{"id":761,"date":"2010-08-17T16:20:17","date_gmt":"2010-08-17T23:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dvan.org\/?p=761"},"modified":"2021-01-13T05:29:19","modified_gmt":"2021-01-13T13:29:19","slug":"ru-a-novel-by-kim-thuy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dvan.org\/2010\/08\/ru-a-novel-by-kim-thuy\/","title":{"rendered":"Ru, a novel by Kim\u00a0Thuy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you enjoy reading diaCRITICS? Then please\u00a0consider subscribing<\/a>!<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

diaCRITICS will periodically post blogs from other places. So our next guest blog is from Isabelle Thuy Pelaud, writing on Ru<\/a><\/em>, a novel by Kim Thuy, published in 2009 by Libre Expression:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I started Ru<\/em> by Kim Thuy and could not put it down. Written in French, Ru<\/em> is not very long (145 pages), but its chronicle of the author\u2019s journey from Vietnam to Canada ranks among the best articulations I have read of the experiences of the Vietnamese, particularly the 1.5 generation, in the Diaspora. The language is clear and direct but also poetic. The author does not hide behind allegories. Ru<\/em> is the memoir of a Vietnamese professional woman, from an old establishment family, who in the end left Vietnam by boat and became a refugee. The outlines of the story are not new: past privilege, dangerous journey on the seas, downward mobility, personal identity entangled with social and cultural memory of a lost country, complex family dynamics, sorting sources of inspiration and pain\u2026. The voice however is original. The poetic style of the prose does not sacrifice meaning but deepens it. Each sentence adds layers of evocation that together capture with acute precision what she calls this empty identity (\u201cce vide identitaire\u201d), that sense of having been uprooted by force and everything that ensues, like the process of forgetting that comes with new privileges in the host country, with raising children with a non-Vietnamese father, or simply with the years passing by.\u00a0 The narrator describes herself as dark (\u201csombre\u201d) and remembers being in the shadow of others in Vietnam, especially that of her cousin. Her mother\u2019s younger brother could be playful and flamboyant and spoil his daughter like a princess. As the daughter of the responsible older daughter however, the narrator received far less praise and much tougher love, especially with war approaching and the eventual journey that turned her and family into refugees. Now a mother herself, she comes to a deeper understanding of her own mother and of her actions and finally of the meaning of love.\u00a0 This book is beautifully and powerfully written; I highly recommend it to those who read French \u2013 others should look forward to its translation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Read more about Kim Thuy in English here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Isabelle Thuy Pelaud is an associate professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University. Temple University Press will soon publish her book this is all i choose to tell: Hybridity and History in Vietnamese American Literature<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Do you enjoy reading diaCRITICS? Then please\u00a0consider subscribing<\/a>!<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

~<\/p>\n

Did you like this post? Then please take the time to rate it (above) and share it (below). Ratings for top posts are listed on the sidebar. Sharing (on email, Facebook, etc.) helps spread the word about diaCRITICS. Thanks!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you enjoy reading diaCRITICS? Then please\u00a0consider subscribing! diaCRITICS will periodically post blogs from other places. So our next guest blog is from Isabelle Thuy Pelaud, writing on Ru, a novel by Kim Thuy, published in 2009 by Libre Expression: I started Ru by Kim Thuy and could not put it down. Written in French, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88935,"featured_media":9407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,98],"tags":[427,600],"yoast_head":"\nKim Thuy | Ru | The First Vietnamese Canadian Novel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Isabelle Thuy Pelaud reviews Kim Thuy's French novel Ru, which chronicles the experiences of the 1.5 generation Vietnamese in the Diaspora.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dvan.org\/2010\/08\/ru-a-novel-by-kim-thuy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kim Thuy | Ru | The First Vietnamese Canadian Novel\" \/>\n<meta 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