Em

by Kim Thúy, Sheila Fischman (Translator)

Em, c'est le fil qui relie les ouvriers des plantations de caoutchouc et les femmes des salons de manucure aux orphelins de l'opération Babylift, qui a évacué des enfants de Saigon en 1975.

Em, c'est celle qui aime.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Canada, Historical, War, Asia, France

152 pages, Paperback

First published November 2, 2020

About the author

Kim Thúy arrived in Canada in 1979, at the age of ten. She has worked as a seamstress, interpreter, lawyer and restaurant owner. She currently lives in Montreal where she devotes herself to writing.

Her debut novel Ru won the Governor General's Award for French language fiction at the 2010 Governor General's Awards. An English edition, translated by Sheila Fischman, was published in 2012 and was a shortlisted nominee for the 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Thúy spent her early childhood in Vietnam before fleeing with her parents as boat people and settling in the Montreal suburb of Longueuil. She has degrees in law, linguistics and translation from the Université de Montréal.

Reviews

[Adina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Prize 2023

Translated into English from French by Sheila Fischman

Kim Thúy is a Vietnamese refugee who chose Canada as her new home. She wrote a series of books about the Vietnam war and Em is one of them. It is the 2nd book about the war that I’ve read this year and the 4th since I’ve been counting. I am excited to note that they all have been excellent and different from each another. It is a subject, which allows an ample space for creativity. Em might be the shortest, but it is also the most literary, I think. The novel is structured in chapters of no more than 2-3 pages, which usually bear the name of one or two characters. The narrative is “fragmented, incomplete “ just as the truth about wars.

“War, again. In every conflict zone, good steals in and edges its way right into the cracks of evil. Treason complements heroism, love flirts with abandonment. The enemies advance towards one another, all with the same goal: to triumph. In this shared exercise, what is human shows itself to be at once strong, mad, cowardly, great, crude, innocent, ignorant, devout, cruel, courageous . . . That is the reason for war. Again.”

The characters in this short book live and die, suffer, love, hate, they bleed with their heart and their soul. Some lose their home and find another in exile, some gets a 2nd chance of a life, some don’t. The quick succession of events and characters suggest the generality of war and its aftermath. “Combat zones were likely the only places where human beings became equal to each other through their mutual annihilation.

A strange coincidence (and endorsement) was encountering this title mentioned in another novel I’ve been reading at the same time. Inspector Gamache (from the wonderful series written by Louise Penny) had it by his bedside table.

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘The Americans speak of the “Vietnam War,” the Vietnamese of the “American War.” This distinction is perhaps what explains the cause of that war.’

War is a terrible thing and the innocent pay for it most. Em by Kim Thúy is a haunting look at the war in Vietnam and those affected by it, beginning in the 1950s and moving to the present to show the trajectory of these souls tossed from the blast towards the future. Thúy’s prose, wonderfully translated into English by Sheila Fischman, reads like a cross between poetry and journalism as she weaves the historical with the human, fiction with non-fiction, as her prose moves from character to character to thread them to each other and to the history of the conflict. Historical events like the My Lai Massacre or Operation Babylift and even the nail polish industry post-war are examined to show the ways in which life was created, redirected or destroyed during the war. ‘In this book,’ Thúy writes, ‘truth is fragmented, incomplete, unfinished, in both time and space.’ The full scale of the truth, she warns however, would leave readers shaking and traumatized. Em, meaning sister, is a deeply moving look at the lives of those for whom the war came to their towns and redirected their lives forever, a look at both the personal and the large scale of the violence, and a reminder that those who suffer most are the innocent.

Evacuation of Saigon, 29 April 1975

In an episode of the show M*A*S*H, set during the Korean war, the character Hawkeye states that ‘War isn’t Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse.’ When pressed to explain he says that ‘there are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them – little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for a few of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander.’ (you can watch the clip here). I thought of this a lot while reading Em—also since it has been making the rounds on social media due to the invasion of Ukraine currently happening while I write this—as the novel focuses primarily on the innocent and the horrors imposed upon them by the war in Vietnam. Unfortunately much of this horror belongs to the children and much of the violence and suffering in the novel befalls them. Thúy keeps close attention on the ‘innocent lives spawned by war,’ ensuring we recognize their heart and humanity in stories of orphans surviving in the streets and caring for one another. I learned of Operation Babylift in this book, a last ditch effort to save face as the American army was in retreat, where over 3,000 orphaned infants and children were evacuated for Vietnam. Many of these had American soldiers as fathers they would never know, and many had their families killed by these same soldiers. Much of the second half of the book follows two of these children, though we also learn not all of the orphans were so lucky as the first plane crashed just after takeoff. Readers be warned much of the violence and sadness in this book does surround young kids.

Babies aboard a plane during Operation Babylift.


- 1.5 million military personnel and 2 million civilians died in North Vietnam.
-225,000 military personnel and 430,000 civilians were killed in South Vietnam
I wonder why…no list included the number
-Of orphans;
-Of widows;
-Of aborted dreams
-Of broken hearts

This is a very violent and disturbing novel at times, but there is also a real beauty to it. ‘Em is about love. I hope readers will feel the same way after reading it,’ Kim Thúy says about her book, ‘It's also about beauty. Each time I write, I try to only share beauty. Most of the time, beauty can be best seen when we put it in context — particularly in light of atrocity or horror.’ The novel reads much like the art piece by Louis Boudreault discussed in the novel, thread weaving everything and everyone together. It was also used on the cover of the UK printing but unfortunately not my edition:

There is a connecting thread that allows the book to leap around from character to character, event to event, moving backwards and forwards in time then pulling them tightly together like a beautiful patchwork quilt of life. It shows, too, how cultures can intermix and bring strangers together in love and support for one another. The effect is that there is beauty everywhere and that war is the negation of beauty.

The characters are depicted rather sparsely, making them feel quite small against the backdrop of history. Yet even in their thinly drawn simplicity, they spark with the vibrancy of life. The entirety of Molly Brodak’s poem How Not to be a Perfectionist reads ‘People are vivid / and small / and don’t live / very long—’ which has the poignant simplicity of the characterizations here. We don’t need much about them to know they deserve life and one better than the horrors of war. This is pulled off beautifully here.

‘Tâm can describe in detail how the soldiers slipped the ace of spades into their helmet straps, sleeves rolled up above their elbows, the cuffs of their pant legs tucked into their boots. On the other hand, she remembers no soldier’s face. Maybe war machines don’t have a human face.’

This is not a pleasant read at times for the violence and subject matter, but it is done so effectively and in such sparse strokes of prose. Thuy is incredible while much of the content is horrific, it truly gets across the belief that love and humanity can overcome even the darkest parts of their history. Haunting yet necessary, Em is a successful look at life under and after War that reminds us that ‘in every conflict zone, good steals in and edges it’s way right into the cracks of evil.’

4.5/5

[Angela M · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories of Vietnamese people told in spare, but poetic prose may seem disjointed at first. As I read more, the connections were profound.

From the loss of life of women and children, to Agent Orange, to orphans killed on a plane that blows up, to the hope of those who survived, to the impact on future generations - this short book is so powerful. It’s amazing that such a difficult book to read, could be so beautifully written.

I also recommend Ru by Kim Thuy and hope to read her other books.

(This is on Canada’s 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize long list. )

I received a copy of this book from Seven Stories Press through Edelweiss.

[Susan's Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was thrilled to receive an English version ARC for review of Kim Thuy's latest book, Em (my thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley!) I've read most of this author's other novels and loved them.

. . . . .

Her writing style is lyrical - downright beautiful in places - despite the fact that the plots of her novels are usually focused on war, rape, racism, prejudice, avarice, exploitation and abject poverty. The female characters in her novels never make it through unscathed, and yet I am addicted to this author's stories.

. . . . . . . . . . .

Em is no exception. I loved it! The author lands on each of the many characters in this novel like a bee makes its way to each successive flower. One character links you to yet another character as they touch on each other's lives in this heart- and soul-stirring novel.

. . . . . . . .

I always marvel at how much this author conveys in so few pages. Her careful choice of words captivates me every time. I hate to put down her books and can't wait to get back to them. Admittedly, the subject matter is often sad, but I find that reading anything by this author is ultimately satisfying - even restful. These terrible things happened in the past: the characters have had time to accept them, adjust and move on.



. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Some vignettes do take place in current times, but for the most part we are observing several characters in different parts of the world who have impacted or transformed the lives of young, Louis and Em (Emma-Jade), who serve as the focal point of this very beautifully written story.



Such a haunting, addictive read! I highly, highly recommend Kim Thuy's Em. I never regret my time spent reading this author's novels: sheer poetry that billows and twists in the wind like a satin ribbon every time.



My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Please check out this and other reviews on my partnered blog: Crossing the Pond Reviews: https://crossingthepond.reviews/

[Canadian Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Babies born of soldiers who raped women and left them orphans during the Vietnam war. ‘Em’ meaning little sister.
Orphans bringing up orphans.
I wasn’t aware of the Operation Babylift. Americans saving some of these orphans the soldiers abandoned.
Operation Orange and the damage it did for decades. Operation Ranch hand. Destruction and death after the Americans left. North vs south. Shameful. Disgraceful.
Sad but these people still persevered and took care of each other.
4⭐️

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

The word em refers to the little brother or little sister in a family; or the younger of two friends; or the woman in a couple. I like to think that the word em is the homonym of the verb aimer, “to love,” in French, in the imperative: aime.

There is a painting reproduced in Em by the Quebecois artist Louis Boudreault (an image used on the cover of the novel’s original French language release) that depicts a cardboard box with many threads coming out of its flaps; the threads twisted and tangled hopelessly together. Author Kim Thúy writes, “If I knew how to end a conversation, if I could distinguish true truths, personal truths from instinctive truths, I would have disentangled the threads for you before tying them up or arranging them so that the story of this book would be clear between us.” If that sounds a little confusing, it’s clearly by design: Em has the feeling of nonfiction — of a biographical investigation into the history of some specific people who survived the Vietnam War; where they came from and where they ended up — and chapters follow a thread of connection from one character to another and another; twisting back and entangling with people we’ve met earlier. And because this format has the feeling of real and messy life, and because Thúy includes information from the historical record, everything about this novel feels true; which is horrifying in the wartime details and often uplifting, as in the care that orphans would show to one another on the streets of Saigon (“In every conflict zone, good steals in and edges its way right into the cracks of evil.”) This is not a long work, the chapters are short and waste no words, and I believed every bit of it. (Note: I read an ARC through NetGalley and passages quoted may not be in their final forms.)

The Americans speak of the “Vietnam War,” the Vietnamese of the “American War.” This distinction is perhaps what explains the cause of that war.

The novel begins on a rubber plantation in what was once known as Indochina, with a white overseer falling in love with the young girl he plucked from the fields to share his bed. The daughter who was born of this union, Tâm, “grew up between Alexandre’s privilege and power, and the shame of Mai’s betrayal of her patriotic cause”. Orphaned when her parents found themselves trapped between rival warring camps, I was actually relieved to read that Tâm’s nurse smuggled her to Saigon and enrolled the girl in school, settling in to normal life. But when the nurse’s first grandchild is born, and Tâm accompanies her back to their old village of My Lai to celebrate his first month of life, they are present when Charlie Company shows up:

The night before, Tâm had lain down a child; the next day, she awoke with no family. She went from artless laughter to the silence of adults whose tongues have been cut out. In four hours, her long, girlish tresses were undone, as she faced the spectre of scalped heads.

Threads twist and tangle and the story visits with orphans in Saigon, with the tragedy associated with Operation Babylift, with half-American orphans being adopted in the States, with these refugees finding one another, and falling in love, and some of them, opening nail salons. (Fun fact: Half of the women who have had nail salon manicures have received them at a salon operated by a Vietnamese refugee. Less fun fact: Those Vietnamese refugees who didn’t contract cancer from the Agent Orange and other defoliants sprayed on their childhood homes probably developed cancer from exposure to the carcinogenic components of nail polish.) But no matter what life brings, how could anyone forget such a traumatising childhood?

Tâm can describe in detail how the soldiers slipped the ace of spades into their helmet straps, sleeves rolled up above their elbows, the cuffs of their pant legs tucked into their boots. On the other hand, she remembers no soldier’s face. Maybe war machines don’t have a human face.

Em isn’t a book of history — it’s a book of people and connections — and although I couldn’t personally say what started the Vietnamese War (or, the American War if one prefers), Thúy presumes some such knowledge on the part of the reader. In the end, though, I got the sense that Thúy was writing for her own community; to remind the Vietnamese people, wherever they find themselves, that although global events had once set the north and south against one another, in the lead up to the fiftieth anniversary of the war’s end, they would be better served remembering how interwoven their threads remain:

This fiftieth anniversary will confirm in all likelihood that memory is a faculty of forgetfulness. It forgets that all Vietnamese, no matter where they live, descend from a love story between a woman of the immortal race of fairies and a man of the blood of dragons. It forgets that their country was surrounded by barbed wire that transformed it into an arena and that they found themselves adversaries, forced to fight each other. Memory forgets the distant hands that pulled the strings and the triggers. It only remembers the blows, the aching pain of those blows that bruised roots, snapped ancestral bonds, and destroyed the family of immortals.

Again, this novel is quite short, the chapters like snapshots, but I found it incredibly impactful. It may not be to everyone’s tastes, but I have long been a fan of Kim Thúy and Em is a valuable piece in the overall puzzle of her work. Loved it.

[Brenda ~The Sisters~Book Witch · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn’t expecting to love the story as much as I did. Em is a little gem of a book packed will so much emotion. After only a few pages, my heart stopped for a minute as I took in the beauty of the words I was reading. Then I felt a rush of excitement, the kind you only get when you have discovered a gem of a book. The story took me out of my head and into the characters and events as a ray of emotions filled me.

How the characters are written is one of the beauty here. The story is not so much about the characters, but more about creating emotions around love as one event leads to another. Using a few carefully chosen words, Kim Thúy creates a powerful image of the people, emotions, and places while exploring the complexity of the refugee experience. She takes real-life stories of kindness and love and then adds a fictional outcome that leads to another one—touching lightly on dark historical events from war-torn Vietnam to adulthood in Canada.

There is so much to think about and consider in this powerful and emotional story that left a lasting impression on and one I still think about. I highly recommend it.

[Mai Nguyễn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the English translation of this novel, beautifully done by Sheila Fischman. Em is a beautiful, haunting and important novel.

[Jodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've just finished, and I'm sitting here nearly catatonic, shocked by what I've just read. I mean, I was born in 1956, so I grew up in the 60s and 70s, well aware of what was happening in Vietnam. But seeing the horrifying details laid out in black & white, as the author did at the end of the book, shook me to my core. I was bereft of words and thoughts for awhile, but now I'll try to put words to my feelings.

Each of the author's three previous books were 5-star reads for me—some of my favourites of all time! But Em was confounding me. By the 80% mark, I felt disappointment and anger. Disappointment because the story seemed so fragmented—not at all what I'd come to expect from Thúy—and anger that she included what I felt was gratuitous and exceedingly graphic descriptions of violence. But as I soon learned, she would tie everything together at the end. And once I thought about it for bit, I supposed there was really no other way to express the savagery that was the Vietnam War. It was exceptionally and unnecessarily (IMO) violent. The following excerpt is the one that will stay with me forever, I think.

I avoided saddening you with President Nixon’s order to proceed with the bombardment despite the hesitation of the general who came to inform him that the sky was too overcast to avoid civilian casualties; and the document that presents the reasons for which the war had to go on:
10% to support democracy;
10% to support South Vietnam;
80% to avoid humiliation.

Close to 9 million military personnel participated in the war; nearly 2 million soldiers and 2.5 million civilians lost their lives. As a result of Agent Orange and the "rainbow" of other poisons that rained down upon them, 3 million souls were poisoned and 1 million were born with congenital malformations.

All that so the U.S. military could avoid humiliation.😔 I wonder now... do they feel it was worth it?

4 "War-is-what-happens-when-language-fails" stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

[theliterateleprechaun · Rating 5 out of 5]

“A bullet can kill the enemy, but a bullet can also produce an enemy, depending on whom that bullet strikes.”

I have NEVER read anything quite as hauntingly beautiful as this book. I’ll remember it for a long time to come. Kim Thuy has written a tale about connection in exposing the history of the people whose lives have been shaped either by wartime trauma and/or the ultimate sacrifices they made in allowing their loved ones to survive.

In highlighting several wartime atrocities, the author has shown the linked destinies of the broken-hearted, yet determined and ingenious, Vietnamese whose love exemplified the greatest act of resistance.
- a vindictive young woman and her enemy, who also happened to be her employer, who fell in
love on a rubber plantation. Although their lives were cut short, their orphaned daughter was
raised to take every opportunity presented and, although a child of the Vietnamese diaspora,
she goes on to build a powerful empire.
- the massacre at My Lai and the helicopter pilot who saved a girl from a pile of massacred
villagers simply because she had hair the same as his daughter. Love saved her, too.
- Louis, a street child born of a long-gone American soldier, who wakes up to find an abandoned
baby beside him. In an outpouring of love, he cares for the baby by stealing milk to keep her
alive. You’ll have to read this book to find out what happened when he came face to face with
the shopkeeper twenty years later! Love saved everyone here, too.
- President Gerald Ford’s $2M Operation Babylift and how Hugh Hefner is connected with this
disastrous plan.
- the growth of the nail salon industry and how it was influenced by Tippi Hedren, the actress in
Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds.’

I was saddened to read about the effects of war felt even today as a result of the rainbow rain of herbicides, nail polish, rubber, a generation of fatherless biracial children, and thousands of families devastated by the atrocities and death associated with war.

I was surprised to read that the Vietnamese still use at least 100 French words relating back to when France entrenched itself so thoroughly in Vietnam that the two cultures borrowed from each other.

Thuy is to be congratulated on her spectacular five-star book, written in such a refreshing style and with characters who will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page. This 160-page up close and personal look into the war in Vietnam is not to be missed!

I was generously gifted this advance copy by Kim Thuy, Penguin Random House Canada, and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

[Queralt✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Em is a difficult book to review. Rather than a linear story you follow threads that connect a small group of individuals touched by the Vietnam War. The chapters are short, sometimes no longer than two paragraphs, and juggle a strange combination of poignant, brutal, and beautiful. I may have highlighted half the book.

The book begins with the author explaining how the story is fiction but it is also true, and it leaves it to the readers to decide how much they want to trust her writing. Whilst the characters may not be real, their stories feel like so many others I have personally heard. And the way they are tangled with events of the war really makes you wonder if these people existed. For what is worth, because the chapters are short and to the point, one cannot really take them lightly or skip something important; I found it to be super informative about things that I had never heard of, such as the Playboy involvement in the ‘relief efforts’ and the Babylift Operation.

I wonder (…) why no list included the number
of orphans;
of widows;
of aborted dreams;
of broken hearts.
I also wonder if all those figures would have been different had love been considered in the calculations, the strategies, the equations, and above all the battles.

[Aude · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cette lecture a été dur avec mon coeur. Elle m’a ébranlé à plusieurs reprises avec ses déchirantes vérités. C’est un livre dans lequel nous sommes témoin des horreurs de la guerre qui a éclaté au Vietnam dans les années 50. Écrit sous forme de fragments, il se lit d’un seul souffle. Heureusement, la bonté se faufile entre les pages et l’espoir qui en découle fait du bien.
J’ai aimé sortir de ma zone de confort avec cette lecture. C’était la première fois que je lisais un livre de cette autrice.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Em is authored by Kim Thuy and translated by Sheila Fischman.
Em is a virtuosic novel of profound power and sensitivity, and an enduring affirmation of the greatest act of resistance: love.

In the midst of war, an ordinary miracle: an abandoned baby tenderly cared for by a young boy living on the streets of Saigon. The boy is Louis, the child of a long-gone American soldier. Louis calls the baby em Hong, em meaning "little sister," or "beloved." Even though her cradle is nothing more than a cardboard box, Em Hong's life holds every possibility.

Through the linked destinies of a family of characters, Em takes it's inspiration from historical events, including Operation Babylift, which evacuated thousands of biracial orphans from Saigon in April 1975, and the remarkable growth of the nail salon industry, dominated by Vietnamese expatriates all over the world. From the rubber plantations of Indochina to the massacre at My Lai, Kim Thuy sifts through the layers of pain and trauma in stories we thought we knew, revealing transcendent moments of grace, and the invincibility of the human spirit.

I will end with this quote by Nguyen Phan Que Mai, author of The Mountains Sing.
"Just like tender, strong and graceful Vietnamese silk threads, Kim Thuy masterfully weaves us through Vietnam's twentieth-century history while binding us to the lives of its people so that their experiences expand our worldview. EM is an original, innovative, poetic and haunting novel that deserves to be read, shared, studied and discussed."

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Déçue du dernier livre de cette autrice que pourtant j’affectionne. Compte tenu que l’ouvrage est relativement court (149 pages) et que plus d’une vingtaine de personnages se les partagent, il est difficile d’entrer réellement dans la vie de ceux-ci et des thèmes abordés. On reste en surface alors que le contexte choisi, la guerre du Viêt-Nam, avait tout le potentiel pour donner son envol à une trame narrative plus ancrée.

Le format du livre, i.e. le découpage en une cinquantaine de chapitres (quelques-uns n’ont qu’une page ou deux), n’est pas propice non plus pour développer un filon. J’ai eu l’impression que l’autrice papillonnait sans savoir où se poser alors que plusieurs chapitres auraient pu devenir une chronique ou une nouvelle en soi. Le processus d’écriture me fait penser à exercice de remue-méninges. Cela permet de fixer une idée ou un souvenir furtif mais sans s’y attarder et hop, on passe au suivant. Comme si le fait de replonger dans ces souvenirs faisait surgir chez l’autrice une multitude de flashs et que pour s’extraire de l’inconfort ou de la douleur que chacun provoque, il fallait rapidement le traiter pour le ranger quelque part parmi d’autres sombres et malheureux souvenirs.

En résumé, cela me laisse une impression d’égarement, de désordre, de non-choix. J’ai trouvé écho à cette impression à la page 127 et plus précisément à la page 128, lorsque l’autrice écrit : « J’ai cherché à tisser les fils, mais ils se sont échappés pour rester sans ancrage, impermanents et libres. Ils se réarrangent par eux-mêmes selon la vitesse du vent, selon les nouvelles qui défilent, selon les inquiétudes et les sourires de mes fils. » p. 128-129. L’illustration de la page couverture, une boite et des fils entremêlés qui en sortent ou y entrent, traduit dans ce cas ce fouillis de micro-thèmes.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw this on the Giller Prize longlist and decided to give it a try - it is a fragmentary portrayal of some of the events near the end of the Vietnamese-American war from the perspective of children who are displaced in the process. There were beautiful turns of phrase but if you weren't already pretty familiar with those events it might have been difficult to read, not sure. I liked the author and will try the next book they write!

[Hanna Lager · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kanske det vackraste som någonsin skrivits om Vietnamkriget.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up

[lecturas_niponas · Rating 5 out of 5]

163 páginas en las que cada oración cuenta.
Que autora de una fortaleza pero a la vez sensibilidad increíble que es Kim Thuy.
Léanlo, no importa preferencias literarias, es un libro que no puede no llegarte.
Yo lo desgrane y disfrute, cada una de las páginas, sin prisas.

Una única salvedad, me hubiera gustado encontrar la traducción de las palabras vietnamitas en el pie de pagina, para no tener que traducirlas yo.

[Ian M. Pyatt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb, brilliant, haunting, deeply moving, heart-wrenching, intense.

Kim Thuy never disappoints.

Recommend for fans of Ms. Thuy and those wanting to read her work for the first time.

[Eloise · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

Em is about real storytelling and realizing that no matter how much we want to express the truth, we will never be able to do it properly. There will be many information regarding a day and time that will not be put into words for the reader based on what our focus point of attention is. Kim Thúy is a fantastic storyteller, and she represents not only the characters but also provides much-needed historical context and criticism through her writing.

I also learned about the French's heavy influence on Vietnamese culture during their time through this book. Many words from the French language have found their way into Vietnamese, and vice versa. Kim tells the reader about the invention of rubber, how it became scarce during the wars, how it was linked to sex, and eventually how one of our key characters, Tam, was born, in short chapters. A Hundred Suns portrayed the tensions between the plantation workers and French entrepreneurs who owned the plantations. Em made those struggles more real through the characters and the fast pace of the book.

Overall, this is an enthralling and addicting novel! This is a book that I wholeheartedly recommend. I never regret spending time reading this; it's pure poetry that billows and twists like a satin ribbon in the wind.

[iva° · Rating 4 out of 5]

vijetnamski rat prikazan kroz prizmu nekoliko osoba koje autorica vješto povezuje u priču. ispresjecana kratkim poglavljima (priče su dužine po stranicu-dvije), čita se brzo, ali ostavlja tugu i gorčinu. ipak, poetika nadjačava bol.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Women have been enhancing their nails since the ancient Babylonians. It was expensive. When the automobile came along, the sheen of car paint served another purpose, those tiny bottles served women to colour their nails in an array of endless colours. Oh très chic.

The French first went into IndoChina (Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam) for the rubber trees. They needed it for tires. Think Michelin. In the 1950s the automobile was all the rage and nothing made a great tire like rubber. French words entered the Vietnamese dialect like Mô tô (motorbike) and tac xi (taxi). The French overstayed their welcome and a war started.

Another word is con gái, girl or prostitute. There were a lot of con gái girls in Vietnam. The American soldiers uses them for their R & R (or rape and run). They needed latex as well, for condoms. Sometimes those boys didn’t always use protection, resulting in a lot of mixed race children. And these children often became orphans, especially during the American War (as the Vietnamese call it).

Toute balle qui tue un ennemi en crée au moins un autre. Peu importe la personne touchée.

Before the fall of Saigon, President Gerald Ford wanted to save those mixed race children and had a “baby lift” to save face. American face. Thousands were rescued and sent to America. Hugh Hefner and his Playboy Bunnies helped to bring many children to new homes via his private jet. Dare I mention latex again?

During the American war, they dropped Agent Orange on the land, to defoliate the trees so they could spot the enemy. They also destroyed the rubber trees. Those toxins infected so many that survived the war. How cruel.

When the Vietnamese people resettled in America and Canada, they started their own mom and pop shops like Vietnamese restaurants, food stores or cleaning agencies. Another successful business venture was the nail shops. Get your toes manicures and your nails done right. The key ingredients in those nail shops were enamel and formaldehyde. More toxins in their environment, this time in the land they escaped to. So sad.

Enter into this story (it does have a story) Isaac, Tâm, Louis, Emma-Jade, Pamela, Mr. Sky, Madame Naomi, Alexandre, and baby em Hong. Em refers to little brother or little sister. Their lives will shock you. It’s a tough ride. Small book, powerful story. Worth the read.

April 30, 2025 will be the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war.

[Dina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutamente desgarrador e impactante. Una delicia de historias dentro de una horrible guerra como l de Vietnam. He aprendido muchas cosas que no sabía. Los humanos, como siempre, somos capaces de lo mejor y lo peor…

[maggie (taylor’s version) · Rating 4 out of 5]

i read em for an international writers’ academic workshop the summer before my freshman year of university. i get to meet the author and get my book signed on campus in the fall. so excited!!

[durga ☆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

An arresting novel and an exploration into the human entanglements of war - specifically the Vietnam War. The author’s stunning metaphorical writing weaves together stories of diverse experiences with a single thread, each narrative leading to the next, demonstrating the detrimental impacts of this war on generations and entire communities. She discusses the genesis of truth and its fragmented nature, warning that the full unbridled truth would destroy the one who learned of it. Her humanist perspective, the singular attention she gave to each story highlights how, in war, the instigators almost always remain untouched while it’s the innocent that suffer.

4.5 out of 5 stars 🌟

[Leonidas Moumouris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Υπάρχουν πολλοί τρόποι να μιλήσεις για ιστορικά γεγονότα. Ένας απ'αυτούς είναι αυτός της Thuy.
Εδώ η συγγραφέας δεν χρησιμοποιεί τους πρωταγωνιστές όπως ο Eric Vuillard, αλλά τους κομπάρσους.
Εκείνους που εκτελέστηκαν ομαδικά και θάφτηκαν όλοι μαζί σε έναν μεγάλο λάκκο, εκείνους που εκπορνευτηκαν στα πεζοδρόμια, τους ζητιάνους, τις τροφούς που θήλασαν ξένης κοιλιάς παιδιά. Όσους χάθηκαν και όσους κατάφεραν να βγουν μέσα απ'τη λάσπη του πολέμου και να ανταμώσουν για να στήσουν τις ζωές τους φτιάχνοντας νύχια σε ινστιτούτα αισθητικής.
Υπάρχει κι αυτός ο τρόπος για να γράψεις ένα ιστορικό βιβλίο. Και μερικές φορές αυτός είναι και ο ιδανικός για να καταλάβεις τι πραγματικά συνέβη.

[vi_reads · Rating 1 out of 5]

While the book blurb claimed that this book was painting a “portrait of Vietnamese identity,” to me it was drawing juvenile, two-dimensional stick figures with its barrage of stereotypes.

The beginning of the book was promising and the prose could be quite lovely at points. But then we go into the story of one of the characters, Tâm, who is half-white and half-Vietnamese. Spoilers ahead, but Tâm falls in love with a soldier whose moral compass saves her from the My Lai massacre. Eventually, he needs to return to the States and asks her to wait for him. When he doesn’t return, Tâm turns to prostitution in her throws of despair. (Did someone say…Miss Saigon??? This trope is the oldest trick in the book!)

Not to mention there is a ton of trauma porn in the first 40 or so pages. I understand that the war was terrible and gory and sometimes these horrors need to be discussed to remind ourselves that the costs of war usually doesn’t (actually, NEVER) justify it. But I found myself constantly wondering how the graphic depictions of babies and dead corpses supported the novel in any way. What purpose is this serving? How is this contributing to diasporic Viet literature, or is this book just paying lip service??

The author also seemingly perpetuates the model minority stereotype. After discussing refugees who escaped via helicopter, she concludes a chapter with this sentence: “Among the evacuees, one teenaged girl became a biotechnology researcher in Georgia, a young man built a career as an anaesthetist in California, and another made a fortune on fish in Texas.” And…so what? There is no further discussion regarding any of these people, and the only purpose of this sentence seems to be that although Vietnamese people suffered during the war, look at all the material success a small population accumulated in America! I guess we are to ignore the poverty, racism, and violence that affected refugees from the minute they stepped foot on American soil? (I am also aware that the author mentions other countries where Vietnamese refugees had to migrate to.)

This book had promise in its prose. There were a few lines in the beginning and end that itched the part of my brain that yearns to read illustrative and flowy writing. But the book contained too many tropes that angered me, and the shortness of the book (which the author seems to explain as a mechanism to maintain the “balance” and effectiveness of each story) led to further disappointment.

In short, the book is too short and too shallow for what it is trying to accomplish.

[Johanna Hammarström · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thúy once again manages to create a story that goes straight to the heart. Her language mixed with the horrible plot gives actual chills. In "Em" Thúy returns to the war in Vietnam and let different character be in focus. Most of the stories are dark and filled with violence, sexual violence, exploitation and grabs for power. The war affects everyone and the story makes it very clear that war never have any winners, only victims.

[Horcruxes d'une lectrice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Une lecture touchante et magnifique, j'ai adoré 🤍

[Sophy H · Rating 5 out of 5]

This read is really challenging in that it wrenches your heart from your chest and stamps all over it, then flings it back in!

Despite the novel being fiction it is based on survivor stories of the Vietnam war. These things happened, the suffering was real, the displacement, the abandonment, the wanton cruelty and torture.

Stories are told here in mini vignettes, with each chapter (often just a page long) linking to the preceding one. Sometimes the story feels disjointed and confusing but I think this is intentional to capture the feelings of loss and disorientation.

A thought provoking and saddening read but one that I strangely "enjoyed" if that is even the right phrase to use here.