리뷰
I truly held out hope until the last page that Huong’s father would come back. This book was a heart wrenching read on the Vietnam experience and the trauma the war caused for years on end. The language was sometimes choppy but this was a riveting read that I couldn’t put down.
I barely know anything about the historical events in Vietnam, except for the Vietnam War which has been portrayed so many times through Hollywood movies. Ironically, I only ever saw it from the American point of view, without realizing that actually, the Vietnamese are the most important victims who need to be given more space to tell their own story. That’s why I was excited when finally got a chance to delve into this book.The Mountains Sing is a story about a multi-generational family, told from the dual points of view of Diệu Lan and her granddaughter, Hương. The book stretches throughout the long span of historical events in Vietnam, from the occupation by the French and Japanese, moving into the horrible tragedies like The Great Hunger and The Land Reform, and the Vietnam War itself. I would like to appreciate the author for involving such rich knowledge of Vietnam's history here.Reading the first few chapters assured me that this book would be filled with so much angst and heart-wrenching moments. The answer is yes, and … not really.It's not wrong at all. Each chapter offers the reality of how cruel humans can be, yet this story also delivers that kindness and the power of family bonds can be saviors in facing poignancy. The biggest problem: both the storytelling and characterization didn’t manage to make me feel any emotion.As a non-native English speaker, I found the narration of this book was easy to read. I barely needed to search for the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary. There were no complex descriptions; the storytelling tended to be straightforward, more like telling rather than showing. However, it made the depth of emotion underdeveloped. The narrative felt shallow, and the pacing sometimes left me wondering. Not gonna lie, I also thought some scenes were too dramatic, unrealistic, and out of nowhere.Other than Grandma Diệu Lan and Hương, I felt most of the characters were one-dimensional. We just know them from the telling-descriptions. At the beginning, it was difficult to resonate with them, but they started to become more vivid throughout the book, especially after each of them got the spotlight to tell their own painful story. But still, I truly wished to put myself in these characters' shoes, instead of only seeing them as “tragic fictional characters".Though I didn’t find the book to be fully well-written (or maybe it’s just not my cup of tea), The Mountains Sing gave me a wonderful experience of learning about the culture and history of Vietnam. After reading this, I aspire to look for more books by Southeast Asian authors.