Book Tour: A Mother´s Tale & Other Stories by Khanh Ha

 

´When the explosion splintered the bridge and chopped it into the turbulent river, the old man sat by the roadside in the rain and wept´.

Besides stories from eye-witnesses, intimate literary stories, particularly short stories, do help to re-imagine a world. Particularly a world at war, with itself, the others and the rest of the world. I appreciate war-set novels, but I believe that short stories convene the best the brevity and spontaneity of the war episodes. Because a war is not a long timespan, but instead it is made of short installments and episodes, experiences by both the attacked and the attacker, as well as the ´collateral´ viewers and potential victims.

A Mother´s Tale & Other Stories by Khanh Ha are literary stories inspired by the War in Vietnam. There are snippets of the everyday life during the war, individual encounters with the war giving a voice to local characters, simple humans entangled in the nets of a conflict brought upon them. There is a before and after a certain incident or conflict, which enters smoothly the everyday language and vocabulary. The environment is stamped by war traces which frames life, making up memories and formative experiences. ´The air smells of gasoline fumes´.  

The stories do have their own pace and dynamic, in sync with the everyday reality turn of events. I personally appreciated the multitude of the points of view reflected in this collection, from the children to the military men, the mothers and fathers. Thus, an extensive coverage offers itself as an alternative testimony.

Maybe with so new conflicts on the raise, we may easily forget the Vietnam War. However, collections of short stories like A Mother´s Tale...are here as a reminder of the pain and suffering and long trauma a war, any war, leaves in the individual and collective memories. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own