Hanoi Adieu: A Bittersweet Memoir of a Frenchman in Indochina

by Mandaley Perkins

2007 NSW Premier's Literary Awards Shortlist

Judges' Comments
 
Hanoi, Adieu encapsulates the recent tragic history of a complex and beautiful country, and at its heart is the city of Hanoi '. . . an enchanting mélange of east and west'.
Hanoi, Adieu is the elegiac memoir of Michel L'Herpinière, a young man who comes of age in the waning years of French colonialism. His story is recorded and transmuted by his stepdaughter, Mandaley Perkins. It is, as she says ... ' the story of his love for Indochina and its people ... the story of the march of folly that led France into war with the Vietminh ... the story of how decisions made far away in Paris, Saigon and Washington affected the lives of the people in this beautiful and provocative city .'
Written in the first person, the narrative is as strong and clear-eyed in discerning the political intricacies and their deadly consequences, as it is poetically evocative of the landscape and people that had captured young Michel's heart. When, with his countrymen, he is forced to flee at the eleventh hour, it is the end of the French era in Vietnam . But ... ' for the Americans ... it was just the beginning '.
As it can be with a truly dispassionate memoir or a totally engaged biography, in this book the microcosm of one man's experience holds the tragedy of his the forever-lost world of French Indochina. This is also, then, a gentle but expert lesson in the history of Indochina, making the complexities of cross-cultural and cross-ideological conflict comprehensible on the smallest of scales, that of one human being to another.
The Indochinese milieu is fascinating, exotic, and the reader suspends all moral certainties and accepts the opium den and the brothel as valid sites for Michel's rite of passage. There, in the house by the Citadel, Michel finds an unlikely mother-surrogate in the Maîtresse de la Maison , Jo, a métisse (a French-Annamese) who is perhaps fifty -- elegant, decadent, sophisticated -- and who initiates him into the rituals of love-making and opium. But, like the city itself, she is not to be read on the surface, for Jo becomes Michel's mentor, his protector and saviour as Hanoi becomes increasingly dangerous.
Hanoi, Adieu is an exquisitely beautiful and most beguiling story.

Genres: Biography, Asia, Nonfiction, Memoir

323 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Steve Woods · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those of us who got there in the 60's the shadows of what once had been were tantalizingly there but a mirage. By the time I got there in the 70's the American tsunami had all but washed it away in a flood of blood and corruption, still there it was in small corners. I have always wistfully thought that I arrived too late. This book confirms me in that view. the life was undoubtedly wonderful for those who were privileged, the colons! I have no doubt that my sympathies. like Michel's would have been with the Vietnamese and the arrogance and brutality of my countrymen would have incensed me as much. I certainly reacted with similar sentiments when I found myself as a participant in the ill conceived and conducted American War.

I did enjoy this book. It evoked much of what I thought it must have been like, serving the nostalgic in me. More importantly it gave a first hand account of a time I knew little about. The rapacious Japanese and Chinese occupations and the arrogant idiocy of the returning French and the blithe ignorance of the Americans who were so blinded by their God driven fear of the word Communist that they just couldn't see the way things were. Ho Chi Minh exerted the strongest possible effort to achieve his people's freedom without bloodshed but it was not to be and the French and the Americans played directly into the hands of the extreme wing of the Viet Minh sealing the fate of millions in the decades that followed.

It was all so unnecessary, more's the pity.

There were elements of Michel's experience that reflected my own, two decades later. Not only in Vietnam but also Cambodia Laos and Thailand. i always favoured the company of locals to the overlords. I guess had I been with him through that time I would have not fared so well among my fellow Europeans. Indeed as it was I always seemed to be in trouble for being too close to the locals. I made some great friends in the process and lost all of them in the ensuing debacle. There was much in Michel I saw in myself. We would have had great conversations had we met.

[Lavie P · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hanoi, Adieu mang đến cái nhìn rất khác về những người Pháp sống ở Hà Nội nói riêng và miền Bắc Việt Nam nói chung. Họ không đáng ghét như những gì được khắc họa trong sách lịch sử phổ thông với những từ như "bè lũ Pháp nhật", "giặc Pháp", "quân xâm lược"... Dù cho vì lý do chiến tranh người Việt dễ dàng chối bỏ việc "Pháp đã khai phá văn minh ở Đông Dương" nhưng qua cuốn sách người đọc có cái nhìn một cách công bằng và chân thực hơn. Người Pháp với cuộc xâm lăng của họ đã mang đến ánh sáng văn minh cho xứ Đông Dương lúc đó vẫn đang chìm trong tăm tối của chế độ phong kiến. Nếu có tội thì đó là tội họ đã có một cuộc sống sung túc, quý tộc, no ấm trong khi người dân xứ Đông Dương vẫn còn quá nghèo nàn lạc hậu và họ đã thực hiện khai phá văn mình bằng cách xâm lăng một đất nước độc lập. Cuốn sách phần nào đó giải thích cho những thất bại của Pháp ở Đông Dương nói chung và ở Việt Nam nói riêng, về sự tham lam và nước đi sai lầm của chính phủ Pháp khi muốn đàn áp cuộc kháng chiến của Việt Nam bằng chiến trang và bạo lực bất chấp những thiện chí từ phía Việt Minh và Chủ tịch Hồ Chí Minh. Những người Pháp sống tại Bắc kỳ thời đó, họ yêu Hà Nội, yêu Việt Nam, và với họ việc bắt buộc phải lên đường rời xa An Nam là một điều đặc biệt đau đớn.

[Lieu Dang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Một cuốn sách hiếm có về cuộc sống và xã hội tại Bắc Kỳ dưới con mắt của một người Pháp đã đi qua những thời khắc tươi đẹp nhất cũng như tuyệt vọng nhất của thời kỳ bảo hộ. Trên tất cả là tình yêu với Hà Nội và khát vọng về một nền hoà bình cho Việt Nam, và sự tiếc nuối đến cay đắng cho số phận một dân tộc cũng như bản thân khi những cơ hội thay đổi vận mệnh lần lượt bị bỏ lỡ vì những chính sách sai lầm của nhà cầm quyền dù từ phía Pháp, Mỹ hay Việt Nam...

Cuốn sách mô tả Hà Nội từ một lăng kính khác biệt. Nó là "Hà Nội 36 phố phường", là "Đêm giã từ Hà Nội", là "Hồi ký Phạm Duy"... phiên bản của người Pháp với những cảm xúc sâu sắc không kém. Để thấy rằng tình yêu cho Hà Nội có thể của bất kỳ ai gắn bó với mảnh đất này.

Cuốn sách hay nhất được đọc trong năm nay.

[Kyra White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent historical overview of French Indochina. It covers from pre WW2 up to the battle of Dien Bien Phu.

[Thong Nguyen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cũng tàm tạm, đọc hiểu biết thêm tý cũng được, có vẻ là sẽ hơi chán đó

[Vu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gives the account of Hanoi from 1936 to 1950s from a French man, Michel, who lived there. It is amusing to read about all the places that are familiar to me yet hold so much memory, glories and bitters.

His story, the up and down, are linked to the historical and political events during this remarkable time. It helps to know how the old people of Vietnam lived and the their suffers in war times. It also gives a perspective on why the course of events happen which is more specific and humane than what our history books are trying to portrait. I feel a bit sad on how things turned out and the opportunity for the peaces we missed.

The chaos and fast pace of Hanoi now have worn away the grace it once had. Writings about Hanoi in the past somehow give a person who grow up there like me a little comfort.

[zespri · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting enough read, though of course written from the perspective of the colonial. The author tells the story of her step-father, who arrived in Hanoi as a teenager, and lived there until 1950, during the last decades of French Indochina. The rise of the nationalist movement, the Japanese occupation, the revolution of the Vietminh and the refusal of the United States to aid a 'colonial regime' are all touched on.

Michel's obvious love of Hanoi shines through the book, and the descriptions of his involvement with opium are enlightening. He is though, a child of his time, and enjoys the last golden years of the Empire, before finally having to leave his beloved Hanoi with the last of the french colonials.

[Jeffrey Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book about growing up in Hanoi during the French colonial period, from a teenager in the 1930's until his departure during the war years in 1950, four years before the fall of Dien Bien Phu.

I've been to Hanoi on many occasions, and enjoy walking around "Le Petit Lac," as he did countless times over the years, and seeing the old (crumbling) colonial era buildings that still dot the city, having seen many that are referenced in the book, especially the Metropole Hotel.

If you want to get a glimpse of how life was in Asia at the end of colonial times, this is certainly a book not to be missed.

[Nicola · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed parts of this book, but at times it was still quite political. Perhaps it was necessary but I zoned out in these parts. It captured the essence of Hanoi and I certainly wanted to be part of it reading his descriptions. I felt there could have been more character development. Took me ages to read as it didn't hook me in and it almost became a chore to read.

[Bec · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shows how the impact of occupants can have on a country, its people and its history.

[Lynette · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating insight into life for the French as they gradually lost their Indochinese territories - a memoir is necessarily subjective but nonetheless this was well researched and authentic.

[Maree Larkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book helped me understand what the war in Vietnam was all about and why it was impossible for America to win it.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this engaging memoir of French Indochina. Having almost no knowledge of Vietnamese history, I found it a good way to get a feeling for the country, it's people and history.

[Dtminh Doan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Một quãng đời tuổi trẻ, một khung cảnh Hanoi thời quá khứ, lịch sử được nhìn nhận dưới mắt một con người không định kiến chính trị. Một cuốn sách hay, đọc chậm