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The Beauty of Humanity Movement
This deeply observed novel of contemporary Vietnam interweaves stories of a venerable soup seller, a young Vietnamese American curator, and an enterprising tour guide in ways that will mark all of their lives forever.
Maggie, an art curator who is Vietnamese by birth but who has lived most of her life in the United States, has returned to her country of origin in search of clues to her dissident father's disappearance. She remembers him only in fragments, as an injured artist from whom she and her mother were separated during the war. In her journey, Maggie finds herself at a makeshift pho stall, where the rich aroma of beef noodle soup lures people off Hanoi's busy streets and into a quiet morning ritual.
Old Man Hung, the enlightened proprietor of the beloved pho stall, has survived decades of poverty and political upheaval. Hung once had a shop that served as a meeting place for dissident artists. As Maggie discovers, this old man may hold the key to both her past and her future.
Among Hung's most faithful customers is Tu', a dynamic young tour guide who works for a company called New Dawn. Tu' leads tourists through the city, including American vets on war tours, but he has begun to wonder what it is they are seeing of Vietnam-and what they miss entirely. In Maggie, he finds a young Americanized woman in search of something quite different, leading him beyond his realm of expertise. In sensual, interwoven narratives, Maggie, Hung, and Tu' come together in a highly charged season that will mark all of them forever.
The Beauty of Humanity Movement is a skillfully wrought novel about the reverberation of conflict through generations, the enduring legacy of art, and the redemption and renewal of love. The story of these characters is tinged with longing for worlds and loved ones lost but also filled with the hope that faith can heal the pain of their shared country's turbulent past. This is the distinct and complex story of contemporary Vietnam, a country undergoing momentous change, and a story of how family is defined-not always by bloodlines, but by heart.
Maggie, an art curator who is Vietnamese by birth but who has lived most of her life in the United States, has returned to her country of origin in search of clues to her dissident father's disappearance. She remembers him only in fragments, as an injured artist from whom she and her mother were separated during the war. In her journey, Maggie finds herself at a makeshift pho stall, where the rich aroma of beef noodle soup lures people off Hanoi's busy streets and into a quiet morning ritual.
Old Man Hung, the enlightened proprietor of the beloved pho stall, has survived decades of poverty and political upheaval. Hung once had a shop that served as a meeting place for dissident artists. As Maggie discovers, this old man may hold the key to both her past and her future.
Among Hung's most faithful customers is Tu', a dynamic young tour guide who works for a company called New Dawn. Tu' leads tourists through the city, including American vets on war tours, but he has begun to wonder what it is they are seeing of Vietnam-and what they miss entirely. In Maggie, he finds a young Americanized woman in search of something quite different, leading him beyond his realm of expertise. In sensual, interwoven narratives, Maggie, Hung, and Tu' come together in a highly charged season that will mark all of them forever.
The Beauty of Humanity Movement is a skillfully wrought novel about the reverberation of conflict through generations, the enduring legacy of art, and the redemption and renewal of love. The story of these characters is tinged with longing for worlds and loved ones lost but also filled with the hope that faith can heal the pain of their shared country's turbulent past. This is the distinct and complex story of contemporary Vietnam, a country undergoing momentous change, and a story of how family is defined-not always by bloodlines, but by heart.
297 pages, Hardcover
First published April 6, 2010
155 people are currently reading
4213 people want to read
About the author
Camilla Gibb
21 books303 followersFrom the author's web site:
"Camilla Gibb, born in 1968, is the author of three novels, Mouthing the Words, The Petty Details of So-and-so's Life and Sweetness in the Belly, as well as numerous short stories, articles and reviews.
She was the winner of the Trillium Book Award in 2006, a Scotiabank Giller Prize short list nominee in 2005, winner of the City of Toronto Book Award in 2000 and the recipient of the CBC Canadian Literary Award for short fiction in 2001. Her books have been published in 18 countries and translated into 14 languages and she was named by the jury of the prestigious Orange Prize as one of 21 writers to watch in the new century.
Camilla was born in London, England, and grew up in Toronto, Canada. She has a B.A. in anthropology and Middle Eastern studies from the University of Toronto, completed her Ph.D. in social anthropology at Oxford University in 1997, and spent two years at the University of Toronto as a post-doctoral research fellow before becoming a full-time writer.
Camilla has been writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta and the University of Toronto where, for the past two years, she served as an adjunct faculty member of the English Department's MA in Creative Writing Program.
She is currently working on a new novel and divides her time between Toronto and London, England."
"Camilla Gibb, born in 1968, is the author of three novels, Mouthing the Words, The Petty Details of So-and-so's Life and Sweetness in the Belly, as well as numerous short stories, articles and reviews.
She was the winner of the Trillium Book Award in 2006, a Scotiabank Giller Prize short list nominee in 2005, winner of the City of Toronto Book Award in 2000 and the recipient of the CBC Canadian Literary Award for short fiction in 2001. Her books have been published in 18 countries and translated into 14 languages and she was named by the jury of the prestigious Orange Prize as one of 21 writers to watch in the new century.
Camilla was born in London, England, and grew up in Toronto, Canada. She has a B.A. in anthropology and Middle Eastern studies from the University of Toronto, completed her Ph.D. in social anthropology at Oxford University in 1997, and spent two years at the University of Toronto as a post-doctoral research fellow before becoming a full-time writer.
Camilla has been writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta and the University of Toronto where, for the past two years, she served as an adjunct faculty member of the English Department's MA in Creative Writing Program.
She is currently working on a new novel and divides her time between Toronto and London, England."
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April 15, 2012
"Old Man Hung makes the best pho in the city and done so for decades..." The city is Hanoi and "pho" the national Vietnamese dish. It is a flavourful broth poured over a mix of herbs, vegetables, vermicelli and meat (if there is any). In this novel, pho plays an essential role: the soup comes close to being a companion character, echoing the ups and down of its cook's circumstances. The story of the pho-making cook/seller and his popular soup are not only at the centre of events, they are also insightful illustrations of life in North Vietnam as it changed over time, from external occupations and inner societal upheavals, to the first cautious touches of freedoms. Award winning Canadian author, Camilla Gibb, highly praised for her novel, SWEETNESS IN THE BELLY, set primarily in Ethiopia, excels here with a heart-warming account that brings us close to a cross-section of Vietnamese people and the city of Hanoi. Beautifully crafted, the author paints a colourful canvass that depicts Hung's life, complemented in broad strokes by portraits of people he cares or cared about. The human interest story is interwoven with and set against the political changes that North Vietnamese people lived through over much of the last century. Nonetheless, the novel is "between bitter and sweet", just like Hung's pho...
I was immediately taken Gibb's portrayal of the city's atmosphere that is as vivid as her depictions of the individual characters that make up Old Man Hung's inner circle: his disappeared friend, the poet and political activist Dao, his adopted family of Binh and his son Tu. Convincingly the author also describes life of people at society's margins: slum dwellers, who are surviving like Hung at the edge of a dirty pond. Among them is young Lan, who lives with her grandmother in the neighbouring shack and to whom Hung passes on all what he himself has learned in his younger years from Dao and his friends... Hung had not always been reduced to selling his pho at street corners from a rickety old cart... he trained with his uncle and later took over his pho place. The shop became as much a favourite hang-out for the loyal early breakfast crowd as for a group of writers, artists and intellectuals, who debated the ins and outs of the country's future after it had freed itself from French occupation. They formed the "Beauty of Humanity Movement", an imagined group, inspired by reality. The freedoms were short-lived, however, and the Movement was scattered, some disappeared, others were deported... Hung became the living memory of the movement.
The rich scents that rise from Old Man Hung's pot of pho during its hours of preparation and later, as he sets up his temporary stall und a bridge or along a busy road, attract a long line of dedicated followers every early morning. The evocation of the smells is so vivid that as a reader you can easily imagine getting a whiff of them while turning the page. The pho's ingredients and flavours change, sometimes they are poorer, sometimes richer, depending on the raw materials available to Hung. It is one effective way for Gibb to convey the economic woes that people like Hung had to endure. At the same time, Gibb brings us insights into the human capacity for love and friendship, endurance and hope, set against a faintly touched upon backdrop of Vietnam's difficult recent history.
We are taken back and forth as Old Man Hung reveals his past to us, his poor peasant childhood, his friends, lost to the Party's crude and cruel policies. Much is written with hindsight so that today's Vietnam, where life has changed much for the better, is giving hope to Hung and his friends so that the beauty of humanity movements can re-appear and maybe even thrive.
Memories and dreams are triggered for Hung by the appearance of Maggie, a young Vietnamese woman raised in the United States, who has come back to Hanoi to trace her father's whereabouts and is searching for answers as to what might have happened to him. Hung is well-known in Hanoi and it does not take long before Maggie tracks him down, but will his memory be sharp enough to help her? Gibb develops this narrative thread very subtly and in small doses, given the reader time to take in the various other aspects of this heartwarming novel. A book to read slowly, and as some friends told me, again to pick up more beauty and subtleties in the story.
I was immediately taken Gibb's portrayal of the city's atmosphere that is as vivid as her depictions of the individual characters that make up Old Man Hung's inner circle: his disappeared friend, the poet and political activist Dao, his adopted family of Binh and his son Tu. Convincingly the author also describes life of people at society's margins: slum dwellers, who are surviving like Hung at the edge of a dirty pond. Among them is young Lan, who lives with her grandmother in the neighbouring shack and to whom Hung passes on all what he himself has learned in his younger years from Dao and his friends... Hung had not always been reduced to selling his pho at street corners from a rickety old cart... he trained with his uncle and later took over his pho place. The shop became as much a favourite hang-out for the loyal early breakfast crowd as for a group of writers, artists and intellectuals, who debated the ins and outs of the country's future after it had freed itself from French occupation. They formed the "Beauty of Humanity Movement", an imagined group, inspired by reality. The freedoms were short-lived, however, and the Movement was scattered, some disappeared, others were deported... Hung became the living memory of the movement.
The rich scents that rise from Old Man Hung's pot of pho during its hours of preparation and later, as he sets up his temporary stall und a bridge or along a busy road, attract a long line of dedicated followers every early morning. The evocation of the smells is so vivid that as a reader you can easily imagine getting a whiff of them while turning the page. The pho's ingredients and flavours change, sometimes they are poorer, sometimes richer, depending on the raw materials available to Hung. It is one effective way for Gibb to convey the economic woes that people like Hung had to endure. At the same time, Gibb brings us insights into the human capacity for love and friendship, endurance and hope, set against a faintly touched upon backdrop of Vietnam's difficult recent history.
We are taken back and forth as Old Man Hung reveals his past to us, his poor peasant childhood, his friends, lost to the Party's crude and cruel policies. Much is written with hindsight so that today's Vietnam, where life has changed much for the better, is giving hope to Hung and his friends so that the beauty of humanity movements can re-appear and maybe even thrive.
Memories and dreams are triggered for Hung by the appearance of Maggie, a young Vietnamese woman raised in the United States, who has come back to Hanoi to trace her father's whereabouts and is searching for answers as to what might have happened to him. Hung is well-known in Hanoi and it does not take long before Maggie tracks him down, but will his memory be sharp enough to help her? Gibb develops this narrative thread very subtly and in small doses, given the reader time to take in the various other aspects of this heartwarming novel. A book to read slowly, and as some friends told me, again to pick up more beauty and subtleties in the story.
December 12, 2018
"Subjectivity is a dangerous business: the government certainly doesnt envourage anyone to have an independent opinion. But has he not just put his hand in subjectivity's fire? Does he see loneliness where she sees hope?"
(227)
Gibb's novel stars a threesome of incredibly well-rounded characters--their interactions seem fated & original (which could be an oxymoron, I suppose). They are so special as to almost take away from the central theme: the deliciousness of life. The taste of food which is a universal feeling--which unites what has been destroyed in unique ways. Vietnam of the late 00's is as sorry a place as has been committed to the page--war-torn and full of hunger. Everything & everyone is as frail as frothy pho. & as life-affirming.
(227)
Gibb's novel stars a threesome of incredibly well-rounded characters--their interactions seem fated & original (which could be an oxymoron, I suppose). They are so special as to almost take away from the central theme: the deliciousness of life. The taste of food which is a universal feeling--which unites what has been destroyed in unique ways. Vietnam of the late 00's is as sorry a place as has been committed to the page--war-torn and full of hunger. Everything & everyone is as frail as frothy pho. & as life-affirming.
December 1, 2010
I truly loved this novel. My Husband chose it for the book club at our Unitarian Universalist church, as we try to have a deeper understanding of other cultures. I don't usually join in the novels that this group reads as their choices have not appealed to me, but I joyfully said yes to The Beauty of Humanity Movement and was not disappointed. It was great to share the read of such a beautiful and sensitive story with my husband. It's not another depressing Canadian novel. It has too many redeeming qualities to mention. Gibb's poetic prose allows the reader to float through even sad and graphic descriptions with ease. Gibb is the first Canadian author that I've read that has written about individuals and their hardships, but has concluded her novel on a positive note. I have found most Canadian authors too depressing for my taste. I loved the wonderfully clear picture of the characters lives. I could see, smell and taste every scene. All the characters are very well developed and the roles they play in each others lives is deeply touching. It's a very fluid read, as fast moving as a movie, but so much better as it is in your imagination. Gibb is not an Asian author, but seems to capture the feeling of an again culture with the gentleness of an Asian poet. Our book club is discussing the novel at a Vietnamese restaurant over a bowl of pho and other tastes of Vietnam. I look forward to reading this author's other works.
May 29, 2018
The novel focuses on a group of residents of Hanoi. Hung is an elderly pho merchant, moving his portable kitchen cart from location to location, but maintaining a loyal following. Tu is a young tour guide leading tourists, including American Vietnam Vets, through the city. He and his father, Binh, try to watch out for the old man. Maggie is Vietnamese by birth but raised in America. She has come to Hanoi as an art curator for a major luxury hotel; but her real purpose is to seek out clues as to what happened to her father, a dissident artist who survived a re-education camp in the 1950s.
I have to thank my F2F book club buddy for recommending this book, as I had totally missed it when it was first published. Told from multiple points of view, and moving back and forth in time, it requires some attention by the reader. I found it very atmospheric. I’ve been to Vietnam and her descriptions of the sights of Hanoi – the markets, the new construction, the lake, the restaurants and art galleries – were exactly what I remember. Gibb also perfectly captured the noise and bustle, the traffic (crossing the street!!!), the torrential rains, and the smell of pho.
My heart broke for Hung and Lan, the woman who lived in the shack next to his. I was equally touched by the heartache that Maggie faced, not knowing what happened to her father.
I have to thank my F2F book club buddy for recommending this book, as I had totally missed it when it was first published. Told from multiple points of view, and moving back and forth in time, it requires some attention by the reader. I found it very atmospheric. I’ve been to Vietnam and her descriptions of the sights of Hanoi – the markets, the new construction, the lake, the restaurants and art galleries – were exactly what I remember. Gibb also perfectly captured the noise and bustle, the traffic (crossing the street!!!), the torrential rains, and the smell of pho.
My heart broke for Hung and Lan, the woman who lived in the shack next to his. I was equally touched by the heartache that Maggie faced, not knowing what happened to her father.
December 4, 2016
A tour of modern Vietnam that is still trying to shake off its murky past of Communist suppression.
The story centres around Hung, creator of the most delicious pho (noodle soup) in the country. The Pho is also a central character in this book and a metaphor that art can be created from the heart and from nature and is not dependent on technology. Hung makes it from virtually nothing , by delving deep into the land and water to find scraps that can be combined to create a broth that melts the hardest of hearts. Boiled snails, salted water, crayfish, sliced bamboo shoots, birds eggs, artichokes, are among the many ingredients harvested from the swamp he has been consigned live in by order of the harsh rulers intent on trampling all forms of artistic expression that shames the regime.
Hung ran a restaurant in the 1950’s when Vietnam got its independence from France and there was optimism for a flourishing of independent thought. Many dissident artists (poets, writers and painters) looked forward to a renaissance of their work which had to be hitherto distributed through underground networks. Instead, Ho Chi Minh, the great liberator, became even more restrictive and drove artists into prisons and reform schools where they underwent torture, disfigurement and re-education in order to be rendered passive and toe the party line. Dao, the poet whom Hung venerated, opposed this totalitarianism with the question: “what is art if it’s creation is dictated?” Restaurateurs like Hung and the wily Vo, who provided hospitality to these dissidents have to make choices: spirit away these incendiary works of art until a more enlightened time appears, or inform on the dissidents. Hung’s choice lands him in the swamp.
Maggie is an American-raised Vietnamese returned to the motherland to find traces of her painter father who perished in the re-education camps. Binh and his son Tu are the descendents of poet Dao. Binh and Tao help the aging Hung, who is now restaurant-less and relegated to pushing a cart to serve his delicious pho at different parts of the teeming city of Hanoi, preferably in places where the police will not arrest him for illegal commercial activity. Binh, Tao and Maggie plot to restore Hung to his former greatness and to restore the paintings of her father to where they should be in the pantheon of Vietnamese art, restrictive governments notwithstanding.
I found the plot to move rather slowly, like Hung weaving his cart through the city. The foreign Vietnamese (Maggie)and the local (Binh Tu) integrate only after some jostling, and the plan to restore Hung to his pedestal is rather pat, and all the pieces fall into place without much dramatic conflict. The conflict, if at all, lies in unravelling the past that is clouded in the uncertain memory of Hung. And yet the writer gives us a visceral feel for the new Vietnam with its passion for imported goods, its legacy of communist suppression, its scarcity of intellectual power, its reliance on poetic expression and on poetry couched in metaphor to escape the political censors, and the topography of Hanoi.
There is also the tender, unrequited love story between Hung and Lan, the girl who lives next door whom Hung has loved yet has not spoken to in years due to a transgression on her part that involved art and money. The motive for her act comes as a shock to Hung in his later years, and one wonders whether this lack of communication was also symptomatic of the age of secrecy brought about by the Communists. Conversely, the seething love affair between Maggie and Tu does not quite take off, perhaps an indication of the gulf that still exists between the Americans and the Vietnamese?
Cultural uniqueness abounds in the new Vietnam: the neck is the most desirable part of a Vietnamese woman’s anatomy, crossing the road can be hazardous to your health (Hung is knocked down twice, near fatally), expectation levels for material possessions are low, tours for foreigners usually hover around sites made infamous by the war with America. There are shyster art dealers and nouveau-riche painters who are making a killing on art treasures that depict the pre-communist era and that are fetching disproportionate sums of money in the west. And yet the meanness of the streets in this country with a tortured past is neutralized by the poetic nature of the country’s society; even drunks can be quite benign when encountered while alone at night.
I found the story to be too well packaged and neat in terms of the happy ending. That the writer is a foreigner writing with a western sensibility, not understanding the harshness of the Vietnamese life is evident. This book could have been darker than it is made out to be, and therefore lacks the punch that could have elevated it to a whole new level.
The story centres around Hung, creator of the most delicious pho (noodle soup) in the country. The Pho is also a central character in this book and a metaphor that art can be created from the heart and from nature and is not dependent on technology. Hung makes it from virtually nothing , by delving deep into the land and water to find scraps that can be combined to create a broth that melts the hardest of hearts. Boiled snails, salted water, crayfish, sliced bamboo shoots, birds eggs, artichokes, are among the many ingredients harvested from the swamp he has been consigned live in by order of the harsh rulers intent on trampling all forms of artistic expression that shames the regime.
Hung ran a restaurant in the 1950’s when Vietnam got its independence from France and there was optimism for a flourishing of independent thought. Many dissident artists (poets, writers and painters) looked forward to a renaissance of their work which had to be hitherto distributed through underground networks. Instead, Ho Chi Minh, the great liberator, became even more restrictive and drove artists into prisons and reform schools where they underwent torture, disfigurement and re-education in order to be rendered passive and toe the party line. Dao, the poet whom Hung venerated, opposed this totalitarianism with the question: “what is art if it’s creation is dictated?” Restaurateurs like Hung and the wily Vo, who provided hospitality to these dissidents have to make choices: spirit away these incendiary works of art until a more enlightened time appears, or inform on the dissidents. Hung’s choice lands him in the swamp.
Maggie is an American-raised Vietnamese returned to the motherland to find traces of her painter father who perished in the re-education camps. Binh and his son Tu are the descendents of poet Dao. Binh and Tao help the aging Hung, who is now restaurant-less and relegated to pushing a cart to serve his delicious pho at different parts of the teeming city of Hanoi, preferably in places where the police will not arrest him for illegal commercial activity. Binh, Tao and Maggie plot to restore Hung to his former greatness and to restore the paintings of her father to where they should be in the pantheon of Vietnamese art, restrictive governments notwithstanding.
I found the plot to move rather slowly, like Hung weaving his cart through the city. The foreign Vietnamese (Maggie)and the local (Binh Tu) integrate only after some jostling, and the plan to restore Hung to his pedestal is rather pat, and all the pieces fall into place without much dramatic conflict. The conflict, if at all, lies in unravelling the past that is clouded in the uncertain memory of Hung. And yet the writer gives us a visceral feel for the new Vietnam with its passion for imported goods, its legacy of communist suppression, its scarcity of intellectual power, its reliance on poetic expression and on poetry couched in metaphor to escape the political censors, and the topography of Hanoi.
There is also the tender, unrequited love story between Hung and Lan, the girl who lives next door whom Hung has loved yet has not spoken to in years due to a transgression on her part that involved art and money. The motive for her act comes as a shock to Hung in his later years, and one wonders whether this lack of communication was also symptomatic of the age of secrecy brought about by the Communists. Conversely, the seething love affair between Maggie and Tu does not quite take off, perhaps an indication of the gulf that still exists between the Americans and the Vietnamese?
Cultural uniqueness abounds in the new Vietnam: the neck is the most desirable part of a Vietnamese woman’s anatomy, crossing the road can be hazardous to your health (Hung is knocked down twice, near fatally), expectation levels for material possessions are low, tours for foreigners usually hover around sites made infamous by the war with America. There are shyster art dealers and nouveau-riche painters who are making a killing on art treasures that depict the pre-communist era and that are fetching disproportionate sums of money in the west. And yet the meanness of the streets in this country with a tortured past is neutralized by the poetic nature of the country’s society; even drunks can be quite benign when encountered while alone at night.
I found the story to be too well packaged and neat in terms of the happy ending. That the writer is a foreigner writing with a western sensibility, not understanding the harshness of the Vietnamese life is evident. This book could have been darker than it is made out to be, and therefore lacks the punch that could have elevated it to a whole new level.
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February 16, 2016I loved so many things about this book and it makes me want to read all the historical fiction. I wanted to take some time to think about it but if I don't drop a blurb here now, I may never get around to doing so. And I always feel guilty when I read a treasure and keep all the goodness to myself.
First I'll start with the book's interesting cast of characters:
Maggie is a first generation Vietnamese-American. She and her mother are sent to live in America at the start of a war while her father stays behind. He never does make it out and after Maggie's mother dies, Maggie returns to Vietnam to find out about the father that she never knew. She subsequently learns that he plays a vital role in an arts movement - The Beauty of Humanity Movement.
As a young man, Hung inherits his uncle's restaurant and runs it for several years before it is taken away from him by "the Party." While the restaurant was open, it is the gathering place for artists who what to speak the truth about their country and they quickly become labeled as dissidents. Now an old man, Hung is known for selling the best pho in land. He sells from a cart wherever he can find a place to set up without being fined. His customers find him by word of mouth. We also learn that Hung has lived alone his entire life after feeling betrayed by the love of his life. He has lived next door to her without speaking for 40 years but has never allowed a day to pass without leaving a meal at her doorstep.
Tu is the grandson of Dao, one of the leaders of the arts movement who used to gather at Hung's restaurant. As Hung tells Tu more and more about his courageous grandfather, Tu starts to question is path in life.
The characters converge when Maggie discovers Hung may have known her father. Hung's memory has faded but Maggie has other work to do. She is the curator at a new gallery and hires Tu as her guide around town. As Tu escorts Maggie to different galleries, he begins to see his home in a new light.
This book made me want to know so much more about the facts. Fortunately, the author left a few leads at the end of the book. One of the book's characters is loosely based on Dương Thu Hương, author of the first Vietnamese novel ever published in the US in English. According to Wikipedia, she was labeled as a "dissident writer" and was imprisoned for 8 months for her writings and outspoken criticism of corruption in the Vietnamese government. Her work has been banned in Vietnam. Here is an interesting New York Times piece on her from 2005.
Next is Phan Khôi. He was "well known for his new, revolutionary and controversial ideas and he served as editor in chief as well as the publisher of the Nhân Văn. Nhân Văn is where some leading Vietnamese intellectuals in the north of the country express their ideals." In December 1956, the Vietnamese Communist Party forced the papers to close and arrested numerous contributors.
Third is Nhân Văn itself. I subscribe to a literary journal and it is such a resource. It contains feet-on-the-ground insight into the literary world of writers of African descent. It contains themes with lesson plans, discussions on #blacklivesmatter, interviews with authors that too often fly under the radar. And I can see how a group that wants to control a population would want to eliminate it, or anything resembling it.
I thank Camilla Gibb for this. And I'm about to be all up in everything she's written.
First I'll start with the book's interesting cast of characters:
Maggie is a first generation Vietnamese-American. She and her mother are sent to live in America at the start of a war while her father stays behind. He never does make it out and after Maggie's mother dies, Maggie returns to Vietnam to find out about the father that she never knew. She subsequently learns that he plays a vital role in an arts movement - The Beauty of Humanity Movement.
As a young man, Hung inherits his uncle's restaurant and runs it for several years before it is taken away from him by "the Party." While the restaurant was open, it is the gathering place for artists who what to speak the truth about their country and they quickly become labeled as dissidents. Now an old man, Hung is known for selling the best pho in land. He sells from a cart wherever he can find a place to set up without being fined. His customers find him by word of mouth. We also learn that Hung has lived alone his entire life after feeling betrayed by the love of his life. He has lived next door to her without speaking for 40 years but has never allowed a day to pass without leaving a meal at her doorstep.
Tu is the grandson of Dao, one of the leaders of the arts movement who used to gather at Hung's restaurant. As Hung tells Tu more and more about his courageous grandfather, Tu starts to question is path in life.
The characters converge when Maggie discovers Hung may have known her father. Hung's memory has faded but Maggie has other work to do. She is the curator at a new gallery and hires Tu as her guide around town. As Tu escorts Maggie to different galleries, he begins to see his home in a new light.
This book made me want to know so much more about the facts. Fortunately, the author left a few leads at the end of the book. One of the book's characters is loosely based on Dương Thu Hương, author of the first Vietnamese novel ever published in the US in English. According to Wikipedia, she was labeled as a "dissident writer" and was imprisoned for 8 months for her writings and outspoken criticism of corruption in the Vietnamese government. Her work has been banned in Vietnam. Here is an interesting New York Times piece on her from 2005.
Next is Phan Khôi. He was "well known for his new, revolutionary and controversial ideas and he served as editor in chief as well as the publisher of the Nhân Văn. Nhân Văn is where some leading Vietnamese intellectuals in the north of the country express their ideals." In December 1956, the Vietnamese Communist Party forced the papers to close and arrested numerous contributors.
Third is Nhân Văn itself. I subscribe to a literary journal and it is such a resource. It contains feet-on-the-ground insight into the literary world of writers of African descent. It contains themes with lesson plans, discussions on #blacklivesmatter, interviews with authors that too often fly under the radar. And I can see how a group that wants to control a population would want to eliminate it, or anything resembling it.
I thank Camilla Gibb for this. And I'm about to be all up in everything she's written.
August 8, 2018
"A bowl of pho can offer critical sustenance and a reason to get up in the morning, even in the most troubling of times."
Maggie Ly is Vietnamese by birth but American raised. Being hunted by her lack of knowledge of what happened to her father in Vietnam, Maggie travels to Hanoi in hopes of learning about him. Her father was an artist during the war and trouble in the country was far from over. He sent Maggie and her mother to the United States but did not make out himself. Her journey leads her to Old Man Hung, who has a pho stall but used to own a place where a group of writers and artists used to meet. Upon tasting a bowl of pho, their paths will intertwine in most profound ways.
Dealing with Vietnamese culture amid a political context, this book is a beautiful rendering of resilience of the human spirit. Old Man Hung had a pho place where writers, poets, and artists meet. When Vietnam gained independence from the French, many hoped to have more freedom. Instead more restrictions were imposed forcing these group of thinkers to distribute their materials in a clandestine way. The poetry, essays and artwork produced by these men was dubbed 'The Beauty of Humanity Movement' and most loved by Hung. Unfortunately, most of these men were punished (sent to "reeducation camps" or killed) and Hung lost his shop. Hung now operates a mobile pho stall. Maggie hopes that one of these men that frequented Hung's shop was her father. Hung is not sure but wishes to help Maggie in any way he can. The flow and pace of this work is poetic. Its truly a magnificent story about culture, identity and fortitude in the face of opression. The heart of this book is pho, not just a soup, but almost a character in and of itself. I love the characterization and found their individual narratives deeply compelling. A great read.
Pho is a Vietnamese soup consisting of meat, rice noodles and herbs in a rich broth. Created in early twenthieth centuty in northern Vietnam pho is a soup that gives sustenance, comfort and strength. Is a staple of Vietnam that spread world wide after the Vietnam War. While its origins are not all that clear, it is believed that it developed in part due to French and Chinese occupation. Certain ingredients, like meat, became available and adapted into this soup. The hero of this soup, without a doubt, is the broth for it has character. This broth speaks of tradition and culture, it speaks of a nation that rises again every morning in the face of adversity. I love that Gibb centered the narrative around pho. I really wish I could have a bowl myself.
Maggie Ly is Vietnamese by birth but American raised. Being hunted by her lack of knowledge of what happened to her father in Vietnam, Maggie travels to Hanoi in hopes of learning about him. Her father was an artist during the war and trouble in the country was far from over. He sent Maggie and her mother to the United States but did not make out himself. Her journey leads her to Old Man Hung, who has a pho stall but used to own a place where a group of writers and artists used to meet. Upon tasting a bowl of pho, their paths will intertwine in most profound ways.
Dealing with Vietnamese culture amid a political context, this book is a beautiful rendering of resilience of the human spirit. Old Man Hung had a pho place where writers, poets, and artists meet. When Vietnam gained independence from the French, many hoped to have more freedom. Instead more restrictions were imposed forcing these group of thinkers to distribute their materials in a clandestine way. The poetry, essays and artwork produced by these men was dubbed 'The Beauty of Humanity Movement' and most loved by Hung. Unfortunately, most of these men were punished (sent to "reeducation camps" or killed) and Hung lost his shop. Hung now operates a mobile pho stall. Maggie hopes that one of these men that frequented Hung's shop was her father. Hung is not sure but wishes to help Maggie in any way he can. The flow and pace of this work is poetic. Its truly a magnificent story about culture, identity and fortitude in the face of opression. The heart of this book is pho, not just a soup, but almost a character in and of itself. I love the characterization and found their individual narratives deeply compelling. A great read.
Pho is a Vietnamese soup consisting of meat, rice noodles and herbs in a rich broth. Created in early twenthieth centuty in northern Vietnam pho is a soup that gives sustenance, comfort and strength. Is a staple of Vietnam that spread world wide after the Vietnam War. While its origins are not all that clear, it is believed that it developed in part due to French and Chinese occupation. Certain ingredients, like meat, became available and adapted into this soup. The hero of this soup, without a doubt, is the broth for it has character. This broth speaks of tradition and culture, it speaks of a nation that rises again every morning in the face of adversity. I love that Gibb centered the narrative around pho. I really wish I could have a bowl myself.
April 9, 2011
This novel offers quiet satisfaction. There is nothing awesome or monumental about the plot or Gibb's writing. It is an engaging story written with care and honesty, without pandering to bestseller lists or in search of a specific audience.
Beauty, set in contemporary Hanoi, offers a fresh perspective on well-worn themes: the search for cultural identity and the meaning of "home." Gibb weaves together three narratives: Maggie Ly, a Vietnamese-American curator searching for information about her deceased father; Old Man Hu'ng, a pho vendor, who suffered cruelly during the Communist regime of the 1960s and 70s; and Tu', a 20-something tour guide for whom the Vietnam War is assigned read in History class. Tu' wears Nike, has a mobile phone, and knows the name of every NFL team. He is also savvy enough to realize the Củ Chi Tunnels have been widened to fit the robust American forms that he guides through his city's famous sites.
I wouldn't advise reading this lovely novel on an empty stomach. We witness Old Man Hu'ng learning to make pho, Vietnam's national dish, and perfecting it through the years as he sets out on his own to feed his starving neighbors and much later, the pho purists who seek him out each morning. Gibb creates a paen to this savory, star anise-cardamom-cinnamon-marrow rich soup brimming with thinly-sliced beef, rice noodles, laced with lime juice, basil, and Sriracha sauce. My mouth is watering just recalling Hu'ng's special recipe. Of course, during the years of the Communist regime and the war, Hu'ng had nothing but weeds to work with; he still managed to nourish the hearts and stomachs of those left to him.
Through her three principal characters, Gibbs shows Vietnam as a shifting prism. Is is an ancient land of deep faith and artistry; it is a rapidly modernizing economy that is the darling of investors and developers; it is the ethnic home of a multi-cultural diaspora spread by colonial oppression, inner conflict, and international war. Viewed alone, these facets reflect only one aspect of Vietnam. Together they refract a rainbow of Vietnam's history and its future.
Beauty, set in contemporary Hanoi, offers a fresh perspective on well-worn themes: the search for cultural identity and the meaning of "home." Gibb weaves together three narratives: Maggie Ly, a Vietnamese-American curator searching for information about her deceased father; Old Man Hu'ng, a pho vendor, who suffered cruelly during the Communist regime of the 1960s and 70s; and Tu', a 20-something tour guide for whom the Vietnam War is assigned read in History class. Tu' wears Nike, has a mobile phone, and knows the name of every NFL team. He is also savvy enough to realize the Củ Chi Tunnels have been widened to fit the robust American forms that he guides through his city's famous sites.
I wouldn't advise reading this lovely novel on an empty stomach. We witness Old Man Hu'ng learning to make pho, Vietnam's national dish, and perfecting it through the years as he sets out on his own to feed his starving neighbors and much later, the pho purists who seek him out each morning. Gibb creates a paen to this savory, star anise-cardamom-cinnamon-marrow rich soup brimming with thinly-sliced beef, rice noodles, laced with lime juice, basil, and Sriracha sauce. My mouth is watering just recalling Hu'ng's special recipe. Of course, during the years of the Communist regime and the war, Hu'ng had nothing but weeds to work with; he still managed to nourish the hearts and stomachs of those left to him.
Through her three principal characters, Gibbs shows Vietnam as a shifting prism. Is is an ancient land of deep faith and artistry; it is a rapidly modernizing economy that is the darling of investors and developers; it is the ethnic home of a multi-cultural diaspora spread by colonial oppression, inner conflict, and international war. Viewed alone, these facets reflect only one aspect of Vietnam. Together they refract a rainbow of Vietnam's history and its future.
February 12, 2015
this is the fourth book of hers that i have read and there seems to be a sharp division between the first two and the second. Gibb has become 'a serious writer'. her first two, Mouthing the Words, and the Petty Details of So and So's Life are personal stories. stories of an individual. simple and compelling stories, simply told. Sweetness in the Belly, and her most recent, The Beauty of Humanity are set in Ethiopia and Viet Nam respectively - in other words, foreign lands - and she takes on political and social paradigms. Gibb has 'matured' as a writer.
while i liked both these last two novels - and i understand the desire to take on bigger stories - i kind of miss the simplicity and the personal / emotional narrative of her first two books.
The Beauty of Humanity, refers to an art movement but i think it perfectly describes the story Gibb tells, of people coming together after a painful experience - coming together to heal and forgive and to create community, to create a surrogate family. resilence, forgiveness, hope, healing, community and compassion .... these are the movements that illustrate the beauty that exists along with our ability to wreak havoc, to destroy, to persecute and demean.
when Gibb finds the ability to meld the emotional narrative of her first two books with the big and noble ideals of her two later books ... well ... she will be one hellova writer.
while i liked both these last two novels - and i understand the desire to take on bigger stories - i kind of miss the simplicity and the personal / emotional narrative of her first two books.
The Beauty of Humanity, refers to an art movement but i think it perfectly describes the story Gibb tells, of people coming together after a painful experience - coming together to heal and forgive and to create community, to create a surrogate family. resilence, forgiveness, hope, healing, community and compassion .... these are the movements that illustrate the beauty that exists along with our ability to wreak havoc, to destroy, to persecute and demean.
when Gibb finds the ability to meld the emotional narrative of her first two books with the big and noble ideals of her two later books ... well ... she will be one hellova writer.
August 8, 2011
This was a lovely book. The characters and the story are very rich. While this book is obviously based on Gibb's research about Vietnam rather than her own experience of Vietnam, it all worked very well. The characters were three dimensional and the story mixed the quirky personalities of the characters she created with a complex history and polictical context. And you cannot read this book without craving a good pho.
August 7, 2014
This is a truly wonderful book. It offers insight into life in Vietnam both before and after the communist movement took hold in the northern part of this country. The city that is at its epicenter is Hanoi. We get a first hand look at what life is like for the ordinary people as their country is brought under communist rule. Ms. Gibb uses beautiful language to develop her no holds barred look at how difficult life is for the people during the turmoil. The book is woven around the life of Old Man Hung. He is an itinerant pho seller.(Vietnamese beef noodle soup). The people that are in Hung's orbit are truly blessed with this wonderful man's insight into humanity and family life. In his lifetime and in his business he has seen much that is momentous and tragic, but he never loses faith in the human spirit. Ms. Gibbs' character development and her understanding of Vietnamese life are extraordinary. The language that she uses throughout the book is incredibly vivid and poignant. Hung's gentleness and understanding is tied together with the care he takes in his soup making. There is a story here of old love lost and regained. There is forgiveness and forbearance, understanding and acceptance. These are all traits that we as human beings try so hard to achieve and what Old Man Hung holds in abundance. There are lots of lessons to be learned in this gem of a book.
January 12, 2019
This is a powerful little book. A young woman, Maggie, raised in the US but Vietnamese by birth has come to Hanoi in search of her past. Her father, a dissident artist, became separated from Maggie and her mother during the war. She now seeks clues to his fate at a pho (soup) stand in the outskirts of the city.
She meets the intriguing and intelligent Old Man Hung whose shop was once a hub for artists before the war. She meets his grandson, Tu, now a tourist guide who leads war tours through the city. Maggie, Hung and Tu come together in a highly charged story that will change your view on everything you thought you knew about Vietnam, at least it did for me.
The dialogue is brilliant and beautiful, almost poetic. I enjoyed everything about this book, the characters were well described and engaging. I really felt for each of them. The determination of the Vietnamese people to survive is well described in Old Man Hung's determination to feed himself and his community when there was virtually "nothing to eat" during and after the war.
Without giving away more of the plot I will add that the true heart of the story is finding out who Maggie's father was and then finding some of his work in a shop that is being sold.
***An all time favorite, this is a brilliant look at the Vietnamese people***
She meets the intriguing and intelligent Old Man Hung whose shop was once a hub for artists before the war. She meets his grandson, Tu, now a tourist guide who leads war tours through the city. Maggie, Hung and Tu come together in a highly charged story that will change your view on everything you thought you knew about Vietnam, at least it did for me.
The dialogue is brilliant and beautiful, almost poetic. I enjoyed everything about this book, the characters were well described and engaging. I really felt for each of them. The determination of the Vietnamese people to survive is well described in Old Man Hung's determination to feed himself and his community when there was virtually "nothing to eat" during and after the war.
Without giving away more of the plot I will add that the true heart of the story is finding out who Maggie's father was and then finding some of his work in a shop that is being sold.
***An all time favorite, this is a brilliant look at the Vietnamese people***
February 6, 2017
I received this book as a First Reads book winner, but I thought I had been forgotten due to the expanse of time it took for the book to reach me. But finally, it arrived!
I have to admit that I initially felt let down by cover art as it illustrates a scene of a Vietnamese male on a sampan. The title alone hints at the intellectual challenge that awaits the reader between the pages. Fortunately, while there is much that presents difficulty in its explanation of the political history of Vietnam and it's struggle and transition from Communism, there is also a solid storyline that takes the reader through time and back in following the life of an elderly man whose life was profoundly touched by those of the revolutionaries. The touching description of this man's early life is further enhanced by the portrayal of life in present-day Vietnam. Something of the past mingles with their present day attitudes and values, allowing the reader to learn something of the struggle these people face.
It is difficult for me to write a description of the personal storyline as it is so interwoven in the politics of the country, but I feel enriched for having read the book. Thank you for the free copy.
Now I am compelled to find a good, aromatic bowl of pho . . .
I have to admit that I initially felt let down by cover art as it illustrates a scene of a Vietnamese male on a sampan. The title alone hints at the intellectual challenge that awaits the reader between the pages. Fortunately, while there is much that presents difficulty in its explanation of the political history of Vietnam and it's struggle and transition from Communism, there is also a solid storyline that takes the reader through time and back in following the life of an elderly man whose life was profoundly touched by those of the revolutionaries. The touching description of this man's early life is further enhanced by the portrayal of life in present-day Vietnam. Something of the past mingles with their present day attitudes and values, allowing the reader to learn something of the struggle these people face.
It is difficult for me to write a description of the personal storyline as it is so interwoven in the politics of the country, but I feel enriched for having read the book. Thank you for the free copy.
Now I am compelled to find a good, aromatic bowl of pho . . .
February 6, 2017
I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. I now know something about Vietnam, which is a vast improvement on the minuscule knowledge I had before. The historical events presented in this book show how complicated culture and politics are, and yet it was easy to understand. I also really enjoyed the intergenerational discussions on identity and one's place in the world. For being an easy read, this book made me ponder many things, which is always a good sign. I'm interested in reading Gibb's other work.
March 4, 2021
Although not a historical novel, this story teaches something about history and makes readers think about our world today and what led to it. I knew little about Vietnamese history and I did some research in order to fully understand and appreciate the context. Aside from that, the characters were delightful, especially the old man who has spent his lifetime making and selling Pho, a soup made of beef broth and noodles. The younger characters both respect him and learn from him, which is as it should be. Best of all -- a happy ending! I'm looking forward to a good discussion at my upcoming book club.
December 31, 2017
What is art if...we can no longer use it to comment independently on the state of the world? p129
Recorded history routinely can be erroneous, distorted, misinterpreted, rewritten or lost, perhaps sometimes all of those things. More reliable to trace the life history of an individual, including their origins and offspring. The events of the times stand out in their impact on the generations that, each in their turn, struggle for dominance.
This has been a common practice since mythologies elevated their heroes to gods. In this skillful and warmly rendered tale of turbulence and displacement, our hero is a paragon of stability. Famous not for his physical prowess nor for military, intellectual nor scientific achievements, not even for clever investments but for his excellent delicious and nourishing pho, Hung is as humble as he is resourceful, as his circumstances dictate. As we follow him from diligent apprentice to expansive shop-owner, where the intellectuals and revolutionary types gather, we get an intimate glimpse of Vietnamese life and culture as the ancient order gave way to the chaos of warring factions. We also get an encyclopedia of pho culture, including a recipe and the superior way to prepare." Beware the evils of the stock cube!" p171 Considering that I have never tasted this dish (you can order vegetarian pho in a restaurant but it is always cooked in a pork broth) and seeing as pork is something I don't eat, I was surprised to note while reading this book that I was beginning to crave it.
Hungs selfless devotion to his craft inspires him to carry on when he loses his shop and it is as a roving street vendor that he encounters Maggie, a young American woman searching for traces of her father left behind when she with her mother escaped the war. If the resolution of her quest is somewhat, sadly, predictable, CG's fresh perspective gives us multi-dimensional characters who emerge to give us a new notion of family.
...tackling things so directly, without apology or ritual, seems
a bit reckless...but it certainly does move things along. p278
January 2, 2012
Finished this book earlier today and it was fabulous; a very satisfying read. I loved Old Man Hung and everything he stood for: hard work, dedication, loyalty, resilience and an appreciation of the beauty in everything. I can't recall a more likable character in any of my last 10 reads at least. His commitment to the Pho he made every day despite all the obstacles he faced symbolized a lesson all of us need to learn: life is what you make of it and you need to continue to do what makes you happy, even through the inevitable bumps you will encounter along the way.
The book was beautifully written and the characters all real and likable. The book was so beautifully written that you could cope with all the horrors and abhorrences described within it. I knew so little about Vietnam and what preceded and proceeded that horrible war in the 70's. It was sad to hear how the country became divided and to see the awful results of Communist rule in Northern Vietnam: the loss of dignity and self-respect for its residents and the loss of the culture and art that made Vietnam unique. And yet, somehow, through Tu especially and Maggie to some extent, one got a feel for how North Vietnam was finding itself again and developing a new sense of identity and pride despite it's oppressive regime. The genuine fondness, respect and love between Tu and Hung, Binh and Hung, and Lan and Hung was heart-warming and touching. I highly recommend this book.
The book was beautifully written and the characters all real and likable. The book was so beautifully written that you could cope with all the horrors and abhorrences described within it. I knew so little about Vietnam and what preceded and proceeded that horrible war in the 70's. It was sad to hear how the country became divided and to see the awful results of Communist rule in Northern Vietnam: the loss of dignity and self-respect for its residents and the loss of the culture and art that made Vietnam unique. And yet, somehow, through Tu especially and Maggie to some extent, one got a feel for how North Vietnam was finding itself again and developing a new sense of identity and pride despite it's oppressive regime. The genuine fondness, respect and love between Tu and Hung, Binh and Hung, and Lan and Hung was heart-warming and touching. I highly recommend this book.
December 6, 2017
Onvan : The Beauty of Humanity Movement - Nevisande : Camilla Gibb - ISBN : 385663226 - ISBN13 : 9780385663229 - Dar 297 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2010
May 11, 2011
The Beauty of Humanity Movement is a story about Vietnam - about one of its warring times that the United States had nothing to do with. In fact, the better-known US-Nam war is only mentioned in passing - almost because it actually happened, not because it had any connection to this story. Old Man Hung serves pho to his faithful customers every morning, although he doesn't have a license to operate a business nor does he have a decent location to set up shop. He keeps moving and sets up his stall in an alleyway, construction areas, parks or factory grounds, until he is yet again driven away by the police. It is on one such morning that Maggie, a Viet Kieu (a Vietnamese-born person raised in a foreign country) comes asking him if he knew her father. Soon, we are privy to Hung's many reminiscences about an age of beautiful artistic expression that the authorities struggled to contain.
The Beauty of Humanity Movement (that is, the movement itself) is a liberalized interpretation of a real movement (The Nhan Van-Giai Pham movement) that was formed by intellectuals, writers and artists as a means to express their thoughts and to demand freedom of speech. Although they abided by Communist principles, they opposed the government's attempts to stamp out any original thoughts. Dao, a member of this movement, and several of his colleagues would gather in Hung's then restaurant and have frequent discussions, which Hung relished. As did actually happen, many of these members were later arrested by the Vietnamese Party, tortured, imprisoned and murdered. "Reeducation" is a scary phrase used throughout. Although it sounds much like a benign classroom lecture, it was anything but. It was a method of forceful brainwashing and torture through which the party tried to bend the straight proud backs of the intellectuals and make them a distorted shadow of their selves, failing which, they were probably murdered.
This book is primarily about the events of 1955 - 1959, and also of Maggie's search for some proof that her father existed (the government destroyed every writing, painting, etc that it could get its hands on), and it is Hung who ties together these various strands. Dao's son, Binh, and grandson, Tu, are also pivotal to this story as the protectors of Hung, to whom they feel much obliged for many reasons. Hung and his pho have together seen history change wildly and been privy to a lot of secrets and also tragedies. Hung is a character I deeply respected - for how well he stood by his principles even without being a member of the movement, how he strove to protect the works of the writers and the artists, and how he felt it was his duty to look after his neighbors when there is a scarcity of food in town.
I really enjoyed reading this book. It started out slow for me, and I didn't expect to get really engrossed in it. Most of this book requires patience to get through - a sentiment I've heard expressed previously. It's not the kind of patience you would need to read books like Ulysses, but rather, right when the author builds up interest in a topic, she changes the subject immediately. For me, that meant getting frustrated at not knowing what was so important that it had to be tantalizingly dropped in front of me and then pulled away. It's not suspense at all. I'd call it character investment - getting really empathetic with the characters and aching to know what's happening to them. Moreover, I loved reading about the movement and its members fight for individuality. It was a recurrence of the Dark Ages and the Renaissance in Europe. It most reminded me of George Orwell's book, Animal Farm. Now, most wars and revolts are originated mostly by word of mouth and mutual suffering, it feels alien to imagine writers and artists being punished for their work, and yet it is a reality of many countries.
I thoroughly enjoyed this look at Vietnam's history. Although it took me a while to get used to Camilla Gibb's descriptive writing, I began to appreciate it more as I continued reading. There are more sentiments in this book than those of the revolutionists and the intellectuals. It explores the attitudes towards the Viet Kieu and the alienated feelings of the latter (a sentiment I can relate to). It also shows how even decades after the creation of the movement and its eventual suppression, people in the current generation still harbored some form of revolutionist thoughts - for instance, although Tu would never imagine having another internal war in the present, he cannot embrace certain forms of art or support their existence. The author makes a wonderful case of showing how certain behaviors still outlast the revolutions they brought about - in a much milder form, but never fully stamped out.
I could have however done with a not-so-well-patched-together ending. After a really rich sieving of the story, some parts of the ending fell flat on me. Not that they weren't believable or that they should have been more tragic, but the rhythm of the story suddenly changed gear and I felt it very out of place. Overall though, I will definitely recommend this book. In spite of the slow start, it compensates through the rich description of the characters, vivid portrayals of a history that is very much lost to a guzzling revolution, and the genuine thoughts and beliefs of the characters during the various tests of humanity.
The Beauty of Humanity Movement (that is, the movement itself) is a liberalized interpretation of a real movement (The Nhan Van-Giai Pham movement) that was formed by intellectuals, writers and artists as a means to express their thoughts and to demand freedom of speech. Although they abided by Communist principles, they opposed the government's attempts to stamp out any original thoughts. Dao, a member of this movement, and several of his colleagues would gather in Hung's then restaurant and have frequent discussions, which Hung relished. As did actually happen, many of these members were later arrested by the Vietnamese Party, tortured, imprisoned and murdered. "Reeducation" is a scary phrase used throughout. Although it sounds much like a benign classroom lecture, it was anything but. It was a method of forceful brainwashing and torture through which the party tried to bend the straight proud backs of the intellectuals and make them a distorted shadow of their selves, failing which, they were probably murdered.
This book is primarily about the events of 1955 - 1959, and also of Maggie's search for some proof that her father existed (the government destroyed every writing, painting, etc that it could get its hands on), and it is Hung who ties together these various strands. Dao's son, Binh, and grandson, Tu, are also pivotal to this story as the protectors of Hung, to whom they feel much obliged for many reasons. Hung and his pho have together seen history change wildly and been privy to a lot of secrets and also tragedies. Hung is a character I deeply respected - for how well he stood by his principles even without being a member of the movement, how he strove to protect the works of the writers and the artists, and how he felt it was his duty to look after his neighbors when there is a scarcity of food in town.
I really enjoyed reading this book. It started out slow for me, and I didn't expect to get really engrossed in it. Most of this book requires patience to get through - a sentiment I've heard expressed previously. It's not the kind of patience you would need to read books like Ulysses, but rather, right when the author builds up interest in a topic, she changes the subject immediately. For me, that meant getting frustrated at not knowing what was so important that it had to be tantalizingly dropped in front of me and then pulled away. It's not suspense at all. I'd call it character investment - getting really empathetic with the characters and aching to know what's happening to them. Moreover, I loved reading about the movement and its members fight for individuality. It was a recurrence of the Dark Ages and the Renaissance in Europe. It most reminded me of George Orwell's book, Animal Farm. Now, most wars and revolts are originated mostly by word of mouth and mutual suffering, it feels alien to imagine writers and artists being punished for their work, and yet it is a reality of many countries.
I thoroughly enjoyed this look at Vietnam's history. Although it took me a while to get used to Camilla Gibb's descriptive writing, I began to appreciate it more as I continued reading. There are more sentiments in this book than those of the revolutionists and the intellectuals. It explores the attitudes towards the Viet Kieu and the alienated feelings of the latter (a sentiment I can relate to). It also shows how even decades after the creation of the movement and its eventual suppression, people in the current generation still harbored some form of revolutionist thoughts - for instance, although Tu would never imagine having another internal war in the present, he cannot embrace certain forms of art or support their existence. The author makes a wonderful case of showing how certain behaviors still outlast the revolutions they brought about - in a much milder form, but never fully stamped out.
I could have however done with a not-so-well-patched-together ending. After a really rich sieving of the story, some parts of the ending fell flat on me. Not that they weren't believable or that they should have been more tragic, but the rhythm of the story suddenly changed gear and I felt it very out of place. Overall though, I will definitely recommend this book. In spite of the slow start, it compensates through the rich description of the characters, vivid portrayals of a history that is very much lost to a guzzling revolution, and the genuine thoughts and beliefs of the characters during the various tests of humanity.
April 7, 2014
What a wonderful book. Humanizes Vietnam. It could have turned into an anti-American rant, but it does not. It simply lets us know what this poor country has suffered through -- from the Chinese and French occupations, to the war(s), to communism. to the slow return to capitalism.... And it presents a lovable 80-year-old protagonist (a maker of pho, a Vietnamese breakfast soup) who has lived through most of it. He is surrounded by a solid supporting cast. There is a plot, but that is almost secondary to the characters and writing (but there is a plot!). In short, beautifully written; a lovely story. Very sweet book, but dynamic too. If you want to see the human face of Vietnam (if you protested the war, or at least opposed it on moral grounds), this is a must read. I could go on, but simply get this book. Read it. Get your book club to read it. It should be read.
July 4, 2020
So beautifully written, I could picture the streets of Hanoi and smell the food Camilla Gibb writes of. The story is equally as powerful. This book has certainly become a favourite !!
February 6, 2011
Absolutely beautiful.
I was stunned by this novel. As a Vietnamese Canadian, unfortunately I've never delved into Vietnam's past on my father's side of the family. After reading this, I have a newfound spark to discover more through books and first-person accounts of their experiences. And being in this situation, I sympathized with Maggie, who is on a journey to find out who her father was after their separation, but is labelled as an outside I've come to care about all the characters in this novel: Old Man Hung, whose enthusiasm for truly good phở I can appreciate (a trait I find in my own father), Bình and his quiet dedication to his family, Tu, carrying the hopes as the 'new generation,' Lan and her past with Hung, and even Phương, with his dreams to become a rapper.
The humour found in this novel are delights because they speak simple truths, like Tu's inner advice to tourists that want to mend the past with Vietnam (spend lots of money here!), that he keeps hidden as he smiles and nods as he takes them on special tours. Bình and Tu's loyalty to Old Man Hung is also evident whenever they criticize other phở places down to the very last drop, much to the dismay of the owner who can hear everything they're saying, as they're sitting there as customers!
I've begun to venture into Canadian fiction and I find that often times, authors seem to be limited by the label. It is a fact that we are a young country, and perhaps it is rather difficult to spin expansive historical tales, which I've found to be disappointing because I consider works of a Canadian author to be Canadian fiction. Maybe it's a very simplistic view of the literary world, but I don't believe the label should restrict the geographical means of a good story, especially living in a country where we unconsciously interact with so many different cultures on a daily basis.
This is one incredible read, and whether or not you have had the experience of visiting Vietnam (as I must one day), I should hope you appreciate the tips for knowing a good bowl of phở found here. If I've learned anything from my father, it's that truly amazing broth should engulf you in its aroma as the bowl of phở arrives in front of you. May you all find that bowl that you wouldn't mind having to start your day, 365 days of the year.;)
I was stunned by this novel. As a Vietnamese Canadian, unfortunately I've never delved into Vietnam's past on my father's side of the family. After reading this, I have a newfound spark to discover more through books and first-person accounts of their experiences. And being in this situation, I sympathized with Maggie, who is on a journey to find out who her father was after their separation, but is labelled as an outside I've come to care about all the characters in this novel: Old Man Hung, whose enthusiasm for truly good phở I can appreciate (a trait I find in my own father), Bình and his quiet dedication to his family, Tu, carrying the hopes as the 'new generation,' Lan and her past with Hung, and even Phương, with his dreams to become a rapper.
The humour found in this novel are delights because they speak simple truths, like Tu's inner advice to tourists that want to mend the past with Vietnam (spend lots of money here!), that he keeps hidden as he smiles and nods as he takes them on special tours. Bình and Tu's loyalty to Old Man Hung is also evident whenever they criticize other phở places down to the very last drop, much to the dismay of the owner who can hear everything they're saying, as they're sitting there as customers!
I've begun to venture into Canadian fiction and I find that often times, authors seem to be limited by the label. It is a fact that we are a young country, and perhaps it is rather difficult to spin expansive historical tales, which I've found to be disappointing because I consider works of a Canadian author to be Canadian fiction. Maybe it's a very simplistic view of the literary world, but I don't believe the label should restrict the geographical means of a good story, especially living in a country where we unconsciously interact with so many different cultures on a daily basis.
This is one incredible read, and whether or not you have had the experience of visiting Vietnam (as I must one day), I should hope you appreciate the tips for knowing a good bowl of phở found here. If I've learned anything from my father, it's that truly amazing broth should engulf you in its aroma as the bowl of phở arrives in front of you. May you all find that bowl that you wouldn't mind having to start your day, 365 days of the year.;)
June 2, 2012
As someone too young to have understood the Vietnam War when it happened, I found this an engaging introduction to the history and culture of Vietnam. At first I was annoyed that author Camilla Gibb assumed I knew the basic geography of the country (such as where Hanoi and Saigon were), but that shortcoming was easily rectified on the internet. I also reviewed the major events in the country's history, which oriented me to the political climate during the different periods in the book.
After that, I found the time shifting seamless, with the story of the main character Hu'ng taking place in three periods: as a young boy, as a young man, and in the present (2007) as an elderly man. Only towards the end of the book did I realize that Gibb uses the present tense for the 2007 narrative and the past tense for the various backstories.
The main characters are described with skill, giving readers insightful glimpses of the thoughts, motivations and actions. They interact by chance and by design, and as their lives intertwine, they form an endearing family unit.
A few quibbles: Most of the Vietnamese language that was used was translated or worked into the text so the meaning was understood, but not all. A glossary would have been helpful. (I tried translating it online but had trouble typing the diacritics.)
Also, one of the "bonuses" of the book was that each chapter was named using something from its content. I love the "aha" moment when I find the source of a book title while reading, so I got one "aha" moment per chapter! However, there was one chapter for which I just couldn't find the title reference.
As the book wound up, some incidents related to events or information from early in the book, but Gibb didn't provide the right detail for me to make the connections. I either had to flip back to reread sections or discovered the connections by chance. Rereading this book would definitely tie things together.
By the way, a friend and I read this book before going on a cycling weekend. We are both avid readers, but our tastes don't often overlap (we don't usually recommend books to each other). I wanted to have a book in common to discuss, which we did with great verve on our drive home. This would be a great book for book clubs.
After that, I found the time shifting seamless, with the story of the main character Hu'ng taking place in three periods: as a young boy, as a young man, and in the present (2007) as an elderly man. Only towards the end of the book did I realize that Gibb uses the present tense for the 2007 narrative and the past tense for the various backstories.
The main characters are described with skill, giving readers insightful glimpses of the thoughts, motivations and actions. They interact by chance and by design, and as their lives intertwine, they form an endearing family unit.
A few quibbles: Most of the Vietnamese language that was used was translated or worked into the text so the meaning was understood, but not all. A glossary would have been helpful. (I tried translating it online but had trouble typing the diacritics.)
Also, one of the "bonuses" of the book was that each chapter was named using something from its content. I love the "aha" moment when I find the source of a book title while reading, so I got one "aha" moment per chapter! However, there was one chapter for which I just couldn't find the title reference.
As the book wound up, some incidents related to events or information from early in the book, but Gibb didn't provide the right detail for me to make the connections. I either had to flip back to reread sections or discovered the connections by chance. Rereading this book would definitely tie things together.
By the way, a friend and I read this book before going on a cycling weekend. We are both avid readers, but our tastes don't often overlap (we don't usually recommend books to each other). I wanted to have a book in common to discuss, which we did with great verve on our drive home. This would be a great book for book clubs.
June 16, 2012
How does a person who is not a native of Vietnam write so realistically about a nation, the way Amy Tan writes about China? I had to check the author bio to make sure I was not mistaken in thinking she was not from Vietnam. This is truly clever writing. The only thing that irked me slightly is the adulation and idolisation old man Hu'ung receives, even though he spurns the love of his life at an early age and in so doing makes her life a misery. This is depicted as principled behaviour but is it really just a waste of two lives. Maybe that plot arc is more real than the happy ending I am always searching for. I am always looking for the perfect ending. One that walks the delicate tightrope between realism and escapism into that illusive "happily ever after" but only after lessons have been learned, choices have been made and ends are tied neatly into a tight bow. And why oh why does Maggie not fall for Tu?? Two richly drawn characters only to be bypassed by an introduction to a new character right at the very end. Unsatisfactory.!! Otherwise the political and the personal are blended beautifully into a fine broth, perfectly spiced with just the right ingredients.
August 9, 2019
I think this will be a hard book to review, but I loved it. I know very little about Vietnam history, aside from our part in the war.
There are 3 main characters, each was wonderful to meet. Maggie, Vietnam born but raised in America who has come to find out about who her father was.
Tu, a young Viet man, loving the "ways" of American products but yet still loving the old ways & culture of his country.
Hung, an old man with a pho cart, we learn the most from him as his story goes back & forth over many years.
It truly was a lovely story.
Loved this trip to Vietnam & I feel I will need to learn more about this country. And where can I get some great pho?
There are 3 main characters, each was wonderful to meet. Maggie, Vietnam born but raised in America who has come to find out about who her father was.
Tu, a young Viet man, loving the "ways" of American products but yet still loving the old ways & culture of his country.
Hung, an old man with a pho cart, we learn the most from him as his story goes back & forth over many years.
It truly was a lovely story.
Loved this trip to Vietnam & I feel I will need to learn more about this country. And where can I get some great pho?
February 7, 2013
This is not an American soldier war story. The awkwardly titled Beauty of Humanity Movement by Camilla Gibb is a novel that illumines Vietnamese social-cultural history and is set (mostly) in Hanoi featuring mostly Vietnamese characters.
I will never forget Old Man Hung who gives the novel its heart and one of literature's most vivid fictional characters.
Camilla Gibb recommends UNDERSTANDING VIETNAM by Neil Jamieson (1993) for readers interested in learning more about the history of Vietnam.
March 8, 2013
I liked this book. It is set in present day Vietnam and touches on the history and conflict between the North and South.
The plot is about people living a difficult life in poverty. However they live with integrity and create a community of people that they can count on and who help each other. It is heartwarming to read about.
The book is intertwined with scenes, scents and foods of Hanoi. It brought me to a world that I was not that familiar with and really felt like I was there.
It is beautifully written, but a little slow moving.
The plot is about people living a difficult life in poverty. However they live with integrity and create a community of people that they can count on and who help each other. It is heartwarming to read about.
The book is intertwined with scenes, scents and foods of Hanoi. It brought me to a world that I was not that familiar with and really felt like I was there.
It is beautifully written, but a little slow moving.
March 28, 2015
I really enjoyed this book. Although written by a non-Vietnamese author, it had an authentic feel, with welcome insight into the culture and history of Vietnam, a country I have not read much about. I was also very fond of the characters and wanted a happy ending for all of them. For someone who leans towards darker stories, there was a refreshing sweetness to this book without it feeling hokey. I'm so glad I chose to read this.
December 15, 2014
I really enjoyed this story about Old Man Hung and his pho! I don't know much about Vietnam or its history so this book was very eye opening and interesting. I almost felt like I was in Vietnam when reading it and it has made me add the country to my travel wish list.
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