Longings: Contemporary Fiction by Vietnamese Women Writers

by Quan Manh Ha (Translator), Quynh H. Vo (Translator)

While mainstream Vietnamese history chronicles a few woman warriors of the past and some contemporary female activists, Vietnamese women always have performed their roles in the quiet shadows of men. To illuminate those shadows, Quan Manh Ha and Quynh H. Vo have brought into English the first anthology of its kind, featuring twenty-two contemporary stories written by Vietnamese women whose narratives make visible the multitudinous lives of Vietnamese women over the last two decades.

All the stories in Longings appear in English for the first time, inviting new readers to appreciate the “Longings” or aspirations of Vietnamese women as they have had to face suffering and struggle, hope and despair, sorrow and joy, while navigating an uncharted course through the social and economic waves that have lifted or lowered their lives since the US–Vietnam normalization in the mid-1990s.



The wife in Da Ngan’s “The Innermost Feelings of White Pillows” suppresses sexual frustration at her husband’s impotence by stuffing her pillows with new fibers. The rural women in Tran Thuy Mai’s “Green Plums” have no choice but to become prostitutes to earn a living. The mother in Pham Thi Phong Diep’s “Mother and Son” demonstrates an unconditional sacrifice and ineffable love for her adopted son despite his insolence and ingratitude. A woman in Nguyen Thi Chau Giang’s “Late Moon” violates all prescribed gender norms in order to live freely.



Longings brings together stories by both well-established and emerging Vietnamese writers, those who come from various regions in Vietnam and represent the diversity and richness in Vietnamese short fiction. This anthology expands the audience for deserving authors and broadens perspective on the heterogeneous voices, narrative styles, and thematic interests of women who contribute to the growing corpus of contemporary Vietnamese short fiction.

280 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 19, 2024

Reviews

[Damir · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is always difficult to rate a collection of short stories, especially when the collection is compiled of different writers, so this is simply the rating I’d give each story on average.

Having said that, this collection is quite a rare treat for international readers who wish the get acquainted with (as the title suggests) contemporary reflections of women’s experiences both restrospectively, and in current Vietnam.

The most interesting aspect to me personally was getting acquainted with social and cultural norms in everyday lives you normally wouldn’t get to take part of.

These stories will not pull the rug from underneath your feet, they are rather tranquil even when they are bold and direct. It was a pleasant read and I kind of wish it was the first book in a series of “contemporary short fiction by Vietnamese women writers” (wink to the publishers).

Without speaking Vietnamese myself, it’s worth mentioning that the translation seems quite excellent too.

[Kurt Kirton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book on the plane when I flew to Vietnam for vacation, trying to learn more about Vietnamese culture and people. The different voices in this book are fascinating and focus more on today's Vietnam rather than on the war, which most Americans know about. The short stories are fun to read because you get in and get out; unlike a novel—which you have to read from cover to cover. My favorite stories in this book are The Red Cushion, Desolate Grassy Hill, The Island, and The Haunted Garden. HIGHLY recommended.

[Steph | bookedinsaigon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a… complicated relationship with translated Vietnamese literature. In that I want to support it, but I rarely end up liking it as much as I’d like. Thankfully, I did quite like LONGINGS, this anthology featuring scores of short stories by contemporary Vietnamese women writers. While none of the individual stories are likely to win international literary prizes (more on that below), as a whole I found this a very coherent anthology, admirably reflecting the range of issues that Vietnamese women from the last 50 years face, and giving us plenty to think about.

I highly recommend reading the translator’s note before diving in, as it helped me better understand the challenges of translating Vietnamese stories and perhaps why they aren’t (yet) as accessible to international readers. The editors/translators point to things such as sudden point-of-view and tense changes that can read as clunky writing, but are rather features of the Vietnamese language. It helped me go into the stories with a more open mind and a greater willingness to forgive these writing quirks that I might normally judge more harshly.

LONGINGS does a great job in depicting the universality of the female experience. The women in these stories live in different decades and different places (urban vs. rural), and some of them belong to one of the 53 ethnic minority groups in Vietnam. (I’ve almost never come across stories written by and featuring people from these ethnic groups, so that was cool!) Despite that, many of them share similar experiences and concerns. Many of the characters struggle to reconcile their own desires with the expectations placed on them by their families, society, or financial needs. Many of the women navigate challenges with finding a husband, having children, or taking care of their family members. Some stories are about women who go into sex work, and how that affects their standing in a society that finds sex work shameful yet can’t exist without it.

The majority of these stories are exactly 10 pages long, making it easy to read one or two a day. The length is both a selling point and a drawback. Even if one story feels dull or underdeveloped, it’s usually over quickly enough. However, I do wonder what these writers could have done had longer-form creative writing been encouraged. Would there be greater attention paid to crafting each characters’ unique voice, rather than them ending up all sounding similar? Would there be more showing and less telling? Vietnamese lit seems to depend a lot on info-dumping through dialogue. It’s not the most sophisticated form of storytelling.

Despite this, I think that overall LONGINGS succeeds in its purpose of bringing a range of contemporary Vietnamese female voices to an English-reading audience. Read it bit by bit, and understand its limitations, and maybe you will see what I see in it.

[Rebecca M · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Longings, the female characters do not uniformly rebel against patriarchy; some challenge it directly, while others carve out quiet forms of autonomy within its boundaries. The men, too, are portrayed not always as monolithic oppressors but as products of the same traditions that confine the women. What ultimately emerges is a portrait of Vietnamese women who, though bound by social expectations, find meaning in the very act of questioning. Their stories speak not only to the condition of contemporary Vietnamese society but also to the universal human desire for recognition, love, and freedom.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read most of these stories for a book club discussion on Southeast Asia and found them fascinating. I have never been to Vietnam and these stories provide me with a quick snapshot of the contemporary Vietnamese family and culture. Some of the stories are distressing because women can be victims of patriarchy, more than I could ever relate to from my cultural perspective, while some stories celebrate strong-willed women who challenge social norms. A great diversity of voices and human experience.

[TarHeelReader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this beautiful copy of Longings from one of my favorite authors, one whose lyrical writing teaches me something new each time I experience it. @nguyenphanquemai_, author of Dust Child and The Mountains Sing, has a short story featured within these pages, and there are other talented and skilled women writers to meet and discover their important works as well.

Longings: Contemporary Fiction by Vietnamese Women Writers, part of the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network Series, is one of those books I’ve felt honored to read and share. It’s the first anthology of its kind, illuminating the lives of Vietnamese women. The Longings are the women’s aspirations, their struggles, and their triumphs.

The authors and stories chosen for the anthology represent different regions of Vietnam, as well as more established and newer authors. The works are stunning, powerful, and left me wanting to read more from each author. I challenge those of you who have enjoyed books like The Women, myself included, to spend some time with own voices works, including Longings, as well as Dust Child, and The Mountains Sing, among others. I’m so grateful for my time spent within these pages.

I received a gifted copy.

Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader

[Josie Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

While Vietnamese literature in English translation is often either about classic masterpieces or about the US war in Vietnam and its aftermath, Longings deviates from this trajectory because it centers less on the war and more on gender issues and women’s aspirations in the early twenty-first century. The introductory essay by Huỳnh Như Phương excels at succinctly placing the stories within the larger context of the US/Vietnam normalization in the mid-1990s and Vietnam’s heteropatriarchal culture. The translators’ footnotes are sparse but adequate and unobtrusive, as the stories make sense of women’s self-determination struggles, sexual harassment, and adultery.

As an anthology, Longings is as thematically and stylistically multidimensional as the Vietnamese women’s experiences and their desires for freedom, recognition, and respect, regardless of whether they come from the Kinh population or ethnic minority groups.

Excerpt from my review in World Literature Today