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A review by santreads
Other Moons: Vietnamese Short Stories of the American War and Its Aftermath by Joseph Babcock, Quan Manh Ha
5.0
What a brilliant collection of short stories. Not only did it educate me about the situation in Vietnam (in the past and the present) but it gave me beautiful prose to read.
20 short stories by various Vietnamese authors are translated and compiled into this anthology of the American War and its aftermath. 20 diverse and distinct voices. Each story had a preamble by the translator that gave us an understanding of who the author is and what they’re trying to convey through this story.
From stories about a dog who helped fight the war to a fantastical story where the author used cannibalism to symbolize getting eaten up by war to stories of love and mirth, the stories show the trials and tribulations that the people of the region went through during the war and even after.
The introduction to the anthology was surprisingly one of my favourites - it was in depth and informative but also not too lengthy. I appreciated that it was explained that they really did try to get as many diverse voices as possible be it in terms of gender to age to where they were from.
My favourite short stories were ‘Unsung Hero’ (which made me bawl), ‘Birds in Formation’, ‘The Most Beautiful Girl In The Village’, ‘The Storm’, ‘Love and War’, ‘Out of the Laughing Woods’ and ‘A Moral Murderer’.
Thanks to NetGalley and Columbia University Press for sharing this ARC with me in exchange my honest review.
20 short stories by various Vietnamese authors are translated and compiled into this anthology of the American War and its aftermath. 20 diverse and distinct voices. Each story had a preamble by the translator that gave us an understanding of who the author is and what they’re trying to convey through this story.
From stories about a dog who helped fight the war to a fantastical story where the author used cannibalism to symbolize getting eaten up by war to stories of love and mirth, the stories show the trials and tribulations that the people of the region went through during the war and even after.
The introduction to the anthology was surprisingly one of my favourites - it was in depth and informative but also not too lengthy. I appreciated that it was explained that they really did try to get as many diverse voices as possible be it in terms of gender to age to where they were from.
My favourite short stories were ‘Unsung Hero’ (which made me bawl), ‘Birds in Formation’, ‘The Most Beautiful Girl In The Village’, ‘The Storm’, ‘Love and War’, ‘Out of the Laughing Woods’ and ‘A Moral Murderer’.
Thanks to NetGalley and Columbia University Press for sharing this ARC with me in exchange my honest review.