Ever since the stranger had entered the room, he had kept his head bowed. It was only at this moment that he had looked up at Linh. His cold, somber face suddenly lit up. But it dissolved just as suddenly on the smoke that surrounded him. Linh was instantly struck by his mysterious, smoldering eyes and long, bushy eyebrows.
"Hello, Miss," the composer said almost shyly.
Linh and Nguyen have lived in Hanoi all their lives. When they were younger, she a college student and he a young idealistic professor, their shred vision of what was right bound their love together. Years later Linh discovers that he has betrayed these ideals. Now a journalist, Nguyen has been pandering to the party line. By writing articles that reflect what the party wants the people to hear, and covering up the bad things, Nguyen has made a comfortable life for his wife and daughter. She is thoroughly disgusted with him, and struggles to figure out what she needs to do. She can't respect him, therefore can't love him, and so seeks her own life away from him. This life includes an affaire with the out of favor composer Tran Phuong.
This is not an easy book to read...not prose wise, which is as fine and clear as water, but because of the questions it asks. Linh can't stand her husband because of the betrayal he has committed, a betrayal he says he did so that she and their little girl could have a decent life. Before he began doing what his bosses wanted, his articles rarely got past the censors, which meant he rarely got paid. While I can understand some of her anger, after all, are our ideals not worth more than material things? I can't completely forgive her hard hearted naiveté. I guess the other question, in this case, would be if you would allow your child to starve in order to keep pure you ideals? I can understand Nguyen's decision to hold the party line and actually set food on the table, clothes on their backs. But on the other hand, wasnt Nguyen equally foolish for continuing in a job where he would have to put aside his convictions? Could he have not returned to academia or went and got some other worthy job that would allow him to feed his family? Is his bowing to the party not the same behavior the perpetuates the system that is hurting so many? As the reader, I had a hard time trying to decide who, in the end, is in the right.
This is because Huong doesn't make this decision easy. Linh is given three choices...her husband, Tran Phuong who, it can be easily seen by the reader, is just as materialistic, just as bad as Nguyen, perhaps worse, and the Painter. The Painter, of these three men, is the one who holds Linh's own ideals. He has two opportunities, we learn, to leave Hanoi for a better life, and both times he rejects it. He is the closest to what she says that she wants, but who does she gravitate towards? Phuong. In creating this muddle, we are shown that, while the correct principle is clear, that the human heart is easily blinded and led astray. I think that our own reasonings at the time, the things we use to justify our actions, make the waters too muddy, perhaps, to do the right thing easily. So of course Linh would choose the more glamorous and interesting Phuong, even though she's convincing herself that he is a higher man in principle than her foolish spouse.
This book is an amazing portrait of Vietnam circa 1986. The Socialist way of life and who it affects the lives of all the characters is as fascinating as it is frightening. People that we would call busy bodies around where I live are important members of the community, upholding the moral good at any cost. Everything is steeped in politics of some sort, and Linh, by loving Phuong, has put herself in grave jeopardy. I walked away from this book with a real sense of the life that these people lead. Linh and Nguyen are actually equally likable in some aspects. Linh, for attempts at becoming a strong and independent woman, Nguyen for his somewhat bumbling but well intentioned love for his wife. He, too, grows during the story.
I am still mulling over the questions Huong asked in her book. It is, in many ways, a landmark piece of literature, for at the time it addressed issues that a Vietnamese citizen was forbidden to write about. As hard as it may be to comprehend, until this time writing about such individual and personal issues was frowned upon, let alone the implicit criticism of the Socialist party that is so much a part of this book. Huong is hailed as one of the best known and most talented writers from her country, and such was the lasting power of this book in my own mind, that I have to agree.
Beyond Illusions
Duong Thu Hong
