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Dragonfish
A thrilling work of sophisticated suspense set amid the Vietnamese underworld in Las Vegas.
Robert, an Oakland cop, still can't let go of Suzy, the enigmatic Vietnamese wife who left him two years ago. Now she's disappeared from her new husband, Sonny, a violent Vietnamese smuggler and gambler who's blackmailing Robert into finding her for him. As he pursues her through the sleek and seamy gambling dens of Las Vegas, shadowed by Sonny's sadistic son, "Junior," and assisted by unexpected and reluctant allies, Robert learns more about his ex-wife than he ever did during their marriage. He finds himself chasing the ghosts of her past, one that reaches back to a refugee camp in Malaysia after the fall of Saigon, as his investigation soon uncovers the existence of an elusive packet of her secret letters to someone she left behind long ago. Although Robert starts illuminating the dark corners of Suzy’s life, the legacy of her sins threatens to immolate them all.
Vu Tran has written a thrilling and cinematic work of sophisticated suspense and haunting lyricism, set in motion by characters who can neither trust each other nor trust themselves. This remarkable debut is a noir page-turner resonant with the lasting reverberations of lives lost and lives remade a generation ago.
Robert, an Oakland cop, still can't let go of Suzy, the enigmatic Vietnamese wife who left him two years ago. Now she's disappeared from her new husband, Sonny, a violent Vietnamese smuggler and gambler who's blackmailing Robert into finding her for him. As he pursues her through the sleek and seamy gambling dens of Las Vegas, shadowed by Sonny's sadistic son, "Junior," and assisted by unexpected and reluctant allies, Robert learns more about his ex-wife than he ever did during their marriage. He finds himself chasing the ghosts of her past, one that reaches back to a refugee camp in Malaysia after the fall of Saigon, as his investigation soon uncovers the existence of an elusive packet of her secret letters to someone she left behind long ago. Although Robert starts illuminating the dark corners of Suzy’s life, the legacy of her sins threatens to immolate them all.
Vu Tran has written a thrilling and cinematic work of sophisticated suspense and haunting lyricism, set in motion by characters who can neither trust each other nor trust themselves. This remarkable debut is a noir page-turner resonant with the lasting reverberations of lives lost and lives remade a generation ago.
1 pages, Audiobook
First published July 27, 2015
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About the author
Vu Tran
12 books85 followersVu Tran is the author of Dragonfish—a NYT Notable Book and a San Francisco Chronicle Best Books of the Year—and a forthcoming novel, Your Origins. His other writing has appeared in publications like the O. Henry Prize Stories, Best American Mystery Stories, Ploughshares, and Virginia Quarterly, and he guest-edited McSweeney’s Issue #78: The Make Believers. He is also the recipient of a Whiting Award and fellowships from the NEA, MacDowell, Yaddo, and Bread Loaf. Born in Vietnam and raised in Oklahoma, Vu completed his MFA at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and his PhD at the Black Mountain Institute in Las Vegas, and is an Associate Professor of Practice at the University of Chicago, where he directs undergraduate studies in creative writing.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 408 reviews
December 29, 2024
From the jacket cover, the reader learns that this novel is about an Oakland cop who is asked to find his ex-wife who is currently married to a Vietnamese smuggler and gambler; in this pursuit, the cop learns more about his ex-wife than he ever knew during his 8-year marriage. That sort of describes the novel. For me, what is notable is the story of damaged Vietnamese refugees along with the ugly underbelly that runs Las Vegas. This noir type novel leaves the reader feeling the bleakness and hopelessness of not only Las Vegas, but of the life of refugees who are haunted by their past.
Vu Tran’s writing is extraordinary. I’m surprised at the lack of press on this novel. Perhaps it’s because it came out in summer and this isn’t a beach read. The author’s use of dark similes and metaphors makes this a slow read, one to be noticed. Because of this, the novel started out slow for me and it took me a bit to slow down. From the jacket cover, I expected a fast paced crime novel. It is not. It’s a slow creeping noir novel that is beautifully written and must be savored. I highly recommend it for those who love this genre.
Vu Tran’s writing is extraordinary. I’m surprised at the lack of press on this novel. Perhaps it’s because it came out in summer and this isn’t a beach read. The author’s use of dark similes and metaphors makes this a slow read, one to be noticed. Because of this, the novel started out slow for me and it took me a bit to slow down. From the jacket cover, I expected a fast paced crime novel. It is not. It’s a slow creeping noir novel that is beautifully written and must be savored. I highly recommend it for those who love this genre.
December 5, 2015
Apologies in advance to the author for what I am about to say, but this is just my opinion. The book didn’t really work and the reasons are manifold. It had a strong start, partly because I misinterpreted the prose to indicate that the main character was a youngish Vietnamese-American cop. That seemed a completely fresh and unique angle on a crime novel or series, but it turned out the main character was in fact a white, middle-aged man, Robert Ruen, married to a Vietnamese immigrant, Phạm Thị Hồng. No matter how good the man—he was a nice cop—his doomed marriage to a woman who was not interested in him makes for a very uncomfortable reading experience.
Bob didn’t like the way Americans pronounced Hồng’s name so he encouraged her to take the name of his first girlfriend, Suzy. Really? I mean, really… Ewww. When Bob and Suzy make love, Bob notes she would “whimper, a child-like thing a lot of Asian women do…” Really? How the heck would Bob know? Have a thing for Asian women, Bob? Ewww.
One major problem I encountered was the lack of a consistent viewpoint or a character I liked well enough to care about. The novel is written in first person, making Bob the central character. But then the huge swathes of Hồng’s diary are written in first person, making her the narrator. But really the center seemed to me to be a young male Vietnamese resident of Las Vegas, Victor. Victor seemed understanding enough and compassionate enough to lead us to the intention of the novel. Victor just came too late and too briefly (and at the same time too long, if that is even possible), over halfway through the novel.
If the different viewpoints could have been brought in without monopolizing (and paralyzing) the narrative for too many pages - just give us bits of their thinking at a time. The author would have to trust us readers to be able to distinguish the character's individual viewpoints, at least that problem would be solved.
Whose novel was this? If I had to guess, the story is Hồng’s: her path from Vietnam was traumatic. She became a “bounder,” a woman who scarpers, a woman who leaves husband and children, avoiding relationships. Frankly, with the folks she hitched up with, I would, too. The author showed us that, but I never really felt he was in on the irony--he was an insufficient advocate for a woman under duress. I guess the idea was that Hồng continued to feel trauma since her coming to the States. I totally get that. The problem is that Hồng’s diary just wasn’t enough to sustain our sympathy for her. We had her behaviors to deal with, and they were really unattractive. If she could only have said "I don't know what to do," among all the other stuff in her diary which was written not at all like someone's diary, I might have gotten there.
On an ordinary day, I seek out non-white viewpoints in American literature for what it can teach me. What this taught me is that dreams and spirits are important and commonly-accepted parts of Vietnamese culture and individuals are given some leeway to accommodate spiritual things in their everyday lives. This is not completely unique: Latin cultures express it also, with differences.
I also learned that there is a different character to the violence expressed in ordinary conflict that is outside the thuggish beatings and shootings Americans commonly experience with gang or domestic violence among whites or blacks. In this novel the quality of the violence is distinct: there is a kind of slick sadism that leaves one feeling queasy. Our man Bob was completely out of his element, which was the point, I guess. It was just hard for me to warm up to anyone.
Two stars for getting this published.
Chris Abani’s graceful review of this title in the NYTimes is worth reading, as is most everything Abani writes.
Bob didn’t like the way Americans pronounced Hồng’s name so he encouraged her to take the name of his first girlfriend, Suzy. Really? I mean, really… Ewww. When Bob and Suzy make love, Bob notes she would “whimper, a child-like thing a lot of Asian women do…” Really? How the heck would Bob know? Have a thing for Asian women, Bob? Ewww.
One major problem I encountered was the lack of a consistent viewpoint or a character I liked well enough to care about. The novel is written in first person, making Bob the central character. But then the huge swathes of Hồng’s diary are written in first person, making her the narrator. But really the center seemed to me to be a young male Vietnamese resident of Las Vegas, Victor. Victor seemed understanding enough and compassionate enough to lead us to the intention of the novel. Victor just came too late and too briefly (and at the same time too long, if that is even possible), over halfway through the novel.
If the different viewpoints could have been brought in without monopolizing (and paralyzing) the narrative for too many pages - just give us bits of their thinking at a time. The author would have to trust us readers to be able to distinguish the character's individual viewpoints, at least that problem would be solved.
Whose novel was this? If I had to guess, the story is Hồng’s: her path from Vietnam was traumatic. She became a “bounder,” a woman who scarpers, a woman who leaves husband and children, avoiding relationships. Frankly, with the folks she hitched up with, I would, too. The author showed us that, but I never really felt he was in on the irony--he was an insufficient advocate for a woman under duress. I guess the idea was that Hồng continued to feel trauma since her coming to the States. I totally get that. The problem is that Hồng’s diary just wasn’t enough to sustain our sympathy for her. We had her behaviors to deal with, and they were really unattractive. If she could only have said "I don't know what to do," among all the other stuff in her diary which was written not at all like someone's diary, I might have gotten there.
On an ordinary day, I seek out non-white viewpoints in American literature for what it can teach me. What this taught me is that dreams and spirits are important and commonly-accepted parts of Vietnamese culture and individuals are given some leeway to accommodate spiritual things in their everyday lives. This is not completely unique: Latin cultures express it also, with differences.
I also learned that there is a different character to the violence expressed in ordinary conflict that is outside the thuggish beatings and shootings Americans commonly experience with gang or domestic violence among whites or blacks. In this novel the quality of the violence is distinct: there is a kind of slick sadism that leaves one feeling queasy. Our man Bob was completely out of his element, which was the point, I guess. It was just hard for me to warm up to anyone.
Two stars for getting this published.
Chris Abani’s graceful review of this title in the NYTimes is worth reading, as is most everything Abani writes.
July 27, 2015
Robert is an Oakland cop who had been married to Suzy, a Vietnamese refugee for eight years, when following a night of domestic abuse, she leaves him. He finds out that she has married a man named Sonny who has broken her arm causing her once again to flee. He always found Suzy and her strange ways, reactions and emotional disturbances, difficult to understand. He goes to Las Vegas to seek her out and offer his help. His chance for atonement and understanding.
He finds more than he bargained for, but Suzy, this is not her Vietnamese name and her mysteries remain shrouded. A different kind of thriller, much action, the mystery of uncovering Suzy's past and some great characterizations. A glimpse into the seedier life of Las Vegas, it's casinos and its criminal enforcers. A more noirish, in your face style of book. I enjoyed this though, it was a change of pace from the normal run of serial killer thrillers. Maybe a bit like the late great Elmore Leonard type of no hold barred book.
ARC from publisher.
He finds more than he bargained for, but Suzy, this is not her Vietnamese name and her mysteries remain shrouded. A different kind of thriller, much action, the mystery of uncovering Suzy's past and some great characterizations. A glimpse into the seedier life of Las Vegas, it's casinos and its criminal enforcers. A more noirish, in your face style of book. I enjoyed this though, it was a change of pace from the normal run of serial killer thrillers. Maybe a bit like the late great Elmore Leonard type of no hold barred book.
ARC from publisher.
September 1, 2018
A Strobing, Suspenseful, Genre-Elusive Literary Novel
Brash | Tense | Tender
The Dragonfish
This short genre-defying novel wowed me with suspenseful symmetry in following Robert, a mulish Oakland cop with a vigilante streak, as he searches for his ex-wife who's disappeared from her current husband, a Vietnamese mob boss in Las Vegas who raises dragonfish* for fun. Dragonfish's cadence, in mixing thrilling present-day narrative with intriguing back story of a down-and-out cop and his Vietnam War refugee ex-wife, rises as a radiant spectre out of the phosphorescence in the mystery, noir, literary and thriller genres.
Rear Admiral Guff
Brash | Tense | Tender
The Dragonfish
This short genre-defying novel wowed me with suspenseful symmetry in following Robert, a mulish Oakland cop with a vigilante streak, as he searches for his ex-wife who's disappeared from her current husband, a Vietnamese mob boss in Las Vegas who raises dragonfish* for fun. Dragonfish's cadence, in mixing thrilling present-day narrative with intriguing back story of a down-and-out cop and his Vietnam War refugee ex-wife, rises as a radiant spectre out of the phosphorescence in the mystery, noir, literary and thriller genres.
Rear Admiral Guff
September 4, 2015
Okay, so this cop is in love with this chick he was married to. But, even though he was married to her for eight years, he really did not know her because they never talked about anything that was of any import. The cop stereotypes Vietnamese with shrimp paste as in "I caught a whiff of shrimp paste in the air, that nostalgic smell I would forever link to the Vietnamese." Okay that is pretty trite.
The writing, in places, leaves a lot to be desired, for example, "He is not here, Mr. Robert," he replied and ashed into an ashtray he held in his other hand ... "
Crucifixes are much in evidence. That is hardly typical of Vietnamese since only one in eight is Catholic.
In the first 65 pages 946 cigarettes are stubbed out ... Okay, I am exaggerating, but it seems like it is that many. Is this supposed to be like dramatic repetition? "Listen," I said to Junior. "I respect everything you're saying ... " Is this an intentional effort at being dramatically trite.
Ah, a captain in the Air Force in a 'perfectly pressed olive uniform' ... I think not ... If you are gonna write about a person supposedly in the military at least do some minimal research.
Ah, a captain in the Air Force 'accompanying a fellow soldier ... ' arrgh and sorry if you were writing about wartime Vietnam nobody called it "the Saigon airport" it was Tan Son Nhut.
I was hoping that this book would be better than it is. It is not. I did last 102 pages though and I am really glad I checked it out of the library in lieu of actually paying for it.
P.S. ... After reading a real book about a real Vietnamese refugee I have adjusted my rating for this very contrived book accordingly.
The writing, in places, leaves a lot to be desired, for example, "He is not here, Mr. Robert," he replied and ashed into an ashtray he held in his other hand ... "
Crucifixes are much in evidence. That is hardly typical of Vietnamese since only one in eight is Catholic.
In the first 65 pages 946 cigarettes are stubbed out ... Okay, I am exaggerating, but it seems like it is that many. Is this supposed to be like dramatic repetition? "Listen," I said to Junior. "I respect everything you're saying ... " Is this an intentional effort at being dramatically trite.
Ah, a captain in the Air Force in a 'perfectly pressed olive uniform' ... I think not ... If you are gonna write about a person supposedly in the military at least do some minimal research.
Ah, a captain in the Air Force 'accompanying a fellow soldier ... ' arrgh and sorry if you were writing about wartime Vietnam nobody called it "the Saigon airport" it was Tan Son Nhut.
I was hoping that this book would be better than it is. It is not. I did last 102 pages though and I am really glad I checked it out of the library in lieu of actually paying for it.
P.S. ... After reading a real book about a real Vietnamese refugee I have adjusted my rating for this very contrived book accordingly.
Read
June 7, 2016Neo-noir is one of my favorite genres, but it’s hard to find books that really get it right and harder to find books that do something different with it. Robert is a cop who is still obsessed with his ex-wife Suzy, a secretive Vietnamese immigrant who left him years ago. His obsession sends him to Suzy’s new husband, Sonny, a Vietnamese gangster in Las Vegas and from there things go about as well as you’d expect. It’s a dark and sometimes violent book, but Tran sometimes interrupts Robert’s story to tell you Suzy’s and you realize that absolutely nothing is as it seems.
— Jessica Woodbury
from The Best Books We Read In May 2016: http://bookriot.com/2016/06/01/riot-r...
— Jessica Woodbury
from The Best Books We Read In May 2016: http://bookriot.com/2016/06/01/riot-r...
November 22, 2015
Amazing West Coast noir/literary fiction from a Vietnamese author who grew up in Oklahoma, earned degrees at the University of Tulsa, the Iowa Writers Workshop and the University of Nevada, and who now teaches creative writing at the University of Chicago.
Tran takes readers well inside the Las Vegas community with a story about an enigmatic woman who has never really left her past behind, yet never reconciled to it.
Dragonfish is authentic in the best sense of the word: highly original and highly readable. Both mystery/thriller readers and literary fiction readers will like this novel.
Tran takes readers well inside the Las Vegas community with a story about an enigmatic woman who has never really left her past behind, yet never reconciled to it.
Dragonfish is authentic in the best sense of the word: highly original and highly readable. Both mystery/thriller readers and literary fiction readers will like this novel.
August 31, 2015
I loooooved this book but I am only giving it four stars. Why?
1. Production editors: Please quit placing huge blocks of text--and especially WHOLE CHAPTERS--in italics. They are hard to read (b looks like h, for starters) and readers tend to skim them. I am no exception.
2. Bob/Robert's insistence in calling Hong Suzy. This drove me mad--it wasn't her name--and then other characters were doing it, too. Was that intentional (why?) or an error? Sonny and his son would never have called her Suzy and I doubt that Happy would have either. I do believe that his calling her Suzy had some deep-routed meaning--a desire to make the other more familiar and all of that and an exploration of that theme could have been interesting. Instead, it was like a hangnail to me--something irritating that I was constantly being reminded of.
3. Paper quality is crap. Maybe that is no big deal in the grand scheme of things but this is a title I would love to gift to people but as a $27 hardcover, there isn't a chance of that happening. Maybe when it is out in paperback, but Norton don't insult readers or the author by using lousy, toothy paper.
Let's play BUY, BORROW, PASS on this one. It's definitely a BORROW--it is really a fun, fast-paced story that kept me turning pages, but don't waste your money on mediocre production quality.
1. Production editors: Please quit placing huge blocks of text--and especially WHOLE CHAPTERS--in italics. They are hard to read (b looks like h, for starters) and readers tend to skim them. I am no exception.
2. Bob/Robert's insistence in calling Hong Suzy. This drove me mad--it wasn't her name--and then other characters were doing it, too. Was that intentional (why?) or an error? Sonny and his son would never have called her Suzy and I doubt that Happy would have either. I do believe that his calling her Suzy had some deep-routed meaning--a desire to make the other more familiar and all of that and an exploration of that theme could have been interesting. Instead, it was like a hangnail to me--something irritating that I was constantly being reminded of.
3. Paper quality is crap. Maybe that is no big deal in the grand scheme of things but this is a title I would love to gift to people but as a $27 hardcover, there isn't a chance of that happening. Maybe when it is out in paperback, but Norton don't insult readers or the author by using lousy, toothy paper.
Let's play BUY, BORROW, PASS on this one. It's definitely a BORROW--it is really a fun, fast-paced story that kept me turning pages, but don't waste your money on mediocre production quality.
November 10, 2015
/rubs face
I just really want to read a book that has likable characters. Or at the very least, characters that do things that are rational. The girl in the last book I read (Sorcerer to the Crown) was an impulsive idiot who bulldozed her way into situations without a care for consequences, especially to others. The main female in this book is just the same, throwing herself into one bad situation after another, selfishly expecting people to just deal with her crazy mood swings and irrational, violent behavior. And all because what? She ? Sorry, but who the frak cares?
She was by far one of the most unsympathetic characters I've ever read, and yet she inexplicably has caused two (albeit not very good) men to fall desperately in love with her. They go to great lengths to hold on to her, even though she's totally insane and wild and apparently has no good traits at all. WTF. Not to mention she Why is this woman the center of this story? Why do these men care? Why should /I/ care?
Oh, and ps, for the sake of equality, I should add that the male characters sucked, too. Violent wife-beaters who don't know how to have one functional thing in their lives. This book is full of miserable people.
What a pointless story.
I just really want to read a book that has likable characters. Or at the very least, characters that do things that are rational. The girl in the last book I read (Sorcerer to the Crown) was an impulsive idiot who bulldozed her way into situations without a care for consequences, especially to others. The main female in this book is just the same, throwing herself into one bad situation after another, selfishly expecting people to just deal with her crazy mood swings and irrational, violent behavior. And all because what? She ? Sorry, but who the frak cares?
She was by far one of the most unsympathetic characters I've ever read, and yet she inexplicably has caused two (albeit not very good) men to fall desperately in love with her. They go to great lengths to hold on to her, even though she's totally insane and wild and apparently has no good traits at all. WTF. Not to mention she Why is this woman the center of this story? Why do these men care? Why should /I/ care?
Oh, and ps, for the sake of equality, I should add that the male characters sucked, too. Violent wife-beaters who don't know how to have one functional thing in their lives. This book is full of miserable people.
What a pointless story.
July 23, 2017
Dragonfish by Vu Tran purports to tell the story of an Oakland cop, Robert, searching for his ex-wife Suzy (Hong) in Las Vegas and learning she has a long-lost daughter who is a poker player. He has been "hired" by Suzy's new husband (Sonny) to find her and there is great animosity between Robert and Sonny.
This book did not have a single character who was likable or to champion. While the book at first appears to be about Robert and his sadness over losing Suzy and feeling he needs to make amends, it shifts to long chapters in Suzy's hand about her past. We learn she is a depressed, lost soul who has flashbacks and visions which disturb her. Her life story is odd and unsettling and I never truly understood her or her motives.
Never able to find its footing, this book meanders along with not much of a point. If there was one, I didn't get it.
This book did not have a single character who was likable or to champion. While the book at first appears to be about Robert and his sadness over losing Suzy and feeling he needs to make amends, it shifts to long chapters in Suzy's hand about her past. We learn she is a depressed, lost soul who has flashbacks and visions which disturb her. Her life story is odd and unsettling and I never truly understood her or her motives.
Never able to find its footing, this book meanders along with not much of a point. If there was one, I didn't get it.
December 29, 2024
4 Stars for Dragonfish (audiobook) by Vu Trans read by Tom Taylorson and Nancy Wu.
This is a modern, dark and gritty detective story with a Vietnamese twist. The author pulls you in and makes you feel uncomfortable and don’t bother looking for any happy endings in this book.
This is a modern, dark and gritty detective story with a Vietnamese twist. The author pulls you in and makes you feel uncomfortable and don’t bother looking for any happy endings in this book.
dnf
June 11, 2018Not sure if the protagonist is supposed to come across as a hateful sexist and we're meant to dislike him, or if the author has written a misogynistic wanker and isn't aware of it. Read over 50 pages and wasn't intrigued enough to find this out. Here are a few quotes that made me mad:
'I found I loved her most when she was sick and had no choice but to let me take care of her...keep her housebound'
'Her real name was Hong... But it sounded a bit piggish the way Americans pronounced it, so I suggested the name of my first girlfriend in high school, and this she did give me'
'Then we'd make love and she would whimper, a childlike thing a lot of Asian women do, except hers sounded more like a wounded animal's'
At one point he also slaps his wife twice, then punches her in the mouth and then says 'She'd never been as tough as I thought, and now I was the bad guy.' - Yes you are, asswipe.
And all this just 50 pages in. What a treat, right?
The writing isn't anything special either, and clearly the characters aren't enough to keep me reading, so I'm sorry Vu Tran. If you aren't a misogynist and just enjoy crafting horrid male characters, I apologise!
'I found I loved her most when she was sick and had no choice but to let me take care of her...keep her housebound'
'Her real name was Hong... But it sounded a bit piggish the way Americans pronounced it, so I suggested the name of my first girlfriend in high school, and this she did give me'
'Then we'd make love and she would whimper, a childlike thing a lot of Asian women do, except hers sounded more like a wounded animal's'
At one point he also slaps his wife twice, then punches her in the mouth and then says 'She'd never been as tough as I thought, and now I was the bad guy.' - Yes you are, asswipe.
And all this just 50 pages in. What a treat, right?
The writing isn't anything special either, and clearly the characters aren't enough to keep me reading, so I'm sorry Vu Tran. If you aren't a misogynist and just enjoy crafting horrid male characters, I apologise!
May 17, 2016
This isn't that book. This is another book.
It's fashionable for expatriates to moan about the bubble they live in, but I like it OK, in part because I can read more here than back in my home country and also you are more likely to run into people who read books. Furthermore, when in country X, you are likely to run into people who have read books about country X, which you yourself may have read and want to talk about. Talking about books is one of the most pleasant ways to talk to people, although of course not preferable to reading itself.
Sometimes people here in Hanoi even ask “Hey, what are you reading?”, maybe because they know it is more likely elicit a cheerful response from me than, for example, “How are you feeling?”
While reading this book, I might answer: “Oh, I'm reading an interesting new novel by a Vietnamese-born American...” and my interlocutor will say, “Wow! The Sympathizer! I've heard so much about it! How is it?”
Well, it's probably great, based on the awards, nominations for awards, Wikipedia page, and multiple favorable mentions by the great arbiters of mainstream literary taste, but this book is not that book. This book is probably going to be overshadowed, based on its deficit of awards and Wikipedia pages, and the relative infrequency of mention by literary taste-makers. The publishers of this book are probably lamenting their hard luck, when slamming back the red wine from a box on a Friday afternoon, for it seems unlikely that the reading public will be able to keep multiple promising first novels by Vietnamese-born American novelists straight in its collective consciousness.
About this book: I felt it was sort of like the love child of hard-boiled detective fiction and Call It Sleep, which is not a bad thing for a book to be. I don't know if the writer had read or even heard of Call It Sleep. In that book (and this), the writer does an excellent job dramatizing the frustration of the immigrant experience in the US, particularly, how hard it is to be fluent, elegant, educated, capable of great subtlety and nuance of thought in your native language, but be thrust into our big noisy unpleasant commercial-oriented culture and only be able to express yourself very unprecisely and unbeautifully, making you feel in public like a hippopotamus dancing ballet, or perhaps a man trying to pick up grains of rice while wearing mittens.
The writer is both Vietnamese and a man. I thought it interesting that it seemed a relatively easy trip over the cultural barrier to create a believable male character of European heritage, but was less successful (in my sight) of crossing the gender barrier to create a believe female character of Vietnamese heritage. Since an accusation like that needs to be made specific, let me state clearly that just didn't buy the Maybe others can suspend their belief, I couldn't.
And there's also the problem typical of hardboiled fiction, where nobody explains what the hell it is they are up to. (It's sort of like in “Star Trek” when they are always telling the Captain “you'd better get down here”, but the Captain never says “For the love of pete just tell me what's wrong already”.) I guess this is necessary to sustain suspense. But I always imagine myself in a book, and if you're going to enlist my assistance (while driving) in trying to , you're just going to have to explain to me how you propose to do it, elsewise I am going to reach up RIGHT NOW and yank up that emergency brake until we come to an unpretty stop, so I can, if necessary, bail out right now in mid-highway and take the next intercity bus to a place where fewer people might want to slit my throat. While I am alienated, I'm not THAT alienated. Again, suspension of belief problem, I guess.
Still, a pretty good first try. I urge Vu Tran to keep writing, and keep your ear to the ground on the Vietnamese expat grapevine, so next time you won't release your book at the same time as a much more frequently-talked-about book by another overseas Vietnamese.
It's fashionable for expatriates to moan about the bubble they live in, but I like it OK, in part because I can read more here than back in my home country and also you are more likely to run into people who read books. Furthermore, when in country X, you are likely to run into people who have read books about country X, which you yourself may have read and want to talk about. Talking about books is one of the most pleasant ways to talk to people, although of course not preferable to reading itself.
Sometimes people here in Hanoi even ask “Hey, what are you reading?”, maybe because they know it is more likely elicit a cheerful response from me than, for example, “How are you feeling?”
While reading this book, I might answer: “Oh, I'm reading an interesting new novel by a Vietnamese-born American...” and my interlocutor will say, “Wow! The Sympathizer! I've heard so much about it! How is it?”
Well, it's probably great, based on the awards, nominations for awards, Wikipedia page, and multiple favorable mentions by the great arbiters of mainstream literary taste, but this book is not that book. This book is probably going to be overshadowed, based on its deficit of awards and Wikipedia pages, and the relative infrequency of mention by literary taste-makers. The publishers of this book are probably lamenting their hard luck, when slamming back the red wine from a box on a Friday afternoon, for it seems unlikely that the reading public will be able to keep multiple promising first novels by Vietnamese-born American novelists straight in its collective consciousness.
About this book: I felt it was sort of like the love child of hard-boiled detective fiction and Call It Sleep, which is not a bad thing for a book to be. I don't know if the writer had read or even heard of Call It Sleep. In that book (and this), the writer does an excellent job dramatizing the frustration of the immigrant experience in the US, particularly, how hard it is to be fluent, elegant, educated, capable of great subtlety and nuance of thought in your native language, but be thrust into our big noisy unpleasant commercial-oriented culture and only be able to express yourself very unprecisely and unbeautifully, making you feel in public like a hippopotamus dancing ballet, or perhaps a man trying to pick up grains of rice while wearing mittens.
The writer is both Vietnamese and a man. I thought it interesting that it seemed a relatively easy trip over the cultural barrier to create a believable male character of European heritage, but was less successful (in my sight) of crossing the gender barrier to create a believe female character of Vietnamese heritage. Since an accusation like that needs to be made specific, let me state clearly that just didn't buy the Maybe others can suspend their belief, I couldn't.
And there's also the problem typical of hardboiled fiction, where nobody explains what the hell it is they are up to. (It's sort of like in “Star Trek” when they are always telling the Captain “you'd better get down here”, but the Captain never says “For the love of pete just tell me what's wrong already”.) I guess this is necessary to sustain suspense. But I always imagine myself in a book, and if you're going to enlist my assistance (while driving) in trying to , you're just going to have to explain to me how you propose to do it, elsewise I am going to reach up RIGHT NOW and yank up that emergency brake until we come to an unpretty stop, so I can, if necessary, bail out right now in mid-highway and take the next intercity bus to a place where fewer people might want to slit my throat. While I am alienated, I'm not THAT alienated. Again, suspension of belief problem, I guess.
Still, a pretty good first try. I urge Vu Tran to keep writing, and keep your ear to the ground on the Vietnamese expat grapevine, so next time you won't release your book at the same time as a much more frequently-talked-about book by another overseas Vietnamese.
March 1, 2018
A couple of years ago, Hong -- or Suzy, as he called her -- the wife of Oakland, California, cop Robert Ruen, walked out on him after he'd hit her. Later, following their divorce, she reappeared as the wife of a Las Vegas gambler and crook, Sonny, who Robert learned was maltreating her. An attempt by him to "persuade" Sonny to change his ways was an abject failure. Now, though, Sonny is blackmailing him into returning to Vegas and tracking down Hong, who has made herself scarce from a second marriage . . .
At one level this is a superb, helterskelter thriller: I raced through it in a couple of days, and was completely satisfied by the time I turned its final page, even though its ending is ambiguous. But I suspect it's going to hang around in my mind long after most thrillers would have been forgotten, because it presents not the account of the Vietnamese refugee experience in America that I'd been expecting but a portrait of an American failing -- if he even genuinely tries -- to come to terms with the world of the Vietnamese immigrants, and in particular with the Vietnamese immigrant to whom he was married for eight years.
Most of the narrative is related in the first person by Robert, who clearly believes himself to be one of the good guys; as we get to know him better we realize that, while his self-image is somewhat over-flattering, he's not actually a bad guy -- just an unimaginative one. The other main (although far lesser) narrator of the tale is Hong herself: we're treated to her accounts of how she survived, with her small daughter, the trip from Vietnam to the US via a refugee camp in Malaysia. Although these latter lack the element of engrossing mystery present in the main narrative, they're fascinating and moving in their own right.
There are no true heroes in Dragonfish, just flawed people who are or are not doing their best to muddle through in as honorable a way as they can. In that sense the novel refreshingly reflects real life.
I do have a couple of very minor quibbles about the book (I loathe the verb "to ash," as in "he ashed his cigarette into an ashtray," and I could have done without the use of italics for protracted sections of text), but overall it has nothing but my profound admiration: engaging and thought-provoking, it's one of the best and most enjoyable thrillers I've read in a while.
At one level this is a superb, helterskelter thriller: I raced through it in a couple of days, and was completely satisfied by the time I turned its final page, even though its ending is ambiguous. But I suspect it's going to hang around in my mind long after most thrillers would have been forgotten, because it presents not the account of the Vietnamese refugee experience in America that I'd been expecting but a portrait of an American failing -- if he even genuinely tries -- to come to terms with the world of the Vietnamese immigrants, and in particular with the Vietnamese immigrant to whom he was married for eight years.
Most of the narrative is related in the first person by Robert, who clearly believes himself to be one of the good guys; as we get to know him better we realize that, while his self-image is somewhat over-flattering, he's not actually a bad guy -- just an unimaginative one. The other main (although far lesser) narrator of the tale is Hong herself: we're treated to her accounts of how she survived, with her small daughter, the trip from Vietnam to the US via a refugee camp in Malaysia. Although these latter lack the element of engrossing mystery present in the main narrative, they're fascinating and moving in their own right.
There are no true heroes in Dragonfish, just flawed people who are or are not doing their best to muddle through in as honorable a way as they can. In that sense the novel refreshingly reflects real life.
I do have a couple of very minor quibbles about the book (I loathe the verb "to ash," as in "he ashed his cigarette into an ashtray," and I could have done without the use of italics for protracted sections of text), but overall it has nothing but my profound admiration: engaging and thought-provoking, it's one of the best and most enjoyable thrillers I've read in a while.
May 11, 2016
Dragonfish got on my to-read list nearly a year ago but I never managed to get my hands on a copy. Luckily a friend passed along her galley and I finally sat down to read it this week, only to kick myself for waiting so long. I love neo-Noir and Dragonfish is absolutely Noir in the classic sense. There is a tortured good guy who's not really that good. There is a gangster nemesis. There is a mysterious woman. There is no happy ending and no tidy solutions. But Tran uses the Noir style and structure to tell the story of an immigrant's pain, loss, and identity (or lack thereof).
While Robert the cop is the narrator of the book, it is Suzy, his Vietnamese ex-wife, who is its center. Tran makes an interesting choice of revealing Suzy's history through a series of letters to the reader so that you know much more than Robert does about several of the characters. Even if this detracts a little from understanding just how lost and confused Robert is, it's incredibly valuable to root the story more firmly in Suzy's voice and experience, to show just how futile the men who orbit around her trying to save her are.
It's also full of plot twists and betrayals, a very satisfying and quick read.
While Robert the cop is the narrator of the book, it is Suzy, his Vietnamese ex-wife, who is its center. Tran makes an interesting choice of revealing Suzy's history through a series of letters to the reader so that you know much more than Robert does about several of the characters. Even if this detracts a little from understanding just how lost and confused Robert is, it's incredibly valuable to root the story more firmly in Suzy's voice and experience, to show just how futile the men who orbit around her trying to save her are.
It's also full of plot twists and betrayals, a very satisfying and quick read.
February 22, 2016
I so wanted to like Dragonfish. Tran's writing is beautiful. As a novel, however, Dragonfish doesn't work. It has no momentum. Despite violent acts described multiple times throughout the book, I never cared enough about any of its multiple characters to feel any suspense about whether one of them would be harmed. Our protagonist, Bob, and another character, Mai, seem to exist only for the purpose of communicating the story of Bob's missing ex-wife, "Suzy" - the character Tran cares about. Mai - a daughter ditched by Suzy without explanation as a girl - expresses zero emotions and no conflicting feelings about her mother. Mai and Bob don't have the initial sizing-each-other-up conversation that would have happened if these characters mattered to the author.
Suzy takes form through other characters' recollections of her actions and also through several letters, but still never seems to be real or authentic. We are told that Bob is a veteran police officer, yet he displays none of a veteran police officer's instincts or thought processes. He's a character you keep wanting to yell, "No, no, don't go into that room!!"Unfortunately, at the end of the day, Dragonfish seems like the work of an author who has participated in many writers' workshops and might have an MFA - he has perfected the craft of sentence structure, but what he lacks is a story he must tell or characters into which he has the ability to breathe life.
Suzy takes form through other characters' recollections of her actions and also through several letters, but still never seems to be real or authentic. We are told that Bob is a veteran police officer, yet he displays none of a veteran police officer's instincts or thought processes. He's a character you keep wanting to yell, "No, no, don't go into that room!!"Unfortunately, at the end of the day, Dragonfish seems like the work of an author who has participated in many writers' workshops and might have an MFA - he has perfected the craft of sentence structure, but what he lacks is a story he must tell or characters into which he has the ability to breathe life.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 26, 2015
This was a hard one to rate because I was really looking forward to this book based off the summary and I was really disappointed. I really hated the characters. There was not one likable character and I knew this from the beginning with the relationship between Robert and Suzy that I should just stop there, but I kept going because I thought maybe there would be some kind of ah ha! moment where it could possibly make any sense as to how they even lasted in an 8 year marriage. I understand the traumatic experience that Suzy had to go through which makes her such an unstable character, but it also doesn't mean you make all the characters and story line that way too. I kept reading because I thought that maybe something would help with her disappearance and also help to make characters more likable. I am surprised I even finished this book because I would have just stopped reading it if I would have known the ending would do nothing but leave me saying WTF just happened?!! Ahhhh!! Okay, maybe this may just not be my kind of book and I really hate giving one star ratings...so I can say this could be a two star rating, but I'm just a little disappointed at this time to give it that.
September 27, 2015
I obtained an ARC of this book and really enjoyed it!
There are actually two stories and I thought the author transitioned well between the two.
Robert was married to Suzy and she is now missing. He is basically blackmailed into finding her for her current husband. Her life has gone from the devout practicing Catholic wife of an Oakland cop to the wife of a thug living in Las Vegas and the secrets and scandal Sin City has to offer. As he is searching for Suzy he discovers things and family he never knew about her. Meanwhile Suzy is telling her story of coming to the US from Vietnam in letters to her daughter. That helps you understand her as a person and her honor with her heritage.
I would highly recommend this thrilling read. Underneath the thriller aspect of the story there is the human nature aspect and question of how well do we actually know someone? I still have a few Suzy things to figure out!
There are actually two stories and I thought the author transitioned well between the two.
Robert was married to Suzy and she is now missing. He is basically blackmailed into finding her for her current husband. Her life has gone from the devout practicing Catholic wife of an Oakland cop to the wife of a thug living in Las Vegas and the secrets and scandal Sin City has to offer. As he is searching for Suzy he discovers things and family he never knew about her. Meanwhile Suzy is telling her story of coming to the US from Vietnam in letters to her daughter. That helps you understand her as a person and her honor with her heritage.
I would highly recommend this thrilling read. Underneath the thriller aspect of the story there is the human nature aspect and question of how well do we actually know someone? I still have a few Suzy things to figure out!
December 22, 2015
Murder. Mystery. Literary Thriller. Noir. Crime Fiction. Whatever you want to call it, it's riveting and unfurls like the best crime fiction should. Sometimes slowly for that slow burn, sometimes abruptly sending you reeling with its plot. Suzy, Robert's Vietnemese wife leaves him. Two years later, she disappears again from her new husband. The new husband, a violent Vietnemese criminal blackmails Robert, a policeman, into finding her for him. Through this case, he finds out more about the enigmatic Suzy, going into historical moments like the fall of Saigon, a refugee camp in Malaysia, and a plethora of sins that could unravel everything. In classic noir, as soon as Robert gets closer, that's when the tensions highest and we're pulled back. A fantastically crafted tale that weaves in lots of intrigue and a good dollop of history.
September 25, 2015
Disappointing given the cover blurb. I should have read the negative reviews before investing my time. The slow pacing and the boatloads of unrelated flashbacks do not jive with my idea of a thriller. Lots of detailed descriptions of this and that but I do not get a sense of the main protagonist early on and I do not care for him. It shows that Dragonfish is a first novel. After slogging through the ending I ask myself what was the point. Nice wortdsmithing and some interesting background on Vietnamese culture, or it would have been one star.
June 6, 2016
Dark, seedy, intense - the underbelly of the underbelly, and then they all go to Vegas. Sad and lonely story that speaks tons about the complications of relationships - excellent read!
Read
April 6, 2019“The lesson of my childhood was that if you anticipate misfortune, you make it hurt less. It’s a fool’s truth, but what truth isn”
This book just wasn't for me.
I was excited knowing it was a thriller but it didn't give me that vibe.
The story was messy. The thriller wasn't that suspenseful.
It had a flashback on history on Susan POV but the connection to the story just felt very forcefully trying to relate. The side character feel like it was trying to carry the main character.
I really didn't enjoy the story, sadly.
“The world is full of people who care but never quite care enough.”
This book just wasn't for me.
I was excited knowing it was a thriller but it didn't give me that vibe.
The story was messy. The thriller wasn't that suspenseful.
It had a flashback on history on Susan POV but the connection to the story just felt very forcefully trying to relate. The side character feel like it was trying to carry the main character.
I really didn't enjoy the story, sadly.
“The world is full of people who care but never quite care enough.”
January 7, 2016
Update, one day after review was written → I am dropping my rating down to 2 ★'s because I'm still fuming at the !
Original Review ↓
Well, now I have mixed feelings about this story. You'll see why in a bit. This review may contain some spoilers, just an FYI.
This story was told by two different points of view. The first, from Bob's standpoint, was told in the present. This part of the story had the feel of The Junior Bender Series by Timothy Halligan. It was felt quick paced without being so. The second, from Suzy's, told the past in the form of letters. This reminded me of the grandfather from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. It gave me a sense of nostalgia.
Although this story was decent enough, I couldn't quite feel much for the main characters, well except contempt for Suzy. I did not like her. Sadly, the action didn't quite pick up until the middle of the story. At that point, I was thinking, hell yea, now we are getting somewhere, but although the pace picked up, we never gained momentum. The ending? What the hell was that? They left everything suspended in the air. Nothing was wrapped up to my satisfaction. This story might have earned 4 ★'s had the ending not been so disappointing.
Admittedly, I was drawn to this book because of it's cover. It was nowhere on my radar, but when I saw it at the library, and it fit my need to read a Suspense for a monthly challenge, I picked it up. I am rarely as disappointed by my reads based on cover, but this time I was. If you liked either book mentioned above, or if you like open-ended books, give it a try, otherwise, choose for yourself.
Original Review ↓
Well, now I have mixed feelings about this story. You'll see why in a bit. This review may contain some spoilers, just an FYI.
This story was told by two different points of view. The first, from Bob's standpoint, was told in the present. This part of the story had the feel of The Junior Bender Series by Timothy Halligan. It was felt quick paced without being so. The second, from Suzy's, told the past in the form of letters. This reminded me of the grandfather from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. It gave me a sense of nostalgia.
Although this story was decent enough, I couldn't quite feel much for the main characters, well except contempt for Suzy. I did not like her. Sadly, the action didn't quite pick up until the middle of the story. At that point, I was thinking, hell yea, now we are getting somewhere, but although the pace picked up, we never gained momentum. The ending? What the hell was that? They left everything suspended in the air. Nothing was wrapped up to my satisfaction. This story might have earned 4 ★'s had the ending not been so disappointing.
Admittedly, I was drawn to this book because of it's cover. It was nowhere on my radar, but when I saw it at the library, and it fit my need to read a Suspense for a monthly challenge, I picked it up. I am rarely as disappointed by my reads based on cover, but this time I was. If you liked either book mentioned above, or if you like open-ended books, give it a try, otherwise, choose for yourself.
March 13, 2017
So I've been making a conscious effort to read more straightforward commercial fiction this year because I haven't really read any for a long time. This is the second "mystery thriller" I've read this year in which the ending does not resolve the major mystery of the story. Is this a thing now?? If so, it is a thing that I hate.
(Spoilers)
So the plot is that a Vietnamese refugee comes to America and shortly thereafter abandons her infant daughter. She meets and marries this Oakland cop but he's kind of a jerk and she is crazy and their marriage sucks. After 8 years she runs off and ends up marrying a shady Vietnamese guy she had met years before, but leaves him also, and he recruits her ex-husband to find her...
We never find out where the hell she went! Everyone just talks about broken marriages, abandonment issues and Vietnamese culture for almost 300 pages then the sketchy new husband dies and the slightly less sketchy old husband leaves town and everyone shrugs and says, "well, I guess she's gone." I found this lack of denouement quite annoying.
(Spoilers)
So the plot is that a Vietnamese refugee comes to America and shortly thereafter abandons her infant daughter. She meets and marries this Oakland cop but he's kind of a jerk and she is crazy and their marriage sucks. After 8 years she runs off and ends up marrying a shady Vietnamese guy she had met years before, but leaves him also, and he recruits her ex-husband to find her...
We never find out where the hell she went! Everyone just talks about broken marriages, abandonment issues and Vietnamese culture for almost 300 pages then the sketchy new husband dies and the slightly less sketchy old husband leaves town and everyone shrugs and says, "well, I guess she's gone." I found this lack of denouement quite annoying.
February 1, 2018
If you’re looking for noir that explores modern issues and/or are a fan of dark literary works, this was a great read. There are two running stories at once, past and present: one of a woman explaining her immigration from Vietnam through a series of letters, and the other is Robert, a cop obsessed with his ex-wife Suzy. He’s obsessed enough to drive to Vegas to threaten her current husband, but nothing goes as planned and soon the reader is plunged into the dark world these characters navigate in. The exploration of Suzy through the eyes of the men in her life who never quite understand her is one of those things I’ve been unable to shake since reading this novel.
--from Book Riot's Unusual Suspects newsletter: http://link.bookriot.com/view/56a8200...
--from Book Riot's Unusual Suspects newsletter: http://link.bookriot.com/view/56a8200...
December 6, 2015
I won this book from GoodReads. I have to be honest I did not think I would enjoy Dragonfish. That said I loved Dragonfish!! I did have to put it down only because I didn't want to finish it so fast. I loved how it was Robert and Suzy telling their sides of the story. I was hoping that Happy had a happy outcome. Everything all in one: mystery, thriller, crime and love. A summer must read!!
September 5, 2015
Thought the Vietnamese author and storyline would be interesting but didn't work for me. Couldn't identify with the weak characters and, in fact, I didn't like anyone at all. Want more? Sluggish plot, inexplicable behavior and confusing flashbacks. Skip it and wait for this author's 2nd novel, which is bound to be better.
November 16, 2015
More twists and turns than Le Monde.
An American cop searches for his Vietnamese ex-wife who has been abused by her new husband. Everybody in this book has many secrets and are reluctant to share with anybody. Every person tries to protect Suzy, but I'm not sure any one of them knows why.
An American cop searches for his Vietnamese ex-wife who has been abused by her new husband. Everybody in this book has many secrets and are reluctant to share with anybody. Every person tries to protect Suzy, but I'm not sure any one of them knows why.
September 4, 2015
Still gathering my thoughts for my review.
Really enjoyed - thought it was a great noir mystery with a side story and a literary touch - what more can I ask for.
Really enjoyed - thought it was a great noir mystery with a side story and a literary touch - what more can I ask for.
September 24, 2015
Engaging at times, but generally meh.
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