a were-snake!

Some of the ghosts were friendly & protective whilst some lured people to their deaths. Others tried to steal your soul or mess with your head. Some were lost, wandering the heavens & earth looking for somewhere to belong.

The ghosts reflected our own inner demons and insecurities - they highlighted the pasts that haunt us all.

All the short stories were extremely diverse, very enjoyable & a pleasure to read. Kupersmith has a lovely light touch that hides a surprising depth and complexity. The creepy edges to her stories leave you with a little tingle of horror.

Family, connections and belonging are common themes throughout, as is the act of storytelling.
Kupersmith uses storytelling within the stories to reveal truths, histories & traditions. They also hide secrets & disguise what really happened.

Highly recommended not just for travelers to Vietnam, but for all lovers of beautifully told short stories.

A few views from Halong Bay Vietnam....

"Getting in touch with the beauty of nature makes life much more beautiful, much more real."
You Are Here by Thich Nhat Hanh

Halong Bay is beautiful, magical and impossible to capture.

There is a majesty in the simplicity of these limestone karsts. It's difficult to accurately capture their scale & depth.

But there is another side to Halong Bay.

The side that is on the brink of bring overdeveloped, exploited and ultimately depleted. The abundance of tourists & boats is overwhelming.

It was hard not to feel guilty at times for being there and being a part of the environmental destruction.

But there were bays and coves where one could feel like you were the only person left on earth (except for the crew on the boat!) The silence was extraordinary - broken only by lapping waves and birdsong. The peace and serenity, though fleeting, were healing in their purity. And their unexpectedness.

Like Venice, one could focus on the rubbish floating around the busier sections of Halong Bay. 

Or like Venice, you could focus on the marvels of the (natural) world.

I chose to focus on the magical beauty of Halong Bay. But the detrimental impact of human beings was never very far from my consciousness or conscience.

I sincerely hope that the Vietnamese government can work out a reasonable and environmentally ethical solution soon to this dilemma. It must be possible to enjoy this world & it's simple beauty without destroying it at the same time.