WARNING, SPOILERS:Though the racial and historical dynamics could've been dealt with better--though Butler certainly gives it a good try--what I found most interesting about the book is the revelation of incest at the end of it. The two have fallen in love only to discover they are father and daughter. A book could play this for laughs or disgust, etc, but instead, it shows the true anguish and love of the two antagonists and the accident of history and biology that allowed them to meet years after the Vietnam war and be instinctually drawn to each other and then fall in love. The masterful lyrical writing from the POV of both characters NEVER allows us to take their tragedy anything but a hundred percent seriously. I only wish the book had more sophisticated values so they could've transcended the incest taboo together. They met as adults, so no power dynamic of father/daughter is involved. She can forgive him for what could be seen as his exploitation of her mother b/c her mother was living on sex work and he was her regular--she was faithful to him and the resources he provided her and thus he allowed her to free herself from the crap shoot of a new client every night. The power dynamic of white older ex-military and younger Vietnamese in a state job would still have to be explored if they were to have a relationship, but I see nothing wrong with them having one as long as they don't have children. Still, despite this failure of the book to transcend social convention, it is heartbreaking in its immediate onslaught of poetic language re:their love affair.
This struck me as a very unusual book. Told from the point of view of two characters, it switches back and forth from the present to the past, weaving legend, family lore, memory and perception together in a most charming way.The present-day story moves very slowly and is described in exquisite detail, with attention to sensuality and internal puzzlement. The back stories cover three generations of Vietnamese and American people, drawing in the character of each country and the social issues pertaining to each family over time. The elements of myth and family history not only enrich the story but become integral to its resolution at the end, which I found rather ingenious on the part of the author.The language in the book is beautiful, tender and picturesque. As someone who has never travelled to the East, I oftentimes felt literally transported to the various locations, which is the mark of a skilled writer. Also, while the intimate scenes were frequent and graphic, I never found them gratuitous or crass. Rather, they added to the characters and the plot by moving the action forward on a literal and metaphorical level.Finally, as a writer myself, I took note of the author's clever use of background descriptions. It seemed to me that nothing was superfluous; even the mention of a cock crowing in the distance contributed meaning to the action taking place in the foreground. Such attention to detail made the reading of this book both a pleasure and a lesson in literary style.
What do You think about The Deep Green Sea (1998)?
