The Moutains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
The Mountains Sing (2020) is the first English-language novel written by celebrated Vietnamese poet Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai. It’s a soaring, heartfelt and scorching piece of historical fiction set over the many unstable years that preceded and followed the Vietnam War (known as the Resistance War against America in Vietnam).
The book follows the history of the Tran family, alternating between the present of Hương, a young and diligent girl growing up with her grandmother, Diệu Lan, and the decades of Diệu Lan’s life that led to the two of them surviving the bombings together. As the story unfolds, and as grandmother shares her memories with granddaughter, an intergenerational epic unfurls through merciless and truly tragic events.
Hương and Diệu Lan take turns in telling the story, each with their own challenges and worries, their own demons and saviours – where the two overlap is where family and love live. As they wait for Diệu Lan’s children to return from war, amongst them Hương’s mother and father, they experience their own share of misfortune. Their narration brings to life the human costs of this conflict from the point of view of the Vietnamese people, while showing us the true power of kindness and hope.
The book does a commendable job of giving voice to different sides without losing its axis – although the Tran family lives in and fights for North Vietnam, the distinction between good and bad isn’t always defined. The government is just as much the enemy as South Vietnam, and it is this duality that allows the characters of The Mountains Sing to remain real, flawed, and ultimately forgivable no matter what.
The one clear message that resides in between the lines is simply anti-war. This is a different sentiment to anti-America and it shows up loud and clear in the voices of these characters. Recalling his days fighting, Uncle Đat says:
“I had hated the Americans and their allies so much before that day. I hated them for dropping bombs on our people, killing innocent civilians. But from that day, I hated war.”
While there is a clear message that speaks against all wars, there are also traces of contempt for the government of the North itself. This is palpable in Diệu Lan’s account of the Land Reform, a horrific event that saw the murder of her brother, and the loss of their home and land, as well as various present-day differences between the siblings: about communism, about propaganda, about the party. Diệu Lan recounts these to her granddaughter:
“We’re forbidden to talk about events that relate to past mistakes or the wrongdoing of those in power, for they give themselves the right to rewrite history.”
However, in this acknowledgement is also a desire for righting wrongs, and for living life according to different measures:
“I have seen enough death and violence to know that there’s only one way we can talk about wars: honestly. Only through honesty can we learn about the truth.”
With Diệu Lan’s strength and perseverance and Hương’s devoted optimism, a whole world of injustice and suffering opens up on the pages of The Mountains Sing. It is also thanks to them, however, that the novel delivers its message with such gripping and vivid details, giving each experience resounding justice.
As such, the main strength of this incredible novel lies in its characters and the richness of culture through which the reader is immediately transported to a very specific time and place. I could smell the fragrant flowers, taste the delicious meals, and I found myself understanding more and more of the Vietnamese way of thinking through language that was dotted with old but enduring Vietnamese proverbs and steeped in the ancestors’ knowledge.
While members of the Tran family are lost to war, to greed, to hatred and to ideology, it is in Hương that the promise of a better future is presented – so that through heartache and anger, there is also hope. Her words are illuminated with it:
“I was sure that if people were willing to read each other, and see the light of other cultures, there would be no war on earth.”
While the book and its characters are fictional, millions of real people lived through the events and their consequences described in this book. You would be hard-pressed to not think of them while reading the accounts of the Tran family – loved ones violently murdered, homes taken and uprooted, civilians killed, starvation, the horrific consequences of chemicals dumped on the country, and the ongoing mistreatment of many people due to their class, family origins, beliefs, and ideas. The Mountains Sing is a worthy testament to them, making it an even more notable read.
Reminiscent of the family sagas of Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko and Nino Haratischwili’s The Eighth Life, The Mountains Sing is a sweeping, often heart-breaking but ultimately beautiful ode to the Vietnam of the Tran family, and the hope that through honesty, truth will set you free.
Fruzsina Gál is an aspiring writer, born in Hungary but living in Australia. She has been a reader all her life, and her first short story, 'The Turul' was published in Griffith University's 2018 anthology, Talent Implied. Her writing is often focussed on identity and the effects of immigration on the self. You can find her online at www.fruzsinagal.com or @thenovelconversation.