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firstwords 's review for:
The Sorrow Of War: A Novel of North Vietnam
by Bảo Ninh
I can tell that something was lost in translation. I can tell that English was not the first language this story was told in. I can hear a different novel behind this one that is even more beautiful. Probably not going to learn Vietnamese to read the original, but I wish I spoke it.
The translation is clunky at times, you know that the translator is doing his best to make the English match the native tongue, but is failing.
All that said, the book is fine. It hops around from place to place in time, from character to character. It is painful at times, and focused entirely on the war from the perspective of North Vietnamese regulars and irregulars (NVA and Viet Cong). It is the story of a country under siege.
Again, an English reader will be able to see the much more beautiful and painful story behind the adequate, but not amazing, English translation.
The translation is clunky at times, you know that the translator is doing his best to make the English match the native tongue, but is failing.
All that said, the book is fine. It hops around from place to place in time, from character to character. It is painful at times, and focused entirely on the war from the perspective of North Vietnamese regulars and irregulars (NVA and Viet Cong). It is the story of a country under siege.
Again, an English reader will be able to see the much more beautiful and painful story behind the adequate, but not amazing, English translation.