The Book: A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, by Robert Olen Butler
The Story: After reading a couple of other books recently about the Vietnam War, I thought that this would really be an interesting read.
This is one of those short story collections where the stories are not connected by characters or plotline, but really tie together well. Nearly every story is about Vietnamese refugees who ended up in America either during or after the war in Vietnam. Most of them have relocated to cities around New Orleans and are basically trying to get into the groove of American life.
There are stories here from men, women, young, old, the whole gambit. They are dealing with everything from fitting Vietnamese mythology into their new American lives to being a prostitute (mostly to American vets) in a seedy bar to stalking their wife’s lover. There really are a lot of different perspectives presented here, but, like I said, they all kind of tie together.
What I Thought: Like I’ve told you guys, I kind of have a soft spot in my heart for short story collections. If they are done well, I think that they can really be incredible.
This one was done well.
It is a skinny little book- I think it was just at 250 pages or so- with 15 individual stories that really pack a punch.
Most of these stories really got to me. I loved “Mid-Autumn” where a mother-to-be is speaking to her unborn baby and “Crickets” where a Vietnamese dad is trying to entertain his super-Americanized kids with games they used to play. ”Mr. Green” and “Relic” really spoke to me too. Both of these kind of showed the awkward but do-able intertwining of Vietnamese culture and American culture.
The longest story in the book, by far, was called “The American Couple.” While most of the stories were just 10 or so pages, this one was around 80. It was probably my least favorite in the collection, but I think that a lot of that has to do with the fact that it really went away from this bond that the other stories had. Instead of being about Vietnamese refugees, it was about American vets that meet while they are on vacation. Huh? I just didn’t think that this one hit any nerves and I just wanted to get it over with so I could get back to the good stories.
This book won the Pulitzer in 1993, so I guess I’m not the only one who liked it. Being born after the Vietnam war and going through regular old stop-at-the-Civil-War public school history classes, I’ve been fairly unfamiliar with this time period my whole life. In reading more about it, I’ve just learned so much and am so grateful for books like this.
Conclusion: Read this. It is really good stuff. It’s short and won’t take you very much time to get through. It’s worth it for sure.