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Postcards From Nam
Award-Winning Finalist in the Multicultural category of the 2012 International Book AwardsMimi (the protagonist of Mimi and Her Mirror) is a successful young Vietnamese immigrant practicing law in Washington, D.C. when the postcards begin to arrive. Postmarked from Thailand, each hand-drawn card is beautifully rendered and signed simply "Nam." Mimi doesn't recognize the name, but Nam obviously knows her well, spurring her to launch what will become a decade-long quest to find him. As her search progresses, long-repressed memories begin to bubble to the her childhood in 1970s Vietnam in a small alley in pre-Communist Saigon. Back then, who was her best friend as well as her brother's playmate, and what did art have anything to do with the alleys of her childhood? What was the dream of these children then? What happened when these children were separated by the end of the Vietnam war, their lives diverged onto different one to freedom and opportunity, the other to tragedy and pain? Now Mimi must uncover the mystery of the postcards, including what might have happened to the people who where less those who escaped the ravaged homeland by boat after the fall of Saigon. When the mystery is solved, Mimi has to make a what can possibly reunite the children from the alley of her childhood even when the alley exists no more?
115 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 15, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
November 30, 2012
I find myself somewhat disappointed as I write this review. I am old enough to remember the video of South Vietnamese attempting to breech the American embassy to escape the oncoming North Vietnamese army, the lines of people snaking to the embassy roof to climb on to the final helicopters. It was a horrible time for those who remained in the South.
In her novella, Uyen Nicole Duong writes of a woman turning 40 who emigrated from Viet Nam after that fall of Saigon in 1975. This woman has a CV remarkably like the author's but we are told this is not a memoir. Instead it becomes a somewhat tortured reminiscence of childhood, a friendship lost and resurrected by the titular postcards. This childhood friend, Nam, did not leave Vietnam when Mimi did but escaped later and had a torturous trip to "freedom".
I am not going to discuss all the plot points here. I don't like to reveal all though all becomes obvious fairly early in this short book. One of my major concerns is stylistic. The narrative is frequently written in almost poetic style but here it does not serve well. It tends to appear overwrought or overworked instead of well thought out and appropriately emotional.
One final thought. Could the author have intended Nam to be an idea or, in fact, her birth country, not a person? I ask because I recall a time when that country was frequently known as Nam. In fact, when I first saw this book, that is what I thought the title meant, PostCards from Vietnam.
Rating 2.5 or 3
In her novella, Uyen Nicole Duong writes of a woman turning 40 who emigrated from Viet Nam after that fall of Saigon in 1975. This woman has a CV remarkably like the author's but we are told this is not a memoir. Instead it becomes a somewhat tortured reminiscence of childhood, a friendship lost and resurrected by the titular postcards. This childhood friend, Nam, did not leave Vietnam when Mimi did but escaped later and had a torturous trip to "freedom".
I am not going to discuss all the plot points here. I don't like to reveal all though all becomes obvious fairly early in this short book. One of my major concerns is stylistic. The narrative is frequently written in almost poetic style but here it does not serve well. It tends to appear overwrought or overworked instead of well thought out and appropriately emotional.
One final thought. Could the author have intended Nam to be an idea or, in fact, her birth country, not a person? I ask because I recall a time when that country was frequently known as Nam. In fact, when I first saw this book, that is what I thought the title meant, PostCards from Vietnam.
Rating 2.5 or 3
September 3, 2011
Postcards from Nam, the new novella by Uyen Nicole Duong, is a gem, like the shard of a pearl found in the white sand, a rare find.
Just prior to the fall of Saigon, Mi Chau, age eleven, flees Vietnam with her parents to America, abandoning her aristocratic grandmother to the Communist regime.
Once in America, Mi Chau sets about creating her new life, assuming the name Mimi. She leaves behind the horrors of her flight, imposing upon herself a sort of amnesia about her youth. She attends Harvard and becomes a lawyer in the nation's capitol.
And then one day the postcards from Thailand start to arrive.
Each postcard is hand drawn with images of the Vietnamese culture, a life Mimi has forgotten, accompanied by a few lines written to Mi Chau and signed, simply, Nam. Confessions of regret, that the author was unable to protect Mi Chau's grandmother, as he promised her he would. Others profess of his longing to protect Mi Chau, to take care of her.
Slowly, with help from her mother, Mimi begins to remember.
Nam was the young boy who lived nearby to Mi Chau, who always listened to her practicing Beethoven's Für Elise on the piano, telling her she played beautifully; who knew of her love of honeyed toasts and always brought her a basket of them as a token of his devotion and adoration.
And so Mimi sets about reconstructing the past, on a mission to learn Nam's story. Like a jigsaw puzzle, Mimi fits the pieces together, from Nam's own family (now relocated to America), from a lawyer friend with contacts in Thailand, and from the old man who piloted the boat on which Nam sailed into exile. She learns of his flight from Saigon at age fifteen, his heroism in saving his younger brother while on the boat, the savagery he endured at the hands of pirates, the life he chose in Bangkok--the stone he fruitlessly pushes uphill--and finally, when the postcards stop, his relocation to Australia to enter the priesthood. Ms. Duong does a marvelous job depicting the tragic Nam through the few forlorn words he writes to Mi Chau on his postcards.
Postcards is a heart wrenching story of tragic, unfulfilled love; but it also so much more--that shard of a broken pearl beautiful in its own right. At times told with frank detachment, other times with honest sincerity, it is truly a rare find.
Just prior to the fall of Saigon, Mi Chau, age eleven, flees Vietnam with her parents to America, abandoning her aristocratic grandmother to the Communist regime.
Once in America, Mi Chau sets about creating her new life, assuming the name Mimi. She leaves behind the horrors of her flight, imposing upon herself a sort of amnesia about her youth. She attends Harvard and becomes a lawyer in the nation's capitol.
And then one day the postcards from Thailand start to arrive.
Each postcard is hand drawn with images of the Vietnamese culture, a life Mimi has forgotten, accompanied by a few lines written to Mi Chau and signed, simply, Nam. Confessions of regret, that the author was unable to protect Mi Chau's grandmother, as he promised her he would. Others profess of his longing to protect Mi Chau, to take care of her.
Slowly, with help from her mother, Mimi begins to remember.
Nam was the young boy who lived nearby to Mi Chau, who always listened to her practicing Beethoven's Für Elise on the piano, telling her she played beautifully; who knew of her love of honeyed toasts and always brought her a basket of them as a token of his devotion and adoration.
And so Mimi sets about reconstructing the past, on a mission to learn Nam's story. Like a jigsaw puzzle, Mimi fits the pieces together, from Nam's own family (now relocated to America), from a lawyer friend with contacts in Thailand, and from the old man who piloted the boat on which Nam sailed into exile. She learns of his flight from Saigon at age fifteen, his heroism in saving his younger brother while on the boat, the savagery he endured at the hands of pirates, the life he chose in Bangkok--the stone he fruitlessly pushes uphill--and finally, when the postcards stop, his relocation to Australia to enter the priesthood. Ms. Duong does a marvelous job depicting the tragic Nam through the few forlorn words he writes to Mi Chau on his postcards.
Postcards is a heart wrenching story of tragic, unfulfilled love; but it also so much more--that shard of a broken pearl beautiful in its own right. At times told with frank detachment, other times with honest sincerity, it is truly a rare find.
November 25, 2012
Postcards from Nam
I forgot that I was reading a work of fiction until I finished Postcards from Nam. Until that time, I thought I was reading a memoir. The curious thing is that as a memoir, I would have given the book three stars, but as a novel, a novella, really, only two stars. That got me to thinking. Why would I find more merit to a book as a memoir than a novel? Considerable reflection on this question has led me to conclude that the answer lies in the fact that the novelist has a different purpose than the writer of memoirs. There is more to writing a novel than merely creating a series of events, even interesting and historically significant events.
Twenty five years ago, Mi Chau, now an attorney about to turn 40 years old, was airlifted out of Vietnam just before the fall of Saigon. In the ensuing years, she periodically received hand drawn postcards from Thailand, signed only by “Nam.” Improbably, until reminded by her mother, she had forgotten that Nam was her next door neighbor in Saigon who had a crush on her and promised to take care of her. Mi Chau becomes determined to find out what happened to Nam after she left Saigon. She learns that Nam left Vietnam on a refugee boat headed for Singapore, but it was intercepted by pirates. Nam was brutally raped and left for dead, only to be saved by a kind hearted buddhist fisherman. Somehow, Nam ended up as a male sex entertainer in Thailand. The short novel ends with Mi Chau composing a letter to Nam. Interspersed are short vignettes of different characters from Mi Chau's life and second hand accounts of Nam's travails after the war.
The experiences of Vietnamese refugees after the war are certainly worth telling, and the author was clearly immersed in those experiences and brings the period to life. This is the stuff of which powerful memoirs are written. But more than being a witness to historically significant events is needed for a successful novel. As interesting as some of the scenes are and as skillful as the writer is with the language, the book just doesn't quite deliver as a novel. If I were the author's editor, I would have had her rewrite the ending. Indeed, I would have had her provide the story with an ending, because it really doesn't have one.
A note about my grading system. I rate books within their genres, as there is no point in comparing a self help book to a book of poems or a work of history. This is true within genres, and a four star for a detective novel is not the same as a four star for a work of serious fiction. Very few books rate five stars, which are reserved for masterpieces or near masterpieces, within their genre. On the theory that one should not read bad books, and therefore differentiating between bad, worse and really horrible is a waste of time, one star means simply not worth reading, period. Two, three and four stars all indicate that the book is readable, and one might think of them as meaning “a book with some merit,” “a good, solid book,” and “a very good book” respectively.
I forgot that I was reading a work of fiction until I finished Postcards from Nam. Until that time, I thought I was reading a memoir. The curious thing is that as a memoir, I would have given the book three stars, but as a novel, a novella, really, only two stars. That got me to thinking. Why would I find more merit to a book as a memoir than a novel? Considerable reflection on this question has led me to conclude that the answer lies in the fact that the novelist has a different purpose than the writer of memoirs. There is more to writing a novel than merely creating a series of events, even interesting and historically significant events.
Twenty five years ago, Mi Chau, now an attorney about to turn 40 years old, was airlifted out of Vietnam just before the fall of Saigon. In the ensuing years, she periodically received hand drawn postcards from Thailand, signed only by “Nam.” Improbably, until reminded by her mother, she had forgotten that Nam was her next door neighbor in Saigon who had a crush on her and promised to take care of her. Mi Chau becomes determined to find out what happened to Nam after she left Saigon. She learns that Nam left Vietnam on a refugee boat headed for Singapore, but it was intercepted by pirates. Nam was brutally raped and left for dead, only to be saved by a kind hearted buddhist fisherman. Somehow, Nam ended up as a male sex entertainer in Thailand. The short novel ends with Mi Chau composing a letter to Nam. Interspersed are short vignettes of different characters from Mi Chau's life and second hand accounts of Nam's travails after the war.
The experiences of Vietnamese refugees after the war are certainly worth telling, and the author was clearly immersed in those experiences and brings the period to life. This is the stuff of which powerful memoirs are written. But more than being a witness to historically significant events is needed for a successful novel. As interesting as some of the scenes are and as skillful as the writer is with the language, the book just doesn't quite deliver as a novel. If I were the author's editor, I would have had her rewrite the ending. Indeed, I would have had her provide the story with an ending, because it really doesn't have one.
A note about my grading system. I rate books within their genres, as there is no point in comparing a self help book to a book of poems or a work of history. This is true within genres, and a four star for a detective novel is not the same as a four star for a work of serious fiction. Very few books rate five stars, which are reserved for masterpieces or near masterpieces, within their genre. On the theory that one should not read bad books, and therefore differentiating between bad, worse and really horrible is a waste of time, one star means simply not worth reading, period. Two, three and four stars all indicate that the book is readable, and one might think of them as meaning “a book with some merit,” “a good, solid book,” and “a very good book” respectively.
February 5, 2014
This is a very compelling novella that I read in one day. I did not know initially that it was part of a three book series. I liked it so much I just downloaded the other two and I'm looking forward to reading them. I was an adolescent went the Vietnam war was raging. I had/have absolutely no knowledge of the actual culture of Vietnam. I really enjoyed learning about what it was like for the "boat people" through this book. It was a real education into an area that I had so little knowledge of. Of course, this isn't the gist of the book. The story itself is a fascinating journey. How immigrants can live their dreams in America resonates with my own family history. But the childhood nightmares of the immigrants are never buried far enough under the surface to stay hidden. The author takes on that journey too!
July 29, 2012
This was a poignant story and held my interest even though the method of narration was unusual and rather poetic. We become quite involved in Nam's fate, even though he never speaks and we see him only through the eyes of the narrator Mimi and through reports of the horrific experiences he has undergone in getting out of Vietnam in the 70s. This is the last in a series of 3 novels and I wish I had read the other two before this one - but this does stand on its own. Mimi is an upwardly mobile immigrant lawyer who realizes that she has left her human side and her childhood behind her in Vietnam...and has the courage to get out of the rat race and look within herself to reconnect with her beginning.
June 18, 2012
An intriguing premise -- a Vietnamese woman living in America gets mysterious postcards from a figure from her troubled past -- that was beautifully written, but ultimately fell short because of an ending that left much to be desired. But, focusing on the positive, here are two quick examples of the writing that illustrate the author's talent:
- "It was I who found her on the floor in a pond of blood."
- "I held Nam's postcards in my two hands, shaking and crying until I felt dehydrated."
- "It was I who found her on the floor in a pond of blood."
- "I held Nam's postcards in my two hands, shaking and crying until I felt dehydrated."
June 18, 2012
This novella is an extremely quick read (afternoon at the pool + bedtime) that packs a powerful story, beautifully written. It did leave me wanting to learn more about MiMi and Nam's story, but as it was presented, it is a deeply personal and raw story of the Vietnamese experience around the war.
September 18, 2023
A short and simple book telling the tale of a Vietnamese woman living in the USA who is trying to come to terms with her past.
It's only a short story and my main issue with the book is that it was so short and didn't go into much detail at all into the harrowing details of the war which led Mi Chau and her parents to flee from Vietnam. It's beautifully written though and I particularly liked the narrator's relationship with her grandmother - and the guilt that has followed her into her comfortable adulthood in America.
It's only a short story and my main issue with the book is that it was so short and didn't go into much detail at all into the harrowing details of the war which led Mi Chau and her parents to flee from Vietnam. It's beautifully written though and I particularly liked the narrator's relationship with her grandmother - and the guilt that has followed her into her comfortable adulthood in America.
May 17, 2017
A woman who was born in Vietnam during the war years. She leaves as a child in 1975 to the USA. this is about the homemade postcards she receives from Nam a childhood friend. one day the postcards stop for years than starts up again. then stops again she now wonders what happened to her friend. she goes to Vietnam as an adult to try and find out what happened to Nam. Pretty good for the most part.
February 19, 2017
"Almond eyes". I grew tired of that descriptor in this short novel by Duong. It's abrupt end was a frustration, in that I wanted to understand how simply telling Nam's story was enough for Mimi. Upon reading the Postscript, though, I learned that this is the third and final installment of a series. Perhaps investing time in the prequels will help me enjoy Postcards From Nam more than I did.
January 23, 2018
I read this like 2 years ago and still feel emotions that this book evoked. Wonderful read.
June 18, 2018
To me this was more of a short story than a novella. That said it was fascinating. I did listen on audible and I believe the reader hindered my enjoyment of this story.
April 26, 2024
I found this Novella a truly evocative read. There was no surprise in it for me with the abuse Nam suffered, but there was certainly a sense of suffering with him (if that's possible)& a true feeling of shame imagining the abuse & degradation the pirates put him through.
The old fusherman was a true bright spot.
A wonderful piece of literature.
The old fusherman was a true bright spot.
A wonderful piece of literature.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 26, 2017
This novella is about Mimi, a young vietnamese woman who fled to America from Vietnam with her family right before the fall of Saigon. About 10 years after she has assimilated and become a lawyer, she begins receiving hand drawn postcards signed by someone named Nam. The story unfolds as she discovers who Nam is and the connection to her past life in Vietnam.
I'm not sure if I liked this book. I thought it ended a bit abruptly and a little too "artistically" for my taste. I read the afterword and found that this was originally a full novel but it was slimmed down to a novella. Based on the author's writing style, that may have been a good thing, but they may also have edited out some things that would have left me a little more satisfied with how the story developed. So, I didn't hate the book, but I didn't love it either.
I'm not sure if I liked this book. I thought it ended a bit abruptly and a little too "artistically" for my taste. I read the afterword and found that this was originally a full novel but it was slimmed down to a novella. Based on the author's writing style, that may have been a good thing, but they may also have edited out some things that would have left me a little more satisfied with how the story developed. So, I didn't hate the book, but I didn't love it either.
January 13, 2014
Here we have a fictionalized account of a young Vietnamese woman's intriguing interaction with a childhood friend, a fellow who sends her postcards. The cards seem to arrive in her mailbox at random, despite the fact that `Mimi' has only a vague recollection of who this `Nam' is, or how he knows her address. This very short novel quickly becomes metaphor for American involvement in the War in Vietnam many years ago, and its lingering hold on American consciousness. Ms Duong is a brilliant writer, whose family arrived from Vietnam and made a life for themselves in this country. So her Mimi character has reason to look back with mixed feelings to the land her family left behind. These Postcards from `Nam,' which is not only the sender's name but the Vietnamese word for `South,' evoke those memories, forcing Mimi to dredge up childhood memories as well.
Full disclosure, as a military veteran of the war in Vietnam, my initial attraction to this little book was in thinking it was truly `postcards from Vietnam.' It is not. Yet it is. But it isn't. Thus the conundrum of Westerners dealing with Eastern thought, Eastern ways and indeed one of the obstacles America faced in the war we failed to win in that small country.
Ms Duong writes very well, unfortunately, by the end of the book we know far more about Nam than we know about Mimi. We read about her mother, various Vietnamese operatives who escaped Vietnam after April 1975 and fellow employees in Houston. But we never quite get a sense of who this young Harvard trained Vietnamese woman is, what drives her, what she fears, and what or who she loves. Indeed, why do Nam and his postcards resonate with her so?
Byron Edgington, author of The Sky Behind Me: A Memoir of Flying & Life
Full disclosure, as a military veteran of the war in Vietnam, my initial attraction to this little book was in thinking it was truly `postcards from Vietnam.' It is not. Yet it is. But it isn't. Thus the conundrum of Westerners dealing with Eastern thought, Eastern ways and indeed one of the obstacles America faced in the war we failed to win in that small country.
Ms Duong writes very well, unfortunately, by the end of the book we know far more about Nam than we know about Mimi. We read about her mother, various Vietnamese operatives who escaped Vietnam after April 1975 and fellow employees in Houston. But we never quite get a sense of who this young Harvard trained Vietnamese woman is, what drives her, what she fears, and what or who she loves. Indeed, why do Nam and his postcards resonate with her so?
Byron Edgington, author of The Sky Behind Me: A Memoir of Flying & Life
September 2, 2011
I chose this book from the Amazon Vine newsletter, the premise of the story really appealed to me, and I've not read many novels set around Vietnam before - so was interested to learn a little more. This is a novella really at just 100 pages long, but every one of the pages contain words that really touch the heart.
Mimi is a succesful lawyer based in America, she is a Vietnamese immigrant who has americanised both her name and her lifestyle. Mimi's family were lucky enough to be able to leave their home in South Vietnam just before the North took over. Other family members and friends were not so lucky though, and Mimi has distanced herself from the memories of her past. Then, out of the blue, postcards begin to arrive. Beautifully, hand drawn postcards that are personal to Mimi, and to her past. Who is sending them, and why? What do they mean?
After speaking with her family, it becomes clear to Mimi that these cards are being sent by Nam. Nam was a childhood neighbour back in Vietnam and Mimi has heard nothing from him for years. Determined to find out more about the cards and about Nam, Mimi tracks down refugees and learns through them, of Nam's ordeals over the past years. He has suffered dreadfully, yet still he remembers her.
There are some haunting passages in this short novel, the terrors suffered by Nam over the years are harsh, yet his love for Mimi never dies and his art work iives on.
This is a beautifully crafted story.
Mimi is a succesful lawyer based in America, she is a Vietnamese immigrant who has americanised both her name and her lifestyle. Mimi's family were lucky enough to be able to leave their home in South Vietnam just before the North took over. Other family members and friends were not so lucky though, and Mimi has distanced herself from the memories of her past. Then, out of the blue, postcards begin to arrive. Beautifully, hand drawn postcards that are personal to Mimi, and to her past. Who is sending them, and why? What do they mean?
After speaking with her family, it becomes clear to Mimi that these cards are being sent by Nam. Nam was a childhood neighbour back in Vietnam and Mimi has heard nothing from him for years. Determined to find out more about the cards and about Nam, Mimi tracks down refugees and learns through them, of Nam's ordeals over the past years. He has suffered dreadfully, yet still he remembers her.
There are some haunting passages in this short novel, the terrors suffered by Nam over the years are harsh, yet his love for Mimi never dies and his art work iives on.
This is a beautifully crafted story.
October 20, 2011
Short but to the point.
Although this novella was only 90 pages long, it delivered quite a punch. With a slow start describing Mimi's life as a lawyer in America, the book opens out to describe her past as a child in Saigon before it fell to the Communist North, and the difficulties of escaping from the country.
Mimi's escape was traumatic enough and she was devastated to leave a much beloved grandmother. But many were even less fortunate and suffered as the 'boat people' that we heard so much about on the news at the time. With storms, pirates and often refusal on their eventual arrival, this was an hugely risky way to escape.
The postcards of the title arrived from Thailand without return addresses, signed 'Nam'. At first Mimi could not fathom who they could be from, but when she finally realises the identity of Nam she is forced to remember suppressed memories from her childhood.
Mimi interviews several survivors, to relate a piece of history that has probably slipped from many memories.
Although this is the third of a trilogy, I did not feel I should have read the other books first. Having read Postcards From Nam, however, I would very much like to read the previous 2 books.
Written in a slightly awkward style, I would still recommend this for its powerful content.
For an alternative read based in Vietnam, I would also suggest The Man From Saigon by Marti Leimbach.
Although this novella was only 90 pages long, it delivered quite a punch. With a slow start describing Mimi's life as a lawyer in America, the book opens out to describe her past as a child in Saigon before it fell to the Communist North, and the difficulties of escaping from the country.
Mimi's escape was traumatic enough and she was devastated to leave a much beloved grandmother. But many were even less fortunate and suffered as the 'boat people' that we heard so much about on the news at the time. With storms, pirates and often refusal on their eventual arrival, this was an hugely risky way to escape.
The postcards of the title arrived from Thailand without return addresses, signed 'Nam'. At first Mimi could not fathom who they could be from, but when she finally realises the identity of Nam she is forced to remember suppressed memories from her childhood.
Mimi interviews several survivors, to relate a piece of history that has probably slipped from many memories.
Although this is the third of a trilogy, I did not feel I should have read the other books first. Having read Postcards From Nam, however, I would very much like to read the previous 2 books.
Written in a slightly awkward style, I would still recommend this for its powerful content.
For an alternative read based in Vietnam, I would also suggest The Man From Saigon by Marti Leimbach.
August 23, 2011
The little Vietnamese boy was going to draw postcards one day and send them from all round the world. But why can Mimi not remember him when she starts receiving the illustrated notes at her apartment in Washington DC? “I have a theory about memory,” she says, in Uyen Nicole Duong’s short novel Postcards from Nam. “We never completely forget. We only bandage ourselves.”
The touches of memory in this novel are as light as the strokes of a paintbrush sketching in details of Saigon at the end of the war, of families in changed circumstances, of richness of heritage grown perilously poor. Mimi grows up in America and becomes a successful lawyer, but the postcards from Thailand, with no return address, send her searching for her past, interviewing boat-people, aid workers and her own family till at last the forgotten young man is remembered and honestly recognized; not young anymore, scarcely even an image of who he was, a young man who’s hidden courage and love in picture-postcards and memories.
Postcards from Nam is quietly intriguing story, a fascinating journey through memory, and a heartbreaking picture of human inhumanity and endurance—short, haunting and wonderful.
Disclosure: I received an uncorrected proof copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The touches of memory in this novel are as light as the strokes of a paintbrush sketching in details of Saigon at the end of the war, of families in changed circumstances, of richness of heritage grown perilously poor. Mimi grows up in America and becomes a successful lawyer, but the postcards from Thailand, with no return address, send her searching for her past, interviewing boat-people, aid workers and her own family till at last the forgotten young man is remembered and honestly recognized; not young anymore, scarcely even an image of who he was, a young man who’s hidden courage and love in picture-postcards and memories.
Postcards from Nam is quietly intriguing story, a fascinating journey through memory, and a heartbreaking picture of human inhumanity and endurance—short, haunting and wonderful.
Disclosure: I received an uncorrected proof copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
June 1, 2013
This is an unsettling short novel. The beginning is full of description of a Houston hotel by the woman living in it and I can tell the author's mastered her writing craft. It slowly but surely catches the reader, unwinding the story of Mimi, a Vietnam refugee as a child. She was once an up and coming lawyer in DC. Now she's a writer, living in this hotel.
Then she receives a postcard from Nam. Not from Vietnam, but from a person called Nam. This isn't the first one. They began to arrive when she was a lawyer. She couldn't remember anyone named that. Not at first.
Through recollections, we learn how she gradually realized who Nam was: a childhood friend left behind when Saigon fell. Through Mimi's research, we are taken on Nam's journey as he tries to escape the war blighted country. We learn about human goodness and human savagery. We learn about the effects of war and how people struggle to continue on afterward. We learn how they take remains of the past and weave them into their new lives.
I won't reread it. The ending left me dissatisfied and sad. But the story itself continues to haunt me. An excellent literary read.
Then she receives a postcard from Nam. Not from Vietnam, but from a person called Nam. This isn't the first one. They began to arrive when she was a lawyer. She couldn't remember anyone named that. Not at first.
Through recollections, we learn how she gradually realized who Nam was: a childhood friend left behind when Saigon fell. Through Mimi's research, we are taken on Nam's journey as he tries to escape the war blighted country. We learn about human goodness and human savagery. We learn about the effects of war and how people struggle to continue on afterward. We learn how they take remains of the past and weave them into their new lives.
I won't reread it. The ending left me dissatisfied and sad. But the story itself continues to haunt me. An excellent literary read.
September 23, 2013
This was a Daily Deal book from Amazon and the first book I have read on my Kindle. I found reading on the Kindle easy and fine. As usual for me, my fingers don’t seem to tap properly so I would end up opening things instead of just turning a page, but I imagine even my fingers will eventually start behaving correctly. I still like to read paper books and listen to audiobooks; now I have another way to read.
I was captivated with the story of the Vietnamese refugee woman who had succeeded beyond expectations in America – law degree and successful practice. Once successful she realizes she must deal with her early refugee experiences and her inner demons including how she treated other people in her past. I felt the story was just getting started, when it ended. Apparently this was written as a novella and there are two other related novellas. I will need to read her other books: Mimi and her Mirror and Daughters of the River Huong.
I did not like the long and fairly tiresome POSTSCRIPT: A TRIBUTE TO MIMI written by GBA Nash. I would skip it.
I was captivated with the story of the Vietnamese refugee woman who had succeeded beyond expectations in America – law degree and successful practice. Once successful she realizes she must deal with her early refugee experiences and her inner demons including how she treated other people in her past. I felt the story was just getting started, when it ended. Apparently this was written as a novella and there are two other related novellas. I will need to read her other books: Mimi and her Mirror and Daughters of the River Huong.
I did not like the long and fairly tiresome POSTSCRIPT: A TRIBUTE TO MIMI written by GBA Nash. I would skip it.
March 3, 2014
This is the story of a Vietnamese woman who was evacuated from South Vietnam as a young girl of 9 at the end of the Vietnam War. When she is an adult she begins to receive postcards addressed to her Vietnamese name and doesn't recognize the sender so she puts them away and ignores them. She eventually asks her mother if she remembers anyone by the name of Nam and her mother says yes, the boy across the street was named Nam. MiMi then recalls that the boy used to sit for hours and listen to her practice the piano, held her hand after her mother almost died from blood loss following a miscarriage, and promised to keep her grandmother safe when she refused to leave Vietnam during the evacuation. Really? You could forget a person who was such an integral part of your life in less than 15 years? The story went downhill from there. What other reviewers referred to as "prose" I found choppy and difficult to read. The premise of the story, receiving surprise postcards from a long lost childhood friend, was good. I think the book could've been so much more.
May 25, 2014
I do lots of work for Vietnam Veterans' groups, and was intrigued by the title of this novella, seen in one of my daily Amazon Kindle emails, thinking of Nam as a place. Duong's characters painted me a vivid picture of one man's story of survival--a story of putting others first...of compassion. For certain, it was Quan Yin who carried Nam, just as the Blessed Mother or Jesus Christ might carry an American or European thru horrific ordeals.
Many of the pictures saved in my head, from the news reports on the fall of Saigon In '75 came flooding back.
A powerful little read, I did not realize this was part of a three book collection.
As an educator, I appreciate the comments made regarding word painting, "show me, don't tell me" and the raw honest truth for so many of today's teens (and "not-so-teen") and the written word: "...the attention span of readers of the twenty-first century is measured by the size of the computer screen and how quickly links can be clicked and browsed."
Take the time for this story...let it flow...
Many of the pictures saved in my head, from the news reports on the fall of Saigon In '75 came flooding back.
A powerful little read, I did not realize this was part of a three book collection.
As an educator, I appreciate the comments made regarding word painting, "show me, don't tell me" and the raw honest truth for so many of today's teens (and "not-so-teen") and the written word: "...the attention span of readers of the twenty-first century is measured by the size of the computer screen and how quickly links can be clicked and browsed."
Take the time for this story...let it flow...
September 26, 2012
This story seems to be a vehicle for the author to string together short portraits of the hard life of those fleeing Vietnam in the 1970's. While it's a relief to see a work of fiction not written with a film option in mind, the prose doesn't live up to the serious content the author attempts to portray.
Too much emotion is expressed in "I felt" and not in making the reader feel it too. The centerpiece story, that of Nam, needs more development of the character of Nam, and less of the melodramatic (so bad we can't talk about it) build up to his sad story.
I received this (free) from the Amazon Vine program, but had I paid $10.95 + shipping I'd be very disappointed. It's called a novella, but at 90 pages (achieved only by spreading out the text) it is a short story better suited to a literary magazine. An essay at the end appears to be filler. Comment | Permalink
Too much emotion is expressed in "I felt" and not in making the reader feel it too. The centerpiece story, that of Nam, needs more development of the character of Nam, and less of the melodramatic (so bad we can't talk about it) build up to his sad story.
I received this (free) from the Amazon Vine program, but had I paid $10.95 + shipping I'd be very disappointed. It's called a novella, but at 90 pages (achieved only by spreading out the text) it is a short story better suited to a literary magazine. An essay at the end appears to be filler. Comment | Permalink
August 19, 2014
This novella is about a Vietnamese immigrant who becomes a lawyer in Washington, D.C. She begins receiving postcards from "Nam." Each have beautiful drawings. She doesn't recognize the name but, as they continue to come, begins searching for the sender. This search leads her to having suppressed memories of her time in Vietnam during the 70s to bubble to the surface. And she remembers a boy from her neighborhood. As she searches for Nam her memories of the horrors of war and communism come back.
The tale started very well but slowly drifted off. I don't know if it was me becoming uninterested or the author inability to portray to story in a way that kept me involved.
I realized after I finished it was the 3rd in a trilogy. I don't think reading the first two stories would have helped, though.
The tale started very well but slowly drifted off. I don't know if it was me becoming uninterested or the author inability to portray to story in a way that kept me involved.
I realized after I finished it was the 3rd in a trilogy. I don't think reading the first two stories would have helped, though.
May 3, 2015
This novella is often beautiful but also disturbing. It tells the story of a young girl surviving in Vietnam before the fall as a story of privilege being exposed to the baser side of life. She is forced to grow up quickly as she witnesses the poverty and pain of Vietnam as it fails but she is protected and revered by a neighbor boy that (at the time) she dismisses as below her status. She escapes Vietnam to America and the boy also leaves later on in much worse circumstances. His story as he protects his brother and the life he ends up leading is difficult to bear. But through it all his art survives and he keeps in touch through hand drawn postcards but the woman's interest in him comes too late. This story is painful but the descriptions, the touches of humanity (and inhumanity) are written with a purpose and a beauty of words into art. How fitting.
October 24, 2011
The years of the war in Vietnam were wrenching even for those of us who witnessed it on the eveing news, at a remove. This deceptively slender novella packs more dynamite in its pages than others three times its length. The experiences are brought to the forefront of a young girl, her family, and her memories of their early life in Saigon before it became Ho Chi Minh City. Her early love for and from a young boy who didn't make it out of Vietnam in 1975 are surpressed until she starts receiving postcards signed by him decades later. The importance of history and the personal angle are beautifuly, almost poetically, realized, and the book will haunt me for a long time to come. Highly recommended.
January 11, 2013
Short book that tells the story of a few young people in Vietnam at the end of the war. I learned about the evacuation, boat people, and the way the Vietnamise were regarded after the war ended. Being a teenager, with family and friends directly involved in the war, my perception seemed to only be about the GI's during the conflict. I found it interesting to learn more about people who were my age and living thru the conflict. Nam was a childhood friend of a young girl who eventually became an American attorney. After 15 pr 20 years, she started receiving postcards from Nam thus peeking her interest to find out what had happened to him. His journey was much different than hers.
March 12, 2014
This novella was a reduced-price kindle offer, an Amazon "reward." I took it, I read it, and I even finished it. Notes at the end seemed to be a professor's study guide, and somewhere I read this author has been or is currently a college professor. If the book had been used for that purpose, I would have rated it much higher. I also read that originally this book was much longer and was shortened to fit the classroom model. Perhaps, if I could have read the longer version, I might raise the rating. As it is, it seemed a bit choppy, jumping from scene to scene and idea to idea too hastily. The subject-Boat People and the evacuation of Saigon--is an important one. I hope to read more of this author.
April 6, 2015
Postcards from Jam by Uyen Nicole Duong
This book is less then a 100 pages, but takes you on a longer visual trip. The author takes us into the world of different cultures, and her writing does the same. You won't be able to say you love these books, but, they are lovely stories. At times confusing yet simply written you find yourself in the back alleys of Saigon, with the rain and smells of that country, only to be jerked back to the stifling heat of Houston Texas, with its southern drawl interrupted with Vietnamese language with a French accent. This is an easy book to read, but mentally, hard. I enjoyed all three of her books, but still feel like the story wasn't complete!
This book is less then a 100 pages, but takes you on a longer visual trip. The author takes us into the world of different cultures, and her writing does the same. You won't be able to say you love these books, but, they are lovely stories. At times confusing yet simply written you find yourself in the back alleys of Saigon, with the rain and smells of that country, only to be jerked back to the stifling heat of Houston Texas, with its southern drawl interrupted with Vietnamese language with a French accent. This is an easy book to read, but mentally, hard. I enjoyed all three of her books, but still feel like the story wasn't complete!
August 9, 2011
Uyen Duong has completed a three part series about the end of the Vietnam War with this book. The books also deal with the resettlement issues that faced children who left Vietnam as the war came to an end. I didn't know about the earlier books when I picked this one, but now I would like to red them.
this book follows Mimi(Mi Chau) a successful, young lawyer as she tries to find out what happened to a childhood friend after Mimi and her parents left Vietnam. Nam has sent her occassional postcards, but none say where he is living or what he is actually doing. His story turns out to be rather horrific, but Duong gracefully tells the story in small, third person narrations.
this book follows Mimi(Mi Chau) a successful, young lawyer as she tries to find out what happened to a childhood friend after Mimi and her parents left Vietnam. Nam has sent her occassional postcards, but none say where he is living or what he is actually doing. His story turns out to be rather horrific, but Duong gracefully tells the story in small, third person narrations.
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