Bao Ninh
Encyclopedia
Bảo Ninh is a Vietnam
ese novelist and short story writer.
His real name is Hoàng Ấu Phương and he was born in Nghệ An province (his ancestors were from Quảng Bình province
), Vietnam. During the Vietnam War
, he served in the Glorious 27th Youth Brigade. Of the five hundred who went to war with the brigade in 1969, he is one of ten who survived.
war, Bảo Ninh shot into the limelight with his debut novel,
Thân phận của tình yêu, (The Destiny of Love) published 1991 in Hanoi. An
English translation by Frank Palmos
and Phan Thanh Hao was published
in 1994, with the title The Sorrow of War, which became a widely acclaimed
novel, with some critics placing the work among the most moving
war novels of all time. Counterfeits of the English language edition then became widely available in Vietnam for the tourist trade.
Sorrow of War is a nonlinear narrative by Kien, a North Vietnamese soldier during the Vietnam War, chronicling his loss of innocence, his love, and
his anguish (sorrow and sadness) at the memories of war, a short summary of the novel follows:
The novel weaves back and forth between tales of unfulfilled love and the narrative of war, which fails to
fulfill its own objectives. The tale is hauntingly told, verging on poetry:
At one level, the novel can be said to be about effects of war on
people, and especially how it defeats the human capacity for love:
On another level, it is about the horrors, and the eventual futility of war.
The novel is openly critical of communist propaganda, e.g., the slogans
that ban young people from enjoying sex, love, and marriage - these are the "Three Don'ts" in the pre-war communist heterodoxy.
At another point, Kien sympathizes with the owner of a coffee plantation in the South, who says he does not care for the government, neither north nor south, the main aim is that people should be happy.
There is no joy even in the eventual victory, only grim fatigue among the
heaped up corpses at Saigon airport
after the American withdrawal.
Possibly due to these nuances, the novel was briefly banned after its release in 1991. However, with the winds of liberalization sweeping Vietnam in the 1990s, the immensely popular book could not be suppressed.
The book has also gained wide readership in the South where it is one of
the few books to present the story from the other side of the Civil War. Admirably, Bảo Ninh does this
without blaming the other side in any way. Another work in this
vein is Novel without a Name by Duong Thu Huong
.
In 2005, it was republished in Vietnam under its original name, The Understanding of Love (Thân phận của tình yêu); another edition in 2006 adopted the Vietnamese version of the English title (Nỗi buồn chiến tranh).
reluctant to publish, possibly because he feels it is not as natural as his earlier
work.
A short story by Bảo Ninh, "A Marker on the Side of the Boat" (Khắc dấu mạn thuyền), translated by Linh Dinh
, is included in the anthology Night, Again
.
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
ese novelist and short story writer.
His real name is Hoàng Ấu Phương and he was born in Nghệ An province (his ancestors were from Quảng Bình province
Quang Binh Province
Quảng Bình , formerly Tiên Bình under the reign of Le Trung Hung of the Lê Dynasty, this province was renamed Quảng Bình in 1604) is a province in the North Central Coast of Vietnam....
), Vietnam. During the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, he served in the Glorious 27th Youth Brigade. Of the five hundred who went to war with the brigade in 1969, he is one of ten who survived.
The Sorrow of War
A successful short story writer focusing primarily on stories about thewar, Bảo Ninh shot into the limelight with his debut novel,
Thân phận của tình yêu, (The Destiny of Love) published 1991 in Hanoi. An
English translation by Frank Palmos
Frank Palmos
Francis Palmos is an Australian journalist, author and translator, best known for his work in South East Asia.-Books:* Ridding the devils...
and Phan Thanh Hao was published
in 1994, with the title The Sorrow of War, which became a widely acclaimed
novel, with some critics placing the work among the most moving
war novels of all time. Counterfeits of the English language edition then became widely available in Vietnam for the tourist trade.
Sorrow of War is a nonlinear narrative by Kien, a North Vietnamese soldier during the Vietnam War, chronicling his loss of innocence, his love, and
his anguish (sorrow and sadness) at the memories of war, a short summary of the novel follows:
- Kien is a soldier who seems to have a never-ending source of luck in his battles, for whenever all of the troops in his platoon die, he survives. The novel starts with him riding in a MIA Remains-Gathering Truck charged with the collection of bodies in the Jungle of Screaming Souls where Kien's first team of soldiers, the 27th Battalion was eliminated except for him. This scene begins many flashbacks that tie together the novel and are almost unable to be discerned for their chronological order. The story that the reader learns to follow is that of the love affair between Kien and his childhood sweetheart, Phuong, who he constantly references at the beginning of the story but only near the end do the largest events in their history take place. The subject then falls upon the novel being written by Kien and how he seems fated to write it by his survival from these battles and he feels that its completion will bring solace. Once the novel is completed, a mute girl who Kien began seeing when drunk to use to bounce his ideas off, gained a hold of the text while Kien was attempting to burn the pages. This burning of all his work is an allusion to what is told of Kien's artist father who fell into a similar slump after Kien's mother's divorce and burned all of the paintings he had painted over the years. The novel ends with an excerpt from a new narrator who is said to have found Kien's novel from this mute woman. He talks about the nonsensical order and grave subject matter but also its entrancing nature and how he felt that it needed to be published.
The novel weaves back and forth between tales of unfulfilled love and the narrative of war, which fails to
fulfill its own objectives. The tale is hauntingly told, verging on poetry:
- The sorrow of war inside a soldier's mind was in a strange way similar to the sorrow of love. It was a kind of nostalgia, like the immense sadness of a world at dusk.
At one level, the novel can be said to be about effects of war on
people, and especially how it defeats the human capacity for love:
- It was hard to remember a time when his whole personality and character had been intact, a time before the cruelty and the destruction of war had warped his soul. A time when he had been deeply in love, passionate, aching with desire, hilariously frivolous and light-hearted, or quickly depressed by love and suffering. Or blushing in embarrassment. When he, too, was worthy of being a lover and in love …
- But war was a world with no home, no roof, no comforts. A happy journey, of endless drifting. War was a world without real men, without real women, without feeling.
On another level, it is about the horrors, and the eventual futility of war.
The novel is openly critical of communist propaganda, e.g., the slogans
that ban young people from enjoying sex, love, and marriage - these are the "Three Don'ts" in the pre-war communist heterodoxy.
At another point, Kien sympathizes with the owner of a coffee plantation in the South, who says he does not care for the government, neither north nor south, the main aim is that people should be happy.
There is no joy even in the eventual victory, only grim fatigue among the
heaped up corpses at Saigon airport
Tan Son Nhat International Airport
Tan Son Nhat International Airport is Vietnam's largest international airport in terms of area . It has a handling capacity of 15-17 million passengers per year, compared with the capacity of Hanoi - Noi Bai airport of 8 million passengers and Da Nang's 2 million passengers...
after the American withdrawal.
Possibly due to these nuances, the novel was briefly banned after its release in 1991. However, with the winds of liberalization sweeping Vietnam in the 1990s, the immensely popular book could not be suppressed.
The book has also gained wide readership in the South where it is one of
the few books to present the story from the other side of the Civil War. Admirably, Bảo Ninh does this
without blaming the other side in any way. Another work in this
vein is Novel without a Name by Duong Thu Huong
Duong Thu Huong
Dương Thu Hương is a Vietnamese author and political dissident. Formerly a member of Vietnam's Communist party, she was expelled from the party in 1989, and has been denied the right to travel abroad, and was temporarily imprisoned for her writings and outspoken criticism of corruption in the...
.
In 2005, it was republished in Vietnam under its original name, The Understanding of Love (Thân phận của tình yêu); another edition in 2006 adopted the Vietnamese version of the English title (Nỗi buồn chiến tranh).
Other writings
Bảo Ninh has written a second novel, Steppe, that he isreluctant to publish, possibly because he feels it is not as natural as his earlier
work.
A short story by Bảo Ninh, "A Marker on the Side of the Boat" (Khắc dấu mạn thuyền), translated by Linh Dinh
Linh Dinh
Linh Dinh is a Vietnamese-American poet, fiction writer, translator, and photographer. He was a 1993 Pew Fellow.-Biography:...
, is included in the anthology Night, Again
Night, Again
Night, Again is an anthology of contemporary Vietnamese fiction, edited by Linh Dinh.Published in 1996 by Seven Stories Press, then reissued in 2006 with two new stories, Night, Again features key authors emerging from the liberalization of Đổi Mới in the 1980s, as well as major writers living...
.