From the internationally bestselling author of The Mountains Sing, a novel that Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer, Việt Thanh Nguyễn, calls “a triumph,” comes the critically-acclaimed book, Dust Child, by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai.
In 2016, an Amerasian man named Phong sits at the American consulate in Hồ Chí Minh City, Việt Nam, and waits with bated breath for a visa approval that never comes. His dreams of going to America to provide a better life for his family and to find his father, who served in the Vietnam War, are crushed. Being the son of a black serviceman and a Vietnamese woman, Phong grows up in a country that never wanted him. Abandoned as an infant and raised by nuns, Phong drifts through life as a child of dust, fighting for scraps of food, acceptance, and love. Through the Amerasian Homecoming Act, implemented by Congress in 1989, granting immigration status to children in Vietnam born of U.S. fathers, Phong finds his ticket “home,” or so he thinks.
Meanwhile, Dan, an American Vietnam vet and former helicopter pilot, returns to Vietnam to confront his past. By his side is Linda, who is forced to come to grips with the consequences of Dan’s mistakes from decades ago. Can she forgive him and help him heal, or will his secrets tear their marriage apart? With the help of locals, Dan and Linda piece together what happened to Dan’s Vietnamese girlfriend after the war ended and the US troops pulled out of Vietnam.
Thirdly, the narrative also reflects life in Vietnam in 1969 and follows two sisters, Trang and Quỳnh, who trade the back-breaking life they have in rural Phú Mỹ Village for a dangerous, more profitable life in the city of Sài Gòn. As bar girls, they entertain American GIs and earn money to send home to their parents. Disillusioned with the promise of making honest money, the two sisters are thrust into the seedy throes of sex, violence, and empty promises.
As the years 1969 and 2016 dovetail together, we learn how Phong, Dan, and the sisters are connected, and the roles they play in each other’s happiness and misery. Lives converge and diverge as their stories weave in themes of love, betrayal, and forgiveness. The author beautifully spotlights how the Vietnam War created a fabricated bourgeoisie lifestyle for the people who lived through the war as well as magnifies the pain it caused for everyone, particularly the Amerasians: the forgotten mixed race children who were faceless, parentless, and countryless.
Nearly fifty years after the Vietnam War, or the American War as the Vietnamese call it, the mixed race children born out of the Vietnam war still grapple with their identity and continue to search for their American family members. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s novel, Dust Child, navigates the complexity of being mixed-race in Vietnam and gives voice and agency to those who continue to suffer discrimination, ill-treatment, and medical complications from the conflict. Poignantly written, Dust Child is a must-read for all generations seeking to understand the multi-dimensional effects the war had on the people touched by it and the complicated aftermath that resulted.
With a clear call to action, Nguyễn’s novel gives pause for its readers to reflect on how one can support the Amerasians of Vietnam and the well-being of the veteran lives the war touched. This highly-anticipated historical, literary fiction novel did not disappoint. Part lyrical and part epigrammatic, the storytelling is succinct and contemplative, as it gives the reader a personal lens into multiple perspectives. By understanding the driving forces that influenced each character’s actions, reactions, thoughts, and feelings, we begin to appreciate how forgiveness is the foundation of peace.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from this novel is the need to understand how the multiracial people of Vietnam live. When the Vietnam War ended on April 30, 1975, a date many diasporic Vietnamese refer to as Black April, roughly 30,000 Amerasian children were left behind by US servicemen and civilians with no access to education, care, or necessities of food and shelter. The social inequality created a deep divide in the already frail fabric of society as the country worked toward reunification and rehabilitation.
After the fall of Saigon, the world witnessed a mass exodus of Southeast Asian refugees fleeing their country in fear of persecution and in search of freedom. Yet, much of the Amerasian population were left behind and forgotten, leaving deep scars of trauma. Today, many Amerasians living in Vietnam hope to obtain DNA test kits to spur their quest to find family members and answers to their questions of identity. Dust Child by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai took nearly a decade to write, and the amplified voices of the mixed race children born out of the Vietnam War can once again be heard.
Dust Child
by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
Algonquin Books, $28.00
Amy M. Le is a Vietnam War survivor and Congenital Heart Defect (CHD) warrior. She is the award-winning author of the Snow trilogy and is currently working on her phoenix series—three books showcasing the resilience of people who’ve survived deep trauma. Amy is the founder of Quill Hawk Publishing, a woman-owned, Asian American company that helps writers indie publish their books while amplifying diverse voices through storytelling. She co-founded The Heart Community Collection, a resource for the CHD community, and sits on the board of the Vietnamese Boat People Podcast. Amy also serves as an officer for two writing organizations in Oklahoma. When she is not writing or volunteering, Amy is experimenting in the kitchen or watching NFL games, Formula 1 races, or UFC bouts.
