The Vietnam Bookshelf
Introduction |
Fiction |
AmerViet & French Indochina Wars |
Art, Culture, and Society
The exoticism of Vietnam has been well-documented in fact and fiction.
Novelists from Graham Greene to Christopher G. Moore have based their novels on Vietnamese and Western political, military, and cultural life.
Unsurprisingly the preponderance of non-fiction literature on Vietnam deals with the Vietnam/American war and its post-history.
Vietnam has a rich artistic tradition, encompassing tribal crafts as well as modern painting and sculpture.
Visitors wishing to buy paintings (there are many good pieces from which to choose) or crafts may find it easier to buy books on Vietnamese arts and crafts from bookstores in Vietnam. See our Bookshops in Saigon and Bookshops in Hanoi for locations.
Travelers contemplating a visit to Vietnam will find their visits enhanced by reading about the nation beforehand, and investigating its political history from WWII onward is essential for understanding how the Vietnamese view themselves in relation to the outside world.
Thousands of books have been written on Vietnam.
Here are a few we think are essential.
Fiction [Back to top]
Graham Greene's classic The Quiet American (1955, ISBN 009-948157-X) tells the tale of a British journalist, living with his Vietnamese girlfriend in early 1950s Vietnam.
After meeting an American working for the U.S. Embassy, his world is tuned topsy-turvy as he is forced to consider moral choices in the face of shifting political sands.
Primarily a writer of Bangkok Fiction, Christopher G. Moore has penned a novel based in Ho Chi Minh City. Comfort Zone (1995, ISBN 974-87754-9-6) features Moore's detective Calvino in a thrilling descent into political intrigue in the new Vietnam.
Noted British fiction writer Stephen Leather wrote a novel based on the experiences of US soldiers in the tunnels of Cu Chi in Tunnel Rats (1997, ISBN 0-340-68954-4).
This complex and interesting plot follows the lives of several of the soldiers 20 years into the future, as their past returns to haunt them in a series of gruesome and seemingly unexplainable murders.
Former North Vietnamese soldier Bao Ninh's The Sorrow of War (1991, ISBN 1-57322-543-6) is an honest portrayal of the travails of the life of a soldier, on the front lines, and away from the battlefield.
This is one of the great war novels of any era, every bit as good as Hemingway at his best, a bittersweet tale of romance, youth, and memories of loss that probably could only have been written by one who was there.
Ninh's prose is exceptional, in this book that has been favorably compared to All Quiet on the Western Front.
There simply aren't enough good words to describe the book, and we couldn't put it down.
Duong Thu Huong, former leader of a Communist Youth Brigade, was expelled from the Communist Party in 1989, and imprisoned without trial for seven months in 1991.
She's written several novels, including the riveting Novel Without a Name (1995, ISBN 014-02-5510-9).
Here, she relates the world of Quan, a North Vietnamese soldier attempting to resolve his life as a soldier with that of his earlier village life.
There are many ironic moments in the book, but one of the most cynical involves two Party propagandists who, between themselves, believe that their own political system is a bigger opiate than religion.
The author still lives in Hanoi, although her books have been effectively banned in-country.
Bangkok-based Yank expat James Eckardt wrote Boat People (1995, ISBN 1-879155-48-6), a gripping, but now difficult-to-find novel of the travails of two sisters leaving Vietnam in the wake of the war (our copy has a printer's error, in which pages 61-76 are missing).
Non-Fiction books on AmerViet & French Indochina wars [Back to top]
Reporting Vietnam: American Journalism 1959-1975 (2000, ISBN 1-883011-90-6), at 852 pages, is the most comprehensive document detailing U.S. involvement in Vietnam that we've read.
Here, 61 articles are introduced chronologically, and include writers as diverse as Bernard Fall, Hunter S. Thompson, and Norman Mailer.
Surprisingly, this book goes at a relatively rapid clip due to the extraordinary skills of the writers.
Some of Vietnam's most interesting skirmishes took place in tunnels, and the fascinating Tunnels of Cu Chi (1985, ISBN 0-425-08951-7), by Tom Mangold and John Penycate, relates the arduous conditions faced by dwellers and American "tunnel rats" as well.
Especially fascinating is the chapter on animal life of the tunnels, which includes the horrifying attacks by micro-organisms living near tree roots, as documented on page 82.
Combat filmmaker Neil Davis was a larger-than life figure who traced a wide swath trough SE Asia prior to his death filming a coup in Bangkok in 1984.
Tim Bowden's One Quiet Hour: Neil Davis Combat Cameraman 1934-1985 (1987, ISBN 0-73222-2418-7) chronicles Davis' rich life and numerous loves. Much of Bowden's exceptional work derives from his collecting data from Bowden's diaries and letters to his aunt, which Bowden arranges in thematically interesting chapters. There are gems, such as the description of the VC double agent on page 212 of this paperback edition (we know the agent). Overall, brilliant, insightful work by Bowden, on a remarkable character.
In Air America: From World War II to Vietnam (1979, ISBN 974-8303-51-9), Christopher Robbins unfolds the story of the CIA's secret airline, from the early days of Claire Chennault's Flying Tigers, to the later times of "Pops" Buell and master pilot Les Strouse.
As U.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara was a chief architect of America's war policy.
His In Retrospect: the Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam (1995, ISBN 0-679-76749-5) provides a poignant analysis of White House decision-making, from the perspective of reflection twenty years after the fact.
Xuan Phuong is a remarkable woman.
Now in her 70s, she's been a documentary filmmaker, doctor, munitions maker, and now the owner of one of Saigon's most respected art galleries.
Born into a royal family of Hué, she countered her parents by fighting against the French at Dien Bien Phu.
Her Ao Dai: My War My Country, My Vietnam (2001, ISBN 0-9718406-2-8) is a fascinating analysis of a nation from the perspective of an extremely independent woman, particularly given the context of her times.
Probably no account better details the internecine relationships between the National Liberation Front (NLF), the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG), and the Vietnamese Communist Party than Truong Nhu Tang's fascinating A Viet Cong Memoir (1985, ISBN 0-394-74309-1).
A high-ranking official of the South Vietnamese government, Tang was an effective organizer of anti-government forces, who chronicles the disillusionment of southern independence-fighters whose goals for an independent Vietnam were swept away in the aftermath of independence.
Le Le Hayslip, who has become a renowned champion of the dispossessed and disadvantaged in Vietnam, has written a poignant memoir on her life as a young girl battered by forces from both the south and the north in When Heaven and Earth Changed Places (1990, ISBN 0-452-26417-0).
Here, she relates the affect the war had on her extended family, and the trials involved in their reconciliation.
Her book was the basis on a feature film of the same name directed in 1993 by Oliver Stone.
Another fine retrospective is photographer Tim Page's Derailed in Uncle Ho's Victory Garden (1995, ISBN 0-68486024-4).
Page sugar-coats nothing, from the U.S. involvement, to post-war Vietnamese policy and politics, to the Khmer Rouge days of Cambodia.
General Vo Nguyen Giap has written several books on his war experiences, in his Memoirs of War series.
One of the best is Dien Bien Phu (2004, Gioi Publshers, VN-TG-273-1, no ISBN), which contains war plans and a comprehensive series of fold-out maps.
This book is available at several museum bookstores, particularly in Hanoi.
Art, Culture, and Society [Back to top]
James Edward Goodman has written an outstanding collection of essays on Vietnamese art, history, and culture in Uniquely Vietnamese (2005, The Gioi Publishers, VN-TG-7-258-1).
If you’ve ever wondered about the stories behind Hanoi’s water puppets, Hoi An’s lanterns, or the origin of pho, you’ll find the fascinating answers here.
Goodman is a veteran Southeast Asia traveler, equally at home in tribal and urban settings.
His book is readily available in Vietnam, somewhat less so out of the country, and highly recommended.
Veteran reporter David Lamb has written what we think is an essential book in understanding Vietnam is as she is today, covering history, politics, and social life.
Vietnam, Now: a Reporter Returns (2002, ISBN 1-58648-183-5) is perhaps best read after you've returned, as it explains the story behind what you'll have seen, heard, and experienced.
His thoughts on Vietnamese communism are pointed, and spot-on.
Vietnamese Painting - From Tradition to Modernity (2003, ISBN 2-906755-21-4) is Corinne de Ménonville's masterwork on the history of 20th century Vietnamese painting.
The book contains insightful historical and social analysis, and over 400 full color plates, detailing the work of more than 130 artists.
Highly recommended as the best book on Vietnamese painting we've seen to date.
Vietnam is a rich country in terms of the Fine Arts.
Catherine Noppe and Jean-François Hubert's Art of Vietnam (2003, ISBN 1-85995-860-5) covers two and three-dimensional art with a broad brushstroke.
Especially enlightening is the chapter focusing on the influence of Victor Tardieu's Hanoi Fine Arts Academy, founded in 1924, which influenced, by direct contact or osmosis, most of Vietnam's great painters of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The encyclopedic 100 Vietnamese Painters and Sculptors of the 20th Century (1995, The Gioi Publishers, no ISBN), contains two works each by the leading artists of the era, in an effort produced by the Reference Group of the Vietnamese Fine Arts Institute.
Several of the biggest names in Vietnamese painting are featured in books highlighting their work.
Dinh Quan's lacquer paintings are seen in all the major galleries of Hanoi, and Dinh Quan Paintings (2005, www.goldenlotusgallery.com, no ISBN), authored by the artist, provides a good historical retrospective of his work.
Most of Quan's work you see today in galleries is rather staid.
This book shows powerful, layered, abstract lacquer paintings that have representational elements, world-class work that represents some of the best work to ever come out of Vietnam.
The kingdom of Champa, which flourished from the 2nd through the 17th century, isn't as well-known as other Indian-influenced civilizations, such as those thriving at Angkor Wat, Phimai, or Phanom Rung.
There are still monuments to be seen in the My Son area of central Vietnam, and Emmanuel Guillon's Cham Art: Treasures from the Da Nang Museum (2001, ISBN 974-8225-46-1) chronicles art and architecture, both inside the museum, and in the field.
Jean-Francois Hubert’s Art of Champa (2005, ISBN 1-85995-975-X) contains over 200 photographs of Champa sculpture, with explanatory text.
Vietnam is host to 54 different ethnic groups, all nicely profiled and photographed in Viet Nam: the Great Family of Ethnic Groups in Viet Nam (2002, GD Publishers, no ISBN).
This book was developed by the Center of Educational Cartography and Illustration to "be used in schools in order to meet requirements on improving learning and teaching quality of teachers and students."
With 600 color photos, this paperback is available at bookstores in many of the country's museums, for roughly $12 USD.
Andrew X. Pham is a San Jose (California) writer who arrived in the U.S. as a "boat person."
As a young adult, he returned to Vietnam, chronicling his fascinating yet arduous journey in Catfish & Mandala: a Vietnamese Odyssey (2000, ISBN 000-655223-4).
Pham's story is a three-part tale of self-discovery, interweaving flashbacks from two different eras with his contemporary travel through Vietnam by bicycle.
He spares neither himself, his family, nor his country of origin from criticism, poignancy, and, at times, merciless humor.
There's a soft side to Pham's coming-of-age diary as well, focusing in particular on his ill-fated sister Chi.
His experience as a Viet-Kieu (a Vietnamese living abroad) in Vietnam is unforgettable, and his description of the wildness of Vietnamese motorbike traffic on pages 74-76 is exceptional.
Anyone thinking of doing business in Vietnam must read Nguyen Duy Khien's Doing Business in Vietnam: Essential Information and Guide to Successful Strategies (3rd edition) (2002, Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry).
Here, everything from settling disputes to trademark law is laid out in well thought-out, readable fashion.
Introduction |
Fiction |
AmerViet & French Indochina Wars |
Art, Culture, and Society
