I wake up later than normal. Lifting up my head I glance toward my right and see that the alarmed clock glows in red. It was 7:40 am. It is clowdy (I see from my window) and cold (the heater is running). As I get down the stairs, I see a movement in the back yard. A deer is grazing. Its color hide blends in with brown color of leaves on the ground perfectly. I make coffee and sit down at my table. I want to write something because I have not written anything for a long time. It seems so.
Yesterday, it was sunny for a short time. As I was reading, sunlight flooded living room and spread to study room and shone my back. Sunlight also came from the window in the left corner of my study room. The morning sun brightened my back yard fully. I was basking in the sunlight for a little while. I felt warm and happy as if the sun brought the wellness and happiness to me. I thought I might be glowing. Hahah. Maybe this feeling has been always in me, hibernating through winter. The sunlight just woke it up.
Today, it is so bleek, as cold and bare as if the winter is just beginning. My energy saps. It will be awhile for the spring actually comes although the cherry trees lacing around the local bank already sprout their buds.
I did not write for more than a week because I was busy with my reading. I finished more than 600 pages of the book titled Brothers. It was written by Yu Hua. The Wall Street Journal says there has been a rumor that this author will be the next Nobel prize winner. I do not believe in this rumor. Who knows what the rules the Nobel committee based on to select the winner are? I am curious to see what Yu Hua writes to stir so much excitement that speculates the rumor. It is a very good book and I am writing its review (in Vietnamese, sorry). The National Book Critics Circle also announced its award winners. In the biography category, a Vietnamese American is chosen as one of the finalists although he does not capture the prize. Andrew Pham is the author of The Eaves of Heaven. Andrew lends his writing to his father’s voice. The life of his father, Thong Pham, who survives three wars from the French colonial to the American War to re-education camp covered in 300 pages. Andrew has another book that was published in 1999. Catfish and Mandala has 350 pages. It is an excellent book that totally captures my attention. I find myself unwilling to stop reading. I read through many train rides, lunch periods, and after dinners. When I was younger, in highschool and college I used to be drawn into a book and forgot the world around me. It did not matter if I was going to have exams tomorrow, I had to finish the book I was reading before I seriously prepared for the exams. As I get older, there are so many things need my urgent attention than books. Recently only a handful of books that it is hard for me to put down. Catfish and Mandala is one of them. However, do not let me deceive you. I have this particular interest in this book just because it talks about Vietnam and its people, about things that are close to my heart, that I wish I can say as well as Andrew Pham does. I do not have his command of English, sheer will, and devotion of a writer.
Andrew gets bored with his engineering job and frustrated with his boss. Combined with the guilt and regret that plague him since his sister, Chi, transgendered to become his brother, Minh, committed suicide, Andrew quits the job and starts to travel to Vietnam. He travels the length of the country on bicycle and reflects his feeling about himself, his large extended family (including grandma, uncle, cousins…), what he sees and the people he meets in Vietnam, and what most important to him is his trying to make sense what brought his sister to kill herself. Andrew is a talented writer. He can bring me such a sadness that makes me swallow my tear and the next page amusement that makes me chuckle. Poignant at times, and philosophical some other times. In the next few weeks I will try to find some time to tell you more about this book. If you are a person, born to Vietnamese parents, but raised in American culture, and you want to know more about the place your parents came, why they do what they do, why sometimes (and most of the times) they are silly rigid, harsh and critical, I think you will find Andrew’s experiences helpful.
Ah, I have to go for a hair cut. Maybe I can write again later.
Return after losing more than 6 inch of hair and edit the post. I always need a period away from my post in order to see my mistakes. No wonder one of the mandated rules in writing is re writing.
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