In Communist countries “reeducation” is a euphemism for prison camp, forced labor, deprivation, and sometimes, torture. In Aimee Phan’s new book The Reeducation of Cherry Truong there is none of these but the end result is similar: a stripping away of old beliefs and breakdown of long held truths. Cherry is the American-born daughter of Sanh Truong and Tuyet Vo. In the late ... Read More...
The Colour of Milk
and if i could stop time that is what i would do and i would stay in that minute for all my life and for ever. but a minute can not last for ever. Mary is an illiterate farmer’s daughter. The youngest child in her family, she is also deemed the least valuable because she was born with a deformed leg and cannot move as quickly as her sisters. What she lacks in physical ... Read More...
Ru: A Novel
The Communist takeover of Saigon forces Nguyễn An Tinh and her family to leave behind their luxurious life and escape to a refugee camp in Malaysia. From there the family immigrates to Canada and settles in Quebec. Kim Thúy’s novel is called Ru, meaning ‘lullaby’ in Vietnamese, which aptly describes the book’s style of storytelling and reminiscence. It is a slim volume with ... Read More...
Beside the Sea
Two young boys journey with their mother to see the ocean for the first time and have an adventure. Unfortunately, nothing is as planned and the trip is not what it seems. For their mother, finding herself out of sync with the world is not unusual, even regarding something as straightforward as sleep. …we’d suddenly find it was the next morning, like other people do, the ones ... Read More...
In Sunlight and In Shadow
And if you were a spirit, and time did not bind you, and patience and love were all you knew, then there you would wait for someone to return, and the story to unfold. Mark Helprin’s Winter's Tale was a magical enthralling ode to New York City and the first and only book I wanted to read after 9/11, despite having originally read it when I lived in NYC . It’s a timeless tale ... Read More...
The Forgiven
The suburbs of Tangiers were ruined, but the gardens were still there. And so were the crippled lemon trees and olives, the dogged disillusion and empty factories, the smell of seething young men. A sybaritic weekend in the Saharan desert of Morocco, at a fantastically renovated fortress compound. Richard and Dally have invited friends from around the globe and for Londoners, ... Read More...
