ANGELINE KEK WRITES — Hauntings, secrets, graveyards — Violet Kupersmith’s debut novel, Build Your House Around My Body (2021) — is an ash-charred sky splattered with these ghastly hues. Winnie is a twenty-two-year-old Vietnamese American (or Việt Kiều in Vietnamese) woman who sets out for Saigon with nothing but “a passport,…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: BUILD YOUR HOUSE AROUND MY BODY (2021) BY VIOLET KUPERSMITH — WHEN GHOSTS CEASE TO HAUNT THE PAST
TOM PLATE WRITES — The agony in Afghanistan makes for many sorrows. Beyond the scenes of chaos at Kabul airport is the unseen anguish of all those US veterans back home who are dealing with various psychological and physical traumas and are now especially unproud of their country; of families…
Full Article AFGHANISTAN AND BEYOND: CHINA MUST LEARN FROM US HUBRIS AND BLUNDERS
CHARLOTTE TRUONG WRITES — Vietnam in general and Saigon in particular have controlled the pandemic very well, so entertainment services during the day and at night were soon allowed to resume operations. The service sector, though, is facing a period of extreme challenges, which is how to maintain, as well as…
Full Article SAIGON: WESTERN TOURISTS WELCOME…PLEASE!!
CHARLOTTE TRUONG WRITES – Since the end of December 2019, in the center of Wuhan city (China), the COVID-19 pandemic has caused great damage on a global scale in virtually all areas: economics, politics, society and tourism. Although Vietnam is China’s neighbor, and had early cases of infection, the country…
Full Article VIETNAM: HAPPY LIVING POST-LOCKDOWN