Paradise of the Blind

Author(s): Duong Thu Huong

Location(s): Vietnam

Genre(s): Nonfiction

Era(s): Second half twentieh Century

Location

Content

Three women struggle to survive in this savage account of Vietnam’s Maoist-style land reform of the 1950s and its aftermath. Hang, a young woman, tells of the hardship, chaos and disillusionment it sowed, dividing her family and shattering the lives of her mother and aunt.
Forced to leave her village, Hang grew up in Hanoi’s slums. Now, in the 1980s, she is an “exported worker” in the Soviet Union – like hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese – because of economic woes at home. In her sadness, she reflects: “No happiness can hold: every life, every dream, has its unravelling.”
Much of the story is told through flashbacks as Hang takes a long train ride to Moscow to meet her uncle: the same uncle who, as a senior Communist party official, zealously pursued land reform in her village and destroyed the family.
Caught between her mother’s unending self-sacrifice and her aunt’s deep bitterness, Hang learns she must break free from the past to be able to get on with her life.
Duong Thu Huong, a Communist party member who fought against the US in the war, has paid heavily for her disenchantment with the regime. She was expelled from the party, spent time in jail, and her books are banned.
– Pushpinder Khaneka –

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