At Home: Diversions

NOVEL OF THE WEEK

The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai

Nguyen Phan Que Mai was born in North Vietnam in 1973, and when she was six her family moved to the South.  She received parts of her education in Australia, the UK, and Hong Kong and then returned to Vietnam to work on sustainable development.  A published poet and nonfiction writer, this novel is her first work written in English.  

Ranging back and forth in time between the present, the 1950’s, and the 1970’s, The Mountains Sing, is a collection of stories told by her grandmother, Tran Dieu Lan, to her now teenaged granddaughter Huong, nicknamed Guava.  Her grandmother was well off and residing on a farm when she was forced to flee with five of her six children during the Land Reform of the 1950’s.  Later, both of Huong’s parents and her uncles went off to fight in the American War, as the Vietnamese call it, and Huong stayed with her grandmother.  Tran relates these accounts of hardship, hunger, violence and suffering gradually as Huong awaits the return of her relatives.

 I found the book a bit hard to get into and had to adjust to the shifting time periods and different relatives, but eventually I got caught up in Huong’s life.  This is a different perspective on the Vietnam War than many of us may have.  The fierce fighting between South Vietnamese forces and those in North Vietnam was devastating for families when siblings were on opposite sides.  While fiction, it is based on the experiences of the author, her family and others.  Linking the story to her native language, she peppers conversations with a selection of Vietnamese proverbs.   

RECENT VIEWING

Michelle Obama: The Story (Amazon Prime)

I happened upon this hour long documentary, somehow thinking I was going to be watching the new film based on Obama’s memoir. But this was another work entirely and very talk heavy.  

I enjoyed seeing all the images of her dressed up, with Barack, with her girls, and hearing her heartfelt words.  She comes across as relatable and engaged, a point the film reiterates.  It’s also how the Chief Penguin and I felt when we met her in San Francisco for ten minutes with her and just us.  

On the minus side, the grating voice of the lead spokeswoman, an entertainment reporter, is annoying, and I didn’t learn anything I didn’t already know.   The second commentator, who mostly echoes the first one, is another female, a professor in England who is much easier on the ear.  Is this worth the investment of time? No, in my opinion, since there isn’t enough of Michelle in her own words.

Much better to read Becoming, the memoir and then consider watching that film on Netflix. The memoir is noteworthy for her candor, the insights into her growing up years and her marriage, and her revelations of feeling that she didn’t ever fit in at Princeton.  

PROJECTS:  Journals & Photos

The Chief Penguin is into organizing photos from our various trips and creating a document for each that includes them along with appropriate text.  He took lots of photos in the early years, and I not as many.  But I have always been a judicious recorder of the details of our travels and have journals from the international trips we’ve made.

The current focus is on Corsica.  He was invited to give a talk at a NATO scientific conference in Ajaccio in 1975. We spent two weeks in Corsica and then went on to Florence and Vienna with a few other stops ending in Zurich.  We were gone for four weeks, the longest we’d ever been away.  

I’m now transcribing my handwritten journal into a Word document and marveling at some of our adventures.  Everything from almost missing our charter flight from Paris to Ajaccio (we had to get from Charles de Gaulle to Orly airport quickly since our overseas flight was hours late); having his suitcase fall out of the trunk of the car on the way to the train station in Ajaccio; and standing in the back of the train car for the first 2 hours of the 12-hour journey from Florence to Vienna!  Believe it or not, but TWA gave us cab fare to get to Orly, and we arrived at what we thought was only 15 minutes before the flight and were dropped off right outside the gate.  No elaborate security then! 

 I also recorded the menus for almost every lunch and dinner we ate—the beginning of becoming a foodie.  Since we are stuck in Florida for now, it’s a fun armchair adventure to re-live that long-ago journey! 

Note: Header sunset photo ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).