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Blue Dragon White Tiger: A Tet Story
Book by Tran, Van Dinh
334 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1983
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 17, 2018
Review of Blue Dragon White Tiger: a Tet Story, by Ran Van Dinh
I am of two minds on this novel. I want to give it both four stars and two stars. Not five because, as much as I liked it, the omniscient voice as well as the conversation always felt stilted for me – not something real people would say but rather what a not so great novelist would have them say. The result was that I always knew I was reading a novel rather than disappearing into its narrative – which is what I would have preferred.
But still four stars because it serves (mostly) as an antidote to the dominance of the “south Vietnamese” immigrant voice so well recognized by the world commercial press. Major portions of the work show Vietnamese struggle from the point of view of the north Vietnamese, nationalists, and communists. Highlighted are Vietnamese fighting against the French, the US, and even the Chinese. As important, Tran Van Dinh helps me see the influence of Buddhism as well as the significance of hundreds of years of Vietnamese culture. Dinh provides an ethnographic, historical, religious, cultural, and poetic sensibility that guides the reader in time and place. He takes me there.
Two stars because it became difficult to follow the protagonist from his life as a professor in the US, to his return to Hue and his family, to his joining the resistance against the US, to his placement in Paris as part of the peace negotiations, to his return to Vietnam as a kind of communist hero, and then finally to his return to the US. I was willing to follow these turns but I wondered if one character could make so many drastic moves. The changes feel rather like a plot device.
But really I am thinking two stars because, as much as Dinh both exposes the weaknesses of the communist vision of life and makes that vision compelling for many of his characters, nevertheless, his final position seems to me a betrayal of the tensions he explores with such an even hand (as you can see I am being vague so as not to divulge the plot, spoiler alerts they are called, yes?). In sum, I found the ending unsatisfying.
I end with two quotes from the novel: the first are two lines he takes from Tale of Kieu:
“In talent take no overweening pride—
Great talent and misfortune make a pair.” (p 328)
The second comes from the author’s preface as he cites the Chinese novel, The Dream of the Red Chamber. Having admitted that “most of the characters in this novel are real people” (x), he anticipates the reader’s curiosity and addresses if the author and the main character are the same:
“When seeming is taken for being,
being becomes seeming;
When nothing is taken as something,
something becomes noting.” (page x)
I am of two minds on this novel. I want to give it both four stars and two stars. Not five because, as much as I liked it, the omniscient voice as well as the conversation always felt stilted for me – not something real people would say but rather what a not so great novelist would have them say. The result was that I always knew I was reading a novel rather than disappearing into its narrative – which is what I would have preferred.
But still four stars because it serves (mostly) as an antidote to the dominance of the “south Vietnamese” immigrant voice so well recognized by the world commercial press. Major portions of the work show Vietnamese struggle from the point of view of the north Vietnamese, nationalists, and communists. Highlighted are Vietnamese fighting against the French, the US, and even the Chinese. As important, Tran Van Dinh helps me see the influence of Buddhism as well as the significance of hundreds of years of Vietnamese culture. Dinh provides an ethnographic, historical, religious, cultural, and poetic sensibility that guides the reader in time and place. He takes me there.
Two stars because it became difficult to follow the protagonist from his life as a professor in the US, to his return to Hue and his family, to his joining the resistance against the US, to his placement in Paris as part of the peace negotiations, to his return to Vietnam as a kind of communist hero, and then finally to his return to the US. I was willing to follow these turns but I wondered if one character could make so many drastic moves. The changes feel rather like a plot device.
But really I am thinking two stars because, as much as Dinh both exposes the weaknesses of the communist vision of life and makes that vision compelling for many of his characters, nevertheless, his final position seems to me a betrayal of the tensions he explores with such an even hand (as you can see I am being vague so as not to divulge the plot, spoiler alerts they are called, yes?). In sum, I found the ending unsatisfying.
I end with two quotes from the novel: the first are two lines he takes from Tale of Kieu:
“In talent take no overweening pride—
Great talent and misfortune make a pair.” (p 328)
The second comes from the author’s preface as he cites the Chinese novel, The Dream of the Red Chamber. Having admitted that “most of the characters in this novel are real people” (x), he anticipates the reader’s curiosity and addresses if the author and the main character are the same:
“When seeming is taken for being,
being becomes seeming;
When nothing is taken as something,
something becomes noting.” (page x)
November 30, 2022
As a Vietnamese American seeking to learn more about her people’s history, this book is a gem. It’s fiction, but the story is so real for me, based on what I know of 20th Vietnamese history and on my own childhood lived experience. Minh, the main character, is from Hue. He navigates between the Southern ARVN and the northern liberation forces. He has family members who served in the southern armed forces (ARVN) and benefited from their protection, while his father was displeased with him for not doing more to kick out foreign invaders, and he clandestinely served the northern liberation forces for decades. This is so common for many real Vietnamese families I know.
This story took me inside settings I long wanted to know: what was it like to live and work in the tunnel system? What was it like to navigate international politics during the war? What was life like in Vietnam for elite military personnel as well as peasants and Buddhists? I’m very glad I found this book. It will forever have a special place in my personal library.
This story took me inside settings I long wanted to know: what was it like to live and work in the tunnel system? What was it like to navigate international politics during the war? What was life like in Vietnam for elite military personnel as well as peasants and Buddhists? I’m very glad I found this book. It will forever have a special place in my personal library.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews