Nguyen Nhat Anh’s works are addictive to readers (Tuoi Tre newspaper 8-12-2010)

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Nguyen Nhat Anh’s works are addictive to readers
(After reading “Tôi thấy hoa vàng trên cỏ xanh" (I see yellow flowers on green grass)

I can’t remember how many book Nguyen Nhat Anh has written including “ Tôi thấy hoa vàng trên cỏ xanh”. Maybe it has been his 100th or the 101st book, or maybe more or less; but just like his first books like Chú bé rắc rối (Troublesome boy), Bàn có năm chỗ ngồi (Table with five seats)… and also this one, Nguyen Nhat Anh has been giving me so many interesting surprises. The story is about two brothers Thieu and Tuong, the older brother is selfish and mean while the younger one is tolerant with some envy, love and support often seen among kids of the ages when they just like “love and eat”. Such a story, people may think, would have been enough for a good writer to write a short story of about one or two thousand words long. Yet “Tôi thấy hoa vàng trên cỏ xanh” is a thick book of almost 400 pages which had my eyes glued to it from the first to the last page.

In literature and cinematography, if you read or see any part of a book or a movie by random and find interesting details, then it must be an excellent work. From my experience of reading and watching movies for half a century, it is 90% true. “Tôi thấy hoa vàng trên cỏ xanh” is told by the older brother about his younger brother, that is little Tuong; or in other words, the younger brother’s fate in the eyes of the older brother. Little Tuong seems to have been born to sacrifice himself for and make concessions to others, and life gives him great happiness that he expects. Meanwhile, his older brother is selfish and mean. People might think he would have everything but it turns out that he has nothing. That lesson is interesting in that it was learned by the older brother himself rather than somebody else.

In a simple style, sometimes with jokes sometimes with sweet words, and even in a humorous and playful manner, each book by Nguyen Nhat Anh is like a kaleidoscope with which kids can see lots of familiar and unfamiliar things by just turning it little by little and they can giggle together, or fall into silence, look at each other and have tears in their eyes feeling sorry for something that has got lost. And for me, each time I turn that kaleidoscope a little, my whole childhood full of happiness and sufferings, which seems to have sunk into oblivion, suddenly all appears in front of me, more often than not making it too hard for me to choke back tears. “Having a chance to have a wash in the pure river of childhood will help you wash away the dirt of the adults’ world as if by magic”, Nguyen Nhat Anh once said so and he is right.

It can be said that each book by Nguyen Nhat Anh is like a train to childhood, which has different carriages each carrying different stories for different feelings which make us burst into laughter or into tears, or make us sit still thinking in silence. “Tôi thấy hoa vàng trên cỏ xanh” is just like that. In this carriage, we see hilarious stories such as old Mr. Hon having a winning lottery ticket, little Tuong making blue birds or little Thieu with his first love letter in his life, for instance. In another carriage, we see sad stories. For example, Man’s father was so ill that he left the house because he didn’t want to be a burden for his wife and daughter; or Mr. Tam Tang pretended to be insane acting like a king because his insane daughter always thinks she is a princess. Those who have read the book can hardly forget the details in it.

When we remember our past, we don’t just do it for nothing but we are looking at our own lives again, and learn from our mistakes and weaknesses so that we can live a better life, making our lives more significant. Nguyen Nhat Anh once said he writes stories for children but he aims at adults at the same time. I didn’t understand that sentence until recently. It turns out that he writes for himself, for his generation. It explains why both kids and adults are addicted to his books. They just can’t stop once they have started reading his books.

Addictivity of stories by Nguyen Nhat Anh mainly comes from the philosophy living for each other which is obvious all through his books. For kids, it is a lesson about morality or ethics, and they explore what is called human love for each other; for adults, it is a master key to the doors that open to lots of regret. Anyone may at least once in their life cause pain and suffering for others because of negligence or carelessness. The “living for each other” key helps our soul find regrets and we are concerned about them. Books by Nguyen Nhat Anh say to us that ‘I’ve such regrets, what about you?’ Little Thieu in the story can’t be Nguyen Nhat Anh in his childhood but it must be a regret for him and for his generation. The death of Cu Cau (a toad) caused little Thieu to feel panic not just because of the death of a toad, but it is the destruction to another one’s happiness. When you destroy someone else’s happiness, part of the purity in you will die, too, because you’re obsessed with it all your life. How can any one of us can be sure we have never in our lives destroyed another’s happiness deliberately or unintentionally?

In his speech he delivered at the ASEAN Literature Award-presenting ceremony in Thailand, Nguyen Nhat Anh said, “Each people hang a bell in front of the window of their soul. The job of a writer is to ring that bell with literary words.” And so, Nguyen Nhat Anh has once again rung that bell with his book of “Tôi thấy hoa vàng trên cỏ xanh”. If you have got on Nguyen Nhat Anh’s train to childhood once, I believe you can hardly miss another chance to eagerly get on such a train when Nguyen Nhat Anh ‘rings that bell’ again.

By NGUYEN QUANG LAP, writer

(Tuoi Tre newspaper 8-12-2010)