"Muon man" and "eo theoo" can be said to be the two adjectives that best describe her short stories. And Se mang theo is the collection that shows that. Not a new collection, this is a work of 21 short stories carefully selected by Da Ngan - from the latest, the story of the same name written during the period of social distancing in the city during the pandemic in 2020, to the work that helped her make a splash in the Vietnamese literary world in 1985, The Dog and the Divorce. Selected over 4 decades that have constantly stirred the minds of readers, this is a work with many meanings: helping those who have loved Da Ngan to have the opportunity to look back on her journey, but at the same time, it is an opportunity for the next generation to begin to enter a "realm" with many of Da Ngan's own feelings.
Writer Da Ngan
Women's heart
In 21 short stories, it is not difficult to see two themes that constantly recur in her writing career, and one of them is the feelings of women. Many critics have commented that through only the short novel The Small Family and the short story The Dog and the Divorce , Da Ngan has affirmed her position in the hearts of readers. The common point of them is that they all take women as the main characters, thereby highlighting the feelings and thoughts that are inherently hidden and very difficult to fathom. Da Ngan not only sketches the surface features, but digs very deep into the depths to discover all the joys, anger, love and hate of this life.
"Muon man" and "eo theoo" can be said to be the two adjectives that best describe her short stories. And Se mang theo is the collection that shows that. Not a new collection, this is a work of 21 short stories carefully selected by Da Ngan - from the latest story of the same name written during the period of social distancing in the city during the epidemic season in 2020, to the work that helped her make a splash in the Vietnamese literary world in 1985, The Dog and the Divorce.
The above images in Da Ngan's short stories are often very petty and full of scars. They are not "strong women" but instead very close. Her good point is that she writes like breathing. She does not "put on makeup" to embellish them into characters that are easily important. Their world is fields, gardens, villages, families, responsibilities. They shrink in traditional etiquette and secretly endure the trauma of the times. In the eyes of others, they are motionless, but in their hearts, there are underground waves that are constantly screaming. They exist in parallel between the good, the beautiful and the ugly, between nobility and selfishness, between superficial hypocrisy and the unfathomable, complex inside...
For Da Ngan, it is that source that enriches her own writing. There is beauty in their sensitivity, sacrifice, sympathy and understanding for those around them, whether familiar or unfamiliar, through the short stories "Wife of a soldier", "Together with the end of the earth", "Who is the person of Hanoi", "On the roof of the woman's house"... But at the same time, they always carry the opposite aspect. They are people in a family who, in the name of everything, from tradition and standards, love and sacrifice, prevent their children from finding love (House without men) . It is also jealousy and pain when the "companion" of a "life without a husband" has now found a new place to dock, in "Trinh nu lon", "Bac giac song long".
But even so, there is a reason for us to sympathize - that is the pain and loss that the wars caused them. Although Da Ngan's literature is about the small fates, but speaking in an exaggerated and big way, these are also works that are anti-war. Not from the male perspective with blood and bullets falling, in this collection of stories, we see it from the loss of women. They sometimes acted irrationally, letting anger take over them... but in the end, there is nothing but pain that makes happiness come too late.
Cover of the book "Shall I Carry" published by Lien Viet Books and Vietnamese Women Publishing House
The shape of the war
Starting to write in 1980, Da Ngan saw around her the trauma of the post-war period. These were separations in many ways, from unrequited feelings when the soldier's life and the life in the rear were separated in Tinh Mut, Xuan Nu ... until the fierceness had ended, the pain still clung to the disabilities that pushed them away (Noi Niem Kim Trang) and the more or less damaged psychology (Cau Cua Toi) .
In "The White Pillow's Nostalgia" which was translated into English and included in the Longings anthology of 22 short stories by 22 prominent Vietnamese female writers in 2024, Da Ngan writes about the trauma that makes a man unable to be a father and thus rejects his wife. For many years, the wife only knows how to change the pillow every year, even though she knows how to keep the bed clean, this marriage cannot be different. The woman in her short story is like the color white and that pure cotton stuffing - fresh, clean, longing for love, but it is the war that brings sadness into her brain and will rest her head on it every sleepless night.
The post-war period also caused people to suddenly change, when fate led them into separate, tangled paths, causing many people to be in a dilemma or not knowing what to do, like the story of a shared husband in Even if we have to live less . We also see it in the short story chosen with the same name as this book, when shy feelings now have to give way to difficult decisions for the sake of the next generation, so that the promise "Come back, okay?" has become "Go away, okay?"...
With short stories full of emotions, it can be said that Da Ngan is one of the authors who possesses the ability to exploit the psychology of women with great emotion, so that we can understand, love and appreciate them more. At the same time, through these stories, we will see a common pain of the whole nation, when "wars are entangled together like the rings of a rope, no matter what is said, it is still blood and bones no matter how long the rope is", so as not to repeat these cruelties.
Writer Da Ngan's real name is Le Hong Nga, born in 1952 in Long My, Hau Giang. She worked as a journalist for 9 years in the Southwest war zone and started writing in 1980. She has published 8 collections of short stories (in addition to 9 co-published stories), 3 novels and 7 collections of essays. Many of her works have been translated into English, French...
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/sach-hay-nhung-hanh-phuc-eo-theo-va-muon-man-185250207201641661.htm
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