Good Reads / Community Library Notes
The Mountain Sings
Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Mountain Sings
Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Mountain Sings, by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, is the story in her own voice of Huong’s life and the secrets of her grandmother, Dieu Lan. Dieu teaches Huong how to survive and to live with courage, grace, and compassion.
In 1972 Grandma walked Huong to school, guiding her around bomb craters and a blaring siren telling citizens that American bombers were coming closer. All the shelters were full. Grandma carried Huong on her back to a shelter at the school. When the bombs stopped they leave the shelter, passing dead bodies and dismembered legs. Their house was in its place. Because all citizens are ordered to evacuate and go to a village in the mountains, Grandma and Huong packed to leave. In poetic language, author Que Mai tells what they took with them. Grandma left a note on the front door telling the parents and uncles where they have gone. Huong could take only one book, though she wanted many more.
Mobs of teachers, students, and families silently walked away from Ha Noi wearing dark clothes. Grandma taught in the temple yard of the village and always ended with a song. As many returned home, their city became a fireball, as Ha Noi burned and bombs fell for twelve days and nights, although Nixon said he’d take a break for Christmas. When they went home, their house was a pile of rubble, broken bricks, slabs of concrete, grains of rice, and books here and there.
Three months before grandma’s daughter, Huong’s mother, had left to search for her husband, a doctor who had been gone four years with his troops in the jungle. Grandmother told her granddaughter of her life and of the huge house where she grew up. Carved dragons decorated the eaves. The tutor of her and her brother lived on Silver Street as his father was a silversmith. Her brother, Cong, was two years older and smarter. One day the fortune teller comes to their house and told Dieu Lan’s fortune from her palm. He says she would end as a wandering beggar after losing everything. Her father became rich from produce transported grown on their farm to fine restaurants in Ha Noi.
She was encouraged to be independent and to speak her own mind, unlike her friends who, without their approval, were made to marry old men. Dieu married Hung in 1937 and moved into their house. In following years, three children were born and theses were the happiest years of Dieu’s life until she left to pay respects to her childhood teachers. It was 1942 and the Japanese were attacking the Chinese with the French. The Japanese looked like the Vietnamese and Dieu trusted them as they played and laughed with the children. She got on a cart with sacks of potatoes going to Ha Noi with her father and brother. She drove the buffalo when her father asked. They passed emerald rice fields and wisps of white smoke unfurling from roofs. Further ahead, Japanese soldiers were burning a village and father told Cong and Dieu to run and hide in the bushes.
In 1973 the bombs stopped and Aunt Hanh appeared on a bicycle. She hugged Huong and Grandma. Their shelter was made of rubble and plastic sheets, with very little inside: a straw mat, dry twigs, and a cooking pot. Aunt brought rice, sweet potatoes, and Russian cookies. They discussed the Paris Peace Accord and hoped for its success. Auntie and grandma cleared the debris and set up tin sheets over bamboo poles, better than being in the rain.
Vietnamese soldiers came to see Grandma with her son’s uniform and letters from him. She knew what this meant and wept. He’d been brave, the soldiers said and grandma and Huong set up an altar for him. The letters were full of hope, love of life and longing for home. Grandma told Huong she’s going to become a trader despite others saying only government stores should trade. She gave Huong another book, Pinnochio, and she cooks beef with onions and ginger for her granddaughter. Author Que Mai uses all the senses and our mouths salivate.
Because of the money Grandma made and saved, she’s able to propose and pay for a communal water system with a well and water pump that will help the community. They don’t want her money earned as a trader.
The worst time was the 1945 Great Famine which killed two million people. The children ate banana roots but it was not enough. The war between north and south ended an Grandmother’s son, Uncle Sung, came home. He berated grandma for being a trader and wants her to go back to teaching so he can be proud of her in front of his comrades. She stopped being a doctor and blames herself for her husband going to war. When Huong goes to Uncle Sung’s apartment, there are books on the evils of capitalism and the biographies of Karl Marx.
Uncle Dat returns from the battlefield but without his legs. He brought a beautiful bird cage carved by Huong’s father. This bird sang a love song that even the mountains sang. Without her four children, Grandma walked on the National highway toward Ha Noi. Dat got a job washing dishes at the village market and Grandmother left him there hoping he’ll have a better life. She washed her beautiful green silk blouse and traded it for two baskets of guava and oranges, then sells them for a good profit. She bought the best fruit at the cheapest prices and bought sandals, warm clothes, and a sun hat.
Does Grandmother make it to Ha Noi? Does she find her lost children? Does she make a home in Ha Noi? The author crafts her into an enterprising woman with courage and compassion. Find this unusual story of VietNam, of war and love, on the new fiction shelf of your local community library.
In 1972 Grandma walked Huong to school, guiding her around bomb craters and a blaring siren telling citizens that American bombers were coming closer. All the shelters were full. Grandma carried Huong on her back to a shelter at the school. When the bombs stopped they leave the shelter, passing dead bodies and dismembered legs. Their house was in its place. Because all citizens are ordered to evacuate and go to a village in the mountains, Grandma and Huong packed to leave. In poetic language, author Que Mai tells what they took with them. Grandma left a note on the front door telling the parents and uncles where they have gone. Huong could take only one book, though she wanted many more.
Mobs of teachers, students, and families silently walked away from Ha Noi wearing dark clothes. Grandma taught in the temple yard of the village and always ended with a song. As many returned home, their city became a fireball, as Ha Noi burned and bombs fell for twelve days and nights, although Nixon said he’d take a break for Christmas. When they went home, their house was a pile of rubble, broken bricks, slabs of concrete, grains of rice, and books here and there.
Three months before grandma’s daughter, Huong’s mother, had left to search for her husband, a doctor who had been gone four years with his troops in the jungle. Grandmother told her granddaughter of her life and of the huge house where she grew up. Carved dragons decorated the eaves. The tutor of her and her brother lived on Silver Street as his father was a silversmith. Her brother, Cong, was two years older and smarter. One day the fortune teller comes to their house and told Dieu Lan’s fortune from her palm. He says she would end as a wandering beggar after losing everything. Her father became rich from produce transported grown on their farm to fine restaurants in Ha Noi.
She was encouraged to be independent and to speak her own mind, unlike her friends who, without their approval, were made to marry old men. Dieu married Hung in 1937 and moved into their house. In following years, three children were born and theses were the happiest years of Dieu’s life until she left to pay respects to her childhood teachers. It was 1942 and the Japanese were attacking the Chinese with the French. The Japanese looked like the Vietnamese and Dieu trusted them as they played and laughed with the children. She got on a cart with sacks of potatoes going to Ha Noi with her father and brother. She drove the buffalo when her father asked. They passed emerald rice fields and wisps of white smoke unfurling from roofs. Further ahead, Japanese soldiers were burning a village and father told Cong and Dieu to run and hide in the bushes.
In 1973 the bombs stopped and Aunt Hanh appeared on a bicycle. She hugged Huong and Grandma. Their shelter was made of rubble and plastic sheets, with very little inside: a straw mat, dry twigs, and a cooking pot. Aunt brought rice, sweet potatoes, and Russian cookies. They discussed the Paris Peace Accord and hoped for its success. Auntie and grandma cleared the debris and set up tin sheets over bamboo poles, better than being in the rain.
Vietnamese soldiers came to see Grandma with her son’s uniform and letters from him. She knew what this meant and wept. He’d been brave, the soldiers said and grandma and Huong set up an altar for him. The letters were full of hope, love of life and longing for home. Grandma told Huong she’s going to become a trader despite others saying only government stores should trade. She gave Huong another book, Pinnochio, and she cooks beef with onions and ginger for her granddaughter. Author Que Mai uses all the senses and our mouths salivate.
Because of the money Grandma made and saved, she’s able to propose and pay for a communal water system with a well and water pump that will help the community. They don’t want her money earned as a trader.
The worst time was the 1945 Great Famine which killed two million people. The children ate banana roots but it was not enough. The war between north and south ended an Grandmother’s son, Uncle Sung, came home. He berated grandma for being a trader and wants her to go back to teaching so he can be proud of her in front of his comrades. She stopped being a doctor and blames herself for her husband going to war. When Huong goes to Uncle Sung’s apartment, there are books on the evils of capitalism and the biographies of Karl Marx.
Uncle Dat returns from the battlefield but without his legs. He brought a beautiful bird cage carved by Huong’s father. This bird sang a love song that even the mountains sang. Without her four children, Grandma walked on the National highway toward Ha Noi. Dat got a job washing dishes at the village market and Grandmother left him there hoping he’ll have a better life. She washed her beautiful green silk blouse and traded it for two baskets of guava and oranges, then sells them for a good profit. She bought the best fruit at the cheapest prices and bought sandals, warm clothes, and a sun hat.
Does Grandmother make it to Ha Noi? Does she find her lost children? Does she make a home in Ha Noi? The author crafts her into an enterprising woman with courage and compassion. Find this unusual story of VietNam, of war and love, on the new fiction shelf of your local community library.