Der Geschmack Der Sehnsucht (2014) - Plot & Excerpts
I found Kim Thuy's first novel, "Ru," superb in its stream-of-consciousness mosaic of shifting time and deepening insights, tracing a young Vietnamese girl's shift from war-torn past to complex Quebec present. Now in this new novel Thuy moves to even more emotional levels in a delicately rendered story that once more marries poetry and metaphor in a beautiful web of short segments that works even better than in "Ru.""Man" is another young Vietnamese woman, abandoned as a baby, then raised lovingly by her adoptive Maman to live as if "perfectly fulfilled" (the meaning of her name in Vietnamese.) Caught as she says "between two lines of fire," the resistance and the government, Maman wants Man to survive by learning to live "without disturbing anything" -- just as she had learned as a partisan spy to fade into the background. In pursuit of this destiny, Maman arranges her marriage to an expatriate Vietnamese immigrant to Montreal who had learned to live "alone and lonely."What follows is a dramatic story of a bright and imaginative woman gradually blossoming -- turning her husband's small noodle shop into a thriving centre of Viet cuisine -- connecting with effervescent Quebecois Julie with her bubbling enthusiasm and extroverted passion for family, friends and food -- conceiving her own children and bringing Maman to Montreal. There are wonderful passages about discovering art, learning to sing out loud, finding ways to help immigrant friends to thrive and come alive. But the reader cannot forget the early parts of the book, and the traditional Vietnamese poem underlined there: "Nothing is given without compensation. The blue sky often rains its curses on beauties with pink cheeks."Man is a woman who has never been able to understand romantic love. She is perplexed by one of her employees who seems completely shaken by such passion: "I stood there flabbergasted before his trance state, thinking he was acting delirious and crazy. But he was just in love. I didn't know that condition to be able to identify it, to recognize it."Then what seems inevitable happens. This woman is exploding in all directions; her cooking is taking on more and more sensual overtones; her talents are being celebrated not just in Montreal but elsewhere in Quebec . . . and then in Paris. And she collides with someone who shares her passion for food, comes from a background that includes Vietnam, and has the outgoing verve to pull her even further into living fully. This novel which is so perceptive in probing the immigrant experience suddenly becomes a love story. This is, of course, where the book could fall into cliche, where its new focus could become melodramatic or false to the delicacy of character development that has so far taken place. It is a tribute to Kim Thuy that she refuses to let this happen. Her austere and sharp-edged style stays the same, and the love affair is connected richly with the rest of the book without any loss of broader focus. Maman becomes the key character by which the last half of the novel stays tied to the first half, through exploration of the fateful relationship which shapes Maman's life and perceptions about survival -- and in turn sets Man on the path that defines her beginnings and later opens up her options.This is a fine book, with more mature themes than "Ru," and perhaps deeper characters. As a writer, Thuy also seems to have developed a stronger coherence to this book's continuity. My second reading of it helped me see that, so this will be a novel to read and re-read to enjoy fully. Man is a beautiful novella by Kim Thuy. It is composed of little vignettes of Man's life from the time she is a child in Vietnam through adulthood as a parent and a woman surprised by love. Man runs a restaurant in Montreal and her descriptions of the food she prepared was infused with love. This is a lovely little book that makes you appreciate the beauty of language.Thanks to Goodreads and the publisher for providing me with an advance reading copy for review.
What do You think about Der Geschmack Der Sehnsucht (2014)?
Quelle écriture, tout en délicatesse, authentique et magnifique!
—ducky_got_grr
Beautiful lines I had to catch my breath on while reading.
—GodBlessSushi
Thank you, Kim. I am currently reading the book. Cheers.
—Meenu
I loved it almost to the very end ... and then I didn't.
—jcarlosgf
Pur délice poétique à savourer en douceur.
—michelleCarrington
