Books Like Paradise of the Blind by Dương Thu Hương | Suggesting Reading

Paradise of the Blind What Do I Read Next?

Duong's Memories of a Pure Spring, translated by Phan Huy Duong and Nina McPherson (2000), is set in Vietnam after the American war. It chronicles the disillusionment experienced by a composer, Hung, and his wife Suong, a singer, with the political system whose victory they helped to bring about. Hung was formerly enthusiastic about the revolutionary ideology, but he sees his former wartime comrades installed in high-ranking bureaucratic positions which they use to further their own material interests. When Hung is falsely accused of trying to flee Vietnam in a boat, he is “re-educated” in a prison, after which the authorities make it almost impossible for him to earn a living.

In Vietnam, Now (2003), veteran journalist David Lamb returns to Vietnam for the first time since he reported on the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s. His book is a readable, subjective account, rather than a scholarly...
(read more)