DUST CHILD

By Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai

⭐⭐⭐⭐ ¼ (Goodreads: 4.23)

GENRE: Historical and Contemporary Fiction

PART OF A SERIES? No

WORTH READING? Yes

SUMMARY:

In 1969, sisters Trang and Quỳnh, desperate to help their parents pay off debts, leave their country village to become ‘bar girls’ in Saigon, where they are paid to drink, flirt (and more) with American GIs. As the war moves closer to the city, the once-innocent Trang gets swept up in an irresistible romance with a young and charming American helicopter pilot, Dan. Decades later, he returns to Vietnam with his wife, Linda, hoping to find a way to heal from his PTSD and, unbeknownst to her, reckon with secrets from his past. Phong is an Amerasian man, born to a Vietnamese woman and a Black American soldier during the Vietnam war. When his caregiver dies, Phong is abandoned in front of an orphanage. Phong grew up being called “the dust of life,” “Black American imperialist,” and “child of the enemy,” and he dreams of a better life for himself and his family in the U.S. But Phong comes to realise that he cannot begin to fully heal until he finds a sense of identity and belonging. Past and present converge as these characters come together to confront decisions made during a time of war — decisions that force them to look deep within and find common ground across race, generation, culture, and language.

Opening line: “’Life is a boat,’ Sister Nha, the Catholic nun who had raised Phong, once told him.”

Nguyễn masterfully employs a dual timeline in Dust Child, weaving together separate stories until eventually the two tales converge. She delves into such themes as war, family dynamics, racism, trauma, identity, self-discovery and societal norms — particularly as they stood at the time.

All Nguyễn’s main characters in this novel are written to invoke empathy. I was always keen to read to see what was happening with the two naïve sisters, the mixed-race Phong and the American GI, Dan. Now that I’ve learned that Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is a poet, I can understand why she is so adept at painting such evocative scenes and characters, primarily through her gorgeous, lyrical writing and use of imagery. Here’s an example: “… a boy was riding a water buffalo, his body a mere mark of punctuation on the great sentence of the animal.”

The immersive story of Dust Child was my first book by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai. From a purely educational perspective, I found it very enlightening. Other than The World Played Chess (by Robert Dugoni), it’s the only book I’ve read that explores the Vietnam War. And whilst Dugoni’s novel primarily explores the war from the point of view of Americans, Dust Child primarily shows us the effect of the war on non-combatant citizens — whilst also humanizing all the players in the war (in many ways, more adeptly than the musical Miss Saigon).

I intended to read Dust Child before I went to Vietnam but unfortunately ran out of time. In a way, I’m glad that I did, because it proved that this book is fine to read at any time. It is a moving and suspenseful story, expressed beautifully. At times poignant, at times heartbreaking, Dust Child is also infused with themes of love and kindness. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai based Dust Child on her doctoral research on Vietnamese Amerasians and both her passion and compassion shine through in her storytelling.

I have already reserved The Mountains Sing at my local library, as I’m keen to lose myself in another Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai story. Dust Child is a book that lingers long after closing the book.

Click here if you would like to purchase Dust Child

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