26 Dec / This Is All I Choose to Tell: History and Hybridity in Vietnamese American Literature by Isabelle Thuy Pelaud [in San Francisco Chronicle]
What’s wrong with this scenario? Robert Olen Butler’s A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain wins the Pulitzer Prize despite “his portrayal of sweet and off-beat Vietnamese American caricatures,” as San Francisco State University Associate Professor Isabelle Thuy Pelaud diplomatically comments in This Is All I Choose to Tell: History and Hybridity in Vietnamese American Literature.
Meanwhile, multifaceted, defiant Vietnamese American writer Linh Dinh (Fake House) is “denigrated and dismissed for addressing the ruthless reality of life on the margins, which includes caricatures of offbeat white characters,” and bestselling author Monique Truong (The Book of Salt) is asked by her first publisher “to simplify the language because they said a Vietnamese cook could not possibly have such sophisticated thoughts and the language was too poetic for an uneducated Asian character.”
This is why Pelaud needed to write “the first book-length study of [Vietnamese American] literature.” She deftly examines 35 years of Vietnamese American writing in two parts, providing historical and cultural context in “Inclusion,” then offering close readings of diverse titles in “Interpretation.” She argues that two markers – the Vietnam War and the arrival of most Vietnamese to America as refugees, not immigrants – clearly differentiate, but should not define or limit, Vietnamese American literature from other longer-established Asian American literatures.
Pelaud shows rare weakness when she gets entangled repeating other scholars’ work – her chapter, “Hybridity,” for example – rather than relying on her own sharp perceptions. Her shrewd insight gleams brightest in “Reception” when critiquing the critics. In spite of historical, cultural and commercial challenges facing Vietnamese American writers, Pelaud’s closing prediction that soon, “more stories will be published” is certainly reason for hopeful anticipation.
Review: San Francisco Chronicle, December 26, 2010
Readers: Adult
Published: 2010
Thanks for this review of an important, ground-breaking work. Quick aside: in 1997 Monique Truong penned a scathing critique of Olen Butler’s collection and Pulitzer Prize–I have it handy, in fact, but no way to post it here.
If you send me a PDF of the Truong file, I think I might be able to figure out how to post it … sounds like a really important piece to share for sure!
I have absolutely no business buying another book right now, but this I must buy! I look for books such as that explain how stories are and are not told.
Hey, ’tis the holiday season … all about consumption, right? But really, one can NEVER have too many books!
There’s always the library, too (what a thought, huh?). I actually HAVE been going to our local branch more often, especially for older titles. The Pelaud title you probably aren’t going to find in a library any time soon since it’s so new (pub date is actually forthcoming still — Dec 30), but you might just check out some of other recent Vietnamese American titles to give this read some greater depth. Might I suggest any titles by Linh Dinh or Monique Truong (both authors mentioned in the review), as well Angie Chau’s Quiet As They Come and Andrew Lam’s East Eats West, both out this fall …
Thanks, as always, for visiting BookDragon. Happy, happy to you, too!