Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is now a must-read author for me. Last year, I enjoyed The Mountains Sing and it remains one of my go-to books to reliving a granddaughter-grandmother relationship. Nguyễn’s latest is another thought provoking book set in present day and wartime Việt Nam. Ariel and I had a wonderful discussion about this book. Take a look at the synopsis and then dive in!
Dust Child
By Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai | Goodreads
From the internationally bestselling author of The Mountains Sing, a suspenseful and moving saga about family secrets, hidden trauma, and the overriding power of forgiveness, set during the war and in present-day Việt Nam.
In 1969, sisters Trang and Quỳnh, desperate to help their parents pay off debts, leave their rural village and become “bar girls” in Sài Gòn, drinking, flirting (and more) with American GIs in return for money. 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, Dan returns to Việt Nam with his wife, Linda, hoping to find a way to heal from his PTSD and, unbeknownst to her, reckon with secrets from his past.
At the same time, Phong—the son of a Black American soldier and a Vietnamese woman—embarks on a search to find both his parents and a way out of Việt Nam. 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.
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. Suspenseful, poetic, and perfect for readers of Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko or Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing, Dust Child tells an unforgettable and immersive story of how those who inherited tragedy can redefine their destinies through love, hard-earned wisdom, compassion, courage, and joy.
Content notes include abuse, war, prostitution, infidelity, death, massacre, war crimes, grief, abandonment.
Dust Child
Kriti: Dust Child begins with the perspective of Phong who is waiting at the American Consulate in 2016, attending the interview for his family’s visa to move to the US. He was brought up by Catholic nuns and has been looked down upon as he was the child of a Black American soldier. I instantly felt for Phong. Having gone through a US visa interview, it is a stressful couple of hours. The cross questioning to make Phong confirm he is of American descent was heartbreaking to read about and mistakes from twenty years ago were frowned upon.
Ariel: So much of Phong’s perspective feels like moving forward. With other points of views in the book, the reader is often looking back and reminiscing and unpacking the trauma alongside the characters; yet Phong wants to move forward and do what he can for a better life for future generations, which he believes to be taking his family to America. His kids are extremely sensitive to his reactions and his struggles, and it was touching to see his family support and love him through all of the pain of the past as they each were determined to stay together and proceed as a family.
Another perspective in the book is that of Dan, an American soldier who was stationed in Việt Nam. In the hopes of closure, he is returning to Việt Nam with his wife, Linda in 2016. He hasn’t told her about Kim, a girl he met there and fell in love with during the war. They lived in an apartment together and when she revealed she was pregnant with his child, he abandoned her. There are a lot of emotions and events that lead to this pivotal moment. Ariel, was it surprising to you that after so many years, soldiers returned to Việt Nam?
Not at all. The Việt Nam War for many people in the US is still today a relevant topic. The US government made a lot of decisions behind closed doors that impacted a lot of lives, and many people like Dan were victims to patriotic propaganda and were faced with terrible realities of massacres and war crimes. There is reference to Linda being opposed to the war, and the amount of protests and anti-war movements at the time swept the country for both the Việt Nam War and the Civil Rights tMovement. It was a contentious time and it still has repercussions to this day on the US public’s view of war, veterans, protests, and international relations. For many veterans, returning to Việt Nam is a way for them to find reconciliation with themselves and to begin to try make things right after the harm they caused by following orders.
Thein is the guide that Linda hires to show her and Dan around Việt Nam. Similar to Phong’s reaction, I didn’t really like the guy. He is sexist and I can’t believe that he advised Dan to leave Linda and find Kim, even though he leaves no opportunity to go off on Dan and remind him how bad of a person he is for using Vietnamese women as he did during the 1960s. Thein grew on me though in a way I never imagined he would. He has good intentions and having fought wars for his country, been disciplined by them, he continues to do what he can to make a difference in the life of his countrymen. What did you think of Thein? What does his character tell us about the war and women in Việt Nam?
My partner has been to Việt Nam, and when he was there he visited a museum that included exhibits about “The American War.” The history of Việt Nam is rich, yet it is filled with centuries of invasions: Chinese, French, Japanese, and Americans were simply next in line of other countries invading them and interfering with their policies. Much of this story is about generations and how intergenerational trauma is passed down. A bitterness against outsiders who use their communities for their own good makes sense and I didn’t wholly blame Thein for his cynicism against Dan. To him, Dan was just one more white guy riddled with guilt that Thein was now burdened to help alleviate his pain.
Also, Thein offers commentary on the perception that Vietnamese people have on Amercians in the present day and age. While their abandoned children are frowned upon, the Americans are welcomed as tourists to the country. There are so many brutal truths in Dust Child.
There are so many layers and elements of conflicting truths and nuance within this book, and I really appreciated how in depth the book went to that degree. War is extremely messy, lines of “good versus evil” are nonexistent, and everyone is left with so much trauma to pass down to future generations. Healing from this is multifactored and nonlinear: on an individual level, on a community level, on a national level, and even on an environmental level for Việt Nam since so much of the landscape was ruined by chemical warfare.
Trang is the final perspective of the story. She and her sister, Quỳnh, make their way from their village to the city of Ho Chi Min in order to help their parents pay off their debts. Though not described in detail, their father fought in the war before this one and the changes in government and philosophy has affected their way of living. The girls are driven to help their parents even if it means making money by using their body and giving the parents an illusion of a better life in the city.
Though Quỳnh is the younger sister, she takes the lead in taking care of Trang. She is willing to be the one who sacrifices her morals for the betterment of her family, warning Trang when she falls in love with Dan and supporting her through the pregnancy. She is a strong character, one who is hard to not feel sympathy for. She has seen and experienced a lot of bad things in life and she is a keen observer of other people’s experiences. She can see the patterns of how the soldiers use the girls in the tea shop, she knows the reality that they will always go back home and leave them here and the time in the city develops her dark and sceptical attitude even more. What did you think about the relationship between the two sisters?
I think the point of view with Trang and her sister was an excellent way to show how different people work through hard times in ways that make sense to them. There’s some that tamp down the emotions and try to be practical and think of the opportunities these circumstances are giving them (i.e. money to send home to their family) and there’s some that still try to find hope and human connection through it all. But in the end, it didn’t matter how each one reacted to these circumstances, as they still had each other and they still were fiercely loyal to each other through to the end.
I found Trang’s perspective to be the most impactful in the story. She is so young and hopeful. She believes that she can help Dan and he can help her. Being trained with propaganda, the more time Dan spends with her, the more he starts to question if what he had been told was true. Are communist sentiments so deep in the common people? His conflicting worldviews from work and being with a Vietnamese woman lead to conflict and paranoia. He is cruel and selfish and unable to cope with the loss of his colleagues. What did you think of Dan and his war tour through the eyes of Trang?
I think Dan’s relationship with Trang is an excellent way to show how war and trauma can change someone. Dan started off full of hope and love and wonder and patriotism that he was on the “right” side, the “good” guys. Then, we find out that even as a pilot, he’s still exposed to the horrors of war and he witnesses his fellow soldiers kill civilians. As the Việt Nam war dragged on, the lines between “enemy soldiers” and “civilians” began to blur for the American soldiers, and Dan was no longer able to make the distinction when he interacts with Trang, and he begins to lash out and become abusive, since that’s how he’s been taught to act by the war. How he treated her was not okay at all, but even in the middle of the abuse Trang has a realization her enemy wasn’t Dan, it’s the war. I thought their dynamic showed a powerful example of how someone who was wonderful and a loving boyfriend can become broken and hateful to those they care about most due to the horrors of war.
I agree. Though they have a language barrier, they understand each other on an emotional level. From Kim, he learns and adapts praying to the Buddha into his lifestyle, something he keeps even when he returns to the US after the war. I liked that very much. His time in Việt Nam forever changed him, though he probably had no idea how much more change would happen in the future when he would return with Linda.
On the Writing
I found the writing, like in The Mountains Sings, lyrical and easy to immerse into. Though we had a pretty solid plan to read three chapters a day and finish the book in a week, the chapters would fly by and I always looked forward to returning. Towards the end of the book, there was no leaving the rest of the tale to another day.
Absolutely, we flew through this book. It was powerful and by far one of the best books I’ve read about this subject. I’m so glad we were able to read this book together and cry together and discuss together!
This book offers a brand new perspective for me. Consequences of wars and the societal devastation they leave behind are realities that are hard to read but important to explore in my reading practice. Like I said in my review of another historical fiction, Independence by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, it is only through people and their experiences, even fictional ones, that we can make room for empathy and compassion. In a novel, it is no longer the past: it is the present. Though Dust Child alternates between two timelines, it is impossible not to feel the tension and mysteries in both.
Thanks for joining us today! Will you pick up this book? Add Dust Child to your shelves on Goodreads for now or get it from your favorite retail store.
Books to check out next
A Hundred Suns by Karin Tanabe | Goodreads – Follows the expatriate life of the French in Indochine, Việt Nam in 1930s.
The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai | Goodreads – 1950s Việt Nam
Book Club/Buddy Read Questions for Dust Child
If you are reading Dust Child in a book club or with a friend, I highly encourage you to discuss the following questions:
Q1. How was the theme of war addressed in the book?
Q2. How was the relationship between the sisters?
Q3. What did you learn about Vietnamese cultural and society?
Q4. What’s something which was brand new to you?
Q5. What sentiment is held by the local people for Americans?
Q6. How did Americans come to be in Việt Nam in the last 1960s?
Q7. What’s a scene from the book that you will never forget?
Many thanks to the publisher for providing us a review copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Cover Photo by Ruslan Bardash on Unsplash
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