Fake House: Stories

by Linh Dinh

Fake House, the first collection of short stories by poet Linh Dinh, explores the weird, atrocious, fond, and ongoing intimacies between Vietnam and the United States.
Linked by a complicated past, the characters are driven by an intense and angry energy. The politics of race and sex anchor Dinh's work as his men and women negotiate their way in a post-Vietnam War world. Dinh has said of his own work, "I incorporate a filth or uncleanness to make the picture more healthy--not to defile anything."
While Fake House delves into the lives of marginal souls in two cultures, the characters' dignity lies, ultimately, in how they face the conflict in themselves and the world.

Genres: Short Stories

192 pages, Hardcover

First published September 5, 2000

Reviews

[Ivy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Linh Dinh writes in a half-awake world that feels like one is trying to unfreeze the self from sleep paralysis.

[Meleya]

I'm not sure why I finished this one.

[Brian Shevory · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of short stories. Dinh divides the collection up between American stories, seemingly told from white protagonists' point of view and stories taking place in Vietnam told mostly through Vietnamese protagonists' Point of View. Like Love Like Hate, Dinh's treatment of his subjects leaves no one off the hook. That is, everyone is guilty of some bias or ignorance, whether it is how Westerners exploit developing countries like Vietnam or our own subtle racism towards immigrants. Dinh also criticizes (often in humorous ways) the folk beliefs and ignorance of Vietnamese peasants and their sad attempts to escape Vietnam. While Love Like Hate reminded me of Flan O'Brien's Poor Mouth, Fake House reminds me a lot of Joyce's Dubliners with the characters frequently trying to flee their unhappiness and situations either through drinking, sex, or flight. I wish Dinh would write more prose, but I want to check out his poetry nonetheless.

[Imogen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Y'know how you can learn a lot more about america by readying, I don't know, Tom Robbins's cartoon characters, or Aimee Bender's, than you probably would from John Grisham's ostensibly realistic ones? I feel like Vietnam through Linh Dinh's wide-eyed, opinionated, kind of aggro characters taught me more about Vietnam than I've ever learned anywhere else from anyone. I guess his affection level toward his characters is closer to Robbins's than ol Chuck P's, too, which is nice- more 'I live in a loopy time and place so I'm kind of loopy' than 'everything is totally hopeless, man.' (Although- edit- Linh Dinh doesn't really write like Tom Robbins at all.)

Did you know that this never came out in paperback? Interesting. Anyway, I recommend you read it. It's hard to talk about. Also, you will feel smart when you figure out what the opening picture is and what it means, which is nice.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm going to have to check out more of Dinh at some point, because this is some really nice writing. It's solid throughout, and inventive at just the right points. Some wonderful viewpoints as well, disturbing at times. There's quite a range inside here.

[Sherab Dorji · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little too absurdist for my liking