McSweeney's Issue 78: The Make Believers

McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern #78

by Rita Bullwinkel (Editor), Thi Bui (editor), Vu Tran (editor)

In McSweeney’s 78: The Make Believers (guest edited by Thi Bui and Vu Tran), ten writers of the Vietnamese diaspora write from the eclectic hodgepodge that is their shared imagination of what it means to be “Vietnamese.”

Packaged in a beautiful foil-stamped cigar box (with art by Bui on each and every surface), and including two booklets, one menu, and a glossary of broken Vietnamese, the work in this issue spans from highbrow to lowbrow, proper to naughty, logical to absurd, and painful to funny.

Published on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, its contributors work across perspectives and multiple languages. In this completely singular, nothing-else-of-its-kind anthology, these artists write (and illustrate!) from a place of collective loss and joy.

Genres: Short Stories

189 pages, Paperback

Published April 30, 2025

About the author

Rita Bullwinkel is the author of Headshot and Belly Up, a story collection that won the Believer Book Award. She is a 2022 recipient of a Whiting Award, the editor of McSweeney's Quarterly, a contributing editor at NOON, and the Picador Guest Professor of Literature at Leipzig University in Germany, where she teaches courses on creative writing, zines, and the uses of invented and foreign languages as tools for world building.

Reviews

[Vladimir Ghinculov · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all, McSweeney's issue number 78 is, as an object, a work of art. Simply beautiful. The texts in it are a varied bunch, some very good, some really bad. I must admit that I was expecting worse because anthologising using criteria outside literature (here, ethnicity and race) is an idea that seldom pays off.

[Paul Dembina · Rating 4 out of 5]

An above average edition of McSweeney's, there is more of a cohesive feel to it due to the Vietnamese writers all having been on the same writer's retreat in France.

Common themes crop up: family, what it means to be Vietnamese in the West, language (whether North or South Vietnamese)

[Ostap Bender · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5 stars)

Well I must say, this is one of the most attractive issues for the McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern I’ve ever seen. The theme is the “Make Believers,” a group of Vietnamese authors from around the world coming together to share their experiences. The format is a cigar box containing a main book that’s crisply bound with a gorgeous cover, and also includes a smaller pamphlet on “Broken Vietnamese” explaining various idioms, which was a highlight.

As for the writing, unfortunately it was a little hit and miss. I think too much of it focused on the personal responses to the retreat in France. There were three book excerpts which I’m generally not a fan of, one of which (from Under the Burning Sky by Hoai Huong Nguyen) seemed a retread of so many other works about the war. The poetry, including the “shared poem” woven together by Isabelle Thuy Pelaud in a separate pamphlet, didn’t resonate with me.

On the positive side, these were my favorites. See if you can spot a pattern, lol:
- The Imperfect Subjunctive, by Doan Bui, an excerpt from La Tour which I will be seeking out
- Learning Vietnamese, by Doan Bui
- Like Evening, by Vu Tran
- On White-Passing and Cuttlefish, a dialogue between Doan Bui and Vu Tran
- A Glossary of Broken Vietnamese, by Doan Bui

Also pretty good:
- Paul Tran: A Portrait, by Anna Moi
- Butterfly Venom Haibun, by Paul Tran (their account of the meeting with Moi)
- Goat Yoga, by Bao Phi
- The Last Fig, by Thi Bui

Quotes:
On Vietnamese as it compares to French, from The Imperfect Subjunctive, by Doan Bui
“Not that Vietnamese wasn’t subtle; the Vietnamese of epic poetry could be very beautiful. But each language drew its own mental landscape. Vietnamese was like Vietnam’s skies: vaporous. Vietnamese was a language for ghosts, imprecise silhouettes forming in the humidity-saturated air, in the twilight and misty dawns. It was a language for music, with a thousand expressions for the sound of rain, the crackling drums of the monsoon, the discreet rippling of a morning sprinkle on a tin roof, the caressing hiss of drizzle when night falls on a red dirt road in the rice fields and the heat rises from the ground and seems to condense into a heavy cloud of humidity. French was a Cartesian, rigorous language. Sharp. A language of intellectuals, of learned theories, of precise metaphors.”

On whiteness and Asianness, from an email from Doan Bui to Vu Tran:
“My white self dreams of rebellion. I associate whiteness with a certain sense of freedom/empowerment/selfishness. White people wouldn’t call it ‘selfishness,’ though. They would use all the crappy concepts in those how-to books in the ‘personal growth’ section at bookstores. Like ‘self-care’ or ‘self-love.’ In French, we would say, Prendre soin de soi: ‘Take care of yourself.’ Whoo…Those guys have never been raised by Asian parents! My Asian self is very proud that my aunt thinks I have hieu, that I don’t care about myself and always care first and foremost about my family and my parents! My Asian self knows that the only path one can choose is self-sacrifice. It wants me to be a sweet and silent daughter, a dignified woman, frail and full of modesty.”

[Timons Esaias · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume is a cigar box containing a Table of Contents insert (laid out as a menu), a paperback, and two pamphlets. The artwork on the cigar box - inside and out - and on the paperback is colorful and exquisite. This issue is a wonderful object.

This is one of McSweeney's theme editions, in this case presenting the work of the Vietnamese diaspora, specifically works from an international residency workshop held in France. Several of the pieces are about the workshop, or use it as a setting for fiction. I have always enjoyed these snapshots of the literary world I might never otherwise come across. There have been quite a number of them over the years, and it's part of what makes McSweeney's extra special.

I was particularly interested in the discussions of language. The workshop was held in France, and French is the colonial language of Vietnam, but neither French nor Vietnamese were the common language of the workshop. English was. There were several reflections on the quandary of the expat and their native language. When folks emigrate from the home country, their language tends to freeze in the form it was the year they left. America is full of Vietnamese immigrants who speak 1970's Vietnamese, if they speak it at all. If they teach their children, they teach outdated Vietnamese. One of the writers here spent a couple of years in Vietnam recently, and on return was chided for "speaking like a Communist."

There are debates about white-passing and being cuttlefish and the varieties of émigré experience given the different countries they now live in. There are stories, poems, excerpts, memoirs, and essays. Some pieces don't fit any of those labels.

I enjoyed the experience. Recommended.

[Tom Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This special McSweeney's issue is an offshoot of a 2023 writing residency in France featuring 10 writers and comic makers of Vietnamese origin (either native or first-generation) from the USA, France, and Israel. This collection features a hodgepodge (editor's words, not mine) of stories and recollections of the two-week event, and the audience seems as much directed towards each other as to outside readers. Beyond the in-jokes and camaraderie, you'll get a peek into the complexities of Vietnamese mother/child expresions of love and duty (or perhaps duty and love), as well as an intriguing insight into the poetic spaciousness of the Vietnamese language and how it morphs and deforms as it collides with the mother language of the immigrant's children in a new country. 

"A Glossary of Broken Vietnamese," included as a separate booklet, is especially fun to read.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

This McSweeney edition collects works from current writers who all have a Vietnamese heritage but all (or most) of whom grew up in refugee families that left Vietnam after the fall of Saigon. The best stories in this volume are the ones that are deeply autobiographical that describe the immigrant child’s experience in America or France. As a non-immigrant, it was enlightening to read about the experiences of growing up an immigrant in America. The stories of the writers group of which many of the writers in this volume were a part are less interesting, and the themes too personal to resonate more broadly. From a style perspective, there are a few stories that are very tightly constructed and compelling, and the others are looser with less focus on a singular plot line.

[Kaylee · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an awesome collection of work - I love the fact that this came from a writers' retreat! How many retreats turn out that way?

I can't say I enjoyed every piece, but they were all worthy of being included. I did especially like the correspondence between Doan and Vu -- and thought it wasn't so much "white-passing" as much as literally any group of people that you feel like you're maybe not 100% "right" for but you still can fit in just enough. I think even when we want to be part of a group, there's always a sense that we're not quite enough ______ for that group.

Anyway, great collection. And I always love the McSweeney's packaging.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy how McSweeney's has been doing more thematic compilations, this one actually created from the work of a writing residency of artists from the Vietnamese diaspora. A mix of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry that centers the collection around Vietnamese identity. The collaborative poem in its own booklet was a particular highlight for me. Read McSweeney's. Support independent publishers.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here the whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts. The design and art are stunning. The collaborative nature of the collective came across beautiful in both the themes that run throughout as well as the way the pieces speak to each other. You get the sense of getting to peek in on the workshop and the friendships that were formed which is really neat.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tight anthology by a group of Vietnamese writers who all intended the same writer's retreat. This volume shines when it talks about their experiences at the retreat. I especially enjoyed the collaborative pieces and those discussing the immigration experience from multi-generational perspectives.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting concept - essentially the results of a writers' retreat

[Paul van Zwieten · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories/letters by Doan Bui (Learning Vietnamese) and Doan Bui & Vu Tran (On white passing and cuttlefish) stood out.

[Fabienne Fourquet · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a Vietnamese descent person I really enjoyed reading this book. A way to discover Vietnamese culture commonalities as well as discovering diverse poetic writing styles. Also the box is beautiful.