This book is a collection of eleven short stories with the central theme of Vietnam. Many of them are set in Vietnam; others in the U.S. They revolve around the Vietnam War, with some of the stories taking place in the years before or during the war, and others dealing with its aftermath. The stories are about relationships: a Vietnamese American man and the impoverished daughter of a fisherman, an American man and his Vietnamese language teacher, a Vietnamese college students falls for an opium dealer, etc. What I do like about many of the stories is that they provide some insight into what life is like for people living in Vietnam in the 1960s-1980s, and what life might be like for Vietnamese refugees once they resettle in the U.S. These stories reveal the complexities of everyday life and relationships between people, Vietnamese or American. While some of the stories are very poignant, others are a bit uneven in quality. Occasionally, the writing is stilted and could have benefited from more editing.
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