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A review by wellworn_soles
The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen
4.0
I came into Viet Thanh's work with no preconceptions, having picked it up from a bookstore in interest at the title and then renting it from my local library some weeks later. Yet I am really thankful for the time I got to spend with the characters dotting the pages of Mr. Nguyen's collection of short stories. Written over the course of twenty years, all of the stories center in some way around Vietnamese refugees - although Nguyen makes sure to say this book is for "all refugees, everywhere" on the opening page.
Not being a refugee ever myself, I take that as accurate. The book is centered on Vietnamese families coming to terms with the profound dislocation that comes with being forced from your home, but the experiences that Nguyen so delicately portrays are at once individual and highly universal. So many characters were frustratingly unable to seem to build full, wholesome lives abroad - and yet, who can blame them when a part of their history is always trapped elsewhere? Nguyen covers everything from first generation to distant relations to show the far-reaching effects of war torn countries on the people forced to evacuate. He is unrelenting, but never graphic; the difficult-to-stomach insight he gives us is often more emotionally and psychically wrenching than physical. Set amongst a backdrop of the west coast where he himself grew up, I really got a feeling I was seeing his own relationship with the "second-homeland" form through his explorations in character. While some end sadly, most of the stories end ambiguous and open; a telling testament to his overarching idea that the adjustment period is never finished, especially not for a refugee.
I really enjoyed this work and am definitely jotting down his more well-known work, The Sympathizer as a to-read in a bit. I feel grateful to have had the time to listen to Mr. Nguyen as he invites us to sit and be with him in these stories and what they represent for refugees and people at large. Considering our current political climate, it is stories like these that approach the "other" with grace and poignancy that I feel are vital. We can't have enough of a good thing, especially when it is wrapped in as accessibly rewarding prose as Mr. Nguyen's.
Not being a refugee ever myself, I take that as accurate. The book is centered on Vietnamese families coming to terms with the profound dislocation that comes with being forced from your home, but the experiences that Nguyen so delicately portrays are at once individual and highly universal. So many characters were frustratingly unable to seem to build full, wholesome lives abroad - and yet, who can blame them when a part of their history is always trapped elsewhere? Nguyen covers everything from first generation to distant relations to show the far-reaching effects of war torn countries on the people forced to evacuate. He is unrelenting, but never graphic; the difficult-to-stomach insight he gives us is often more emotionally and psychically wrenching than physical. Set amongst a backdrop of the west coast where he himself grew up, I really got a feeling I was seeing his own relationship with the "second-homeland" form through his explorations in character. While some end sadly, most of the stories end ambiguous and open; a telling testament to his overarching idea that the adjustment period is never finished, especially not for a refugee.
I really enjoyed this work and am definitely jotting down his more well-known work, The Sympathizer as a to-read in a bit. I feel grateful to have had the time to listen to Mr. Nguyen as he invites us to sit and be with him in these stories and what they represent for refugees and people at large. Considering our current political climate, it is stories like these that approach the "other" with grace and poignancy that I feel are vital. We can't have enough of a good thing, especially when it is wrapped in as accessibly rewarding prose as Mr. Nguyen's.