Nguyen Nhat Anh “Brand” (Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper 11-12-2010)

[bachkylan]

Nguyen Nhat Anh “Brand”

The name Nguyen Nhat Anh is enough to attract the public interest to his story because any story by him could cause people to read, remember and love it.

Fifteen thousand copies of the story “I see yellow flowers on green grass” by Nguyen Nhat Anh were sold out after the first day of introduction. Tre Publishing House had to reprint the story to meet the needs of the readers. This is considered a record in the publication because no literary book in the country has ever been able to become such a phenomenon before.



Author Nguyen Nhat Anh signs autographs to give to readers on the first day of publishing the new story. Photo by Tieu Quyen.

Slaking a thirst

That books by Nguyen Nhat Anh sell like hot cakes no longer come as a surprise to anyone as most of his books are so attractive to readers, young and old alike. His latest book “I see yellow flowers on green grass” can be considered to slake the country’s readers’ thirst because domestic literary books are freezing due to an overflow of foreign literary books.

The name Nguyen Nhat Anh is interesting enough to attract the public interest to his story because any book by him can cause people to read, remember and love it. Writer Do Trung Quan said, ‘I’m too old to read stories by Nguyen Nhat Anh. I just read them out of my curiosity. It is strange that stories by Nguyen Nhat Anh can attract both young and old people. Nguyen Nhat Anh starts slowly at the beginning but his way has its own attraction. He can always provide humorous and surprising details.’

Writer Tran Quoc Toan said, ‘Nguyen Nhat Anh can now show great confidence in his style. Whatever he writes can interest readers, which is not easy for any other writer. When I read the first pages of “I see yellow flowers on green grass”, I was a bit surprised because it looked like Nguyen Nhat Anh just stopped writing when he felt tired. It looked like there were separate stories; but the following parts of the story were well connected to the first parts and it is what interests the readers. What is outstanding in this story is that Nguyen Nhat Anh adopted the lyric style pretty well. He drew special attention to a character’s emotion, spread it through the story and gave prominence to the character.’

Giving comments on this book, writer Nguyen Quang Lap said, ‘Each book by Nguyen Nhat Anh can be described as a back-to-childhood train with several carriages each of which contains its own surprises, excitement, interesting points and attractions. At times, the details can make us laugh, bring tears to our eyes or make us sit in silence and think.’ That is why Nguyen Nhat Anh’s stories for kids can attract large numbers of adult readers. He also has “tickets to send readers back to childhood”. Sometimes the details are gentle, spontaneous and serene; but at times they can make us think hard.

New ladder step

"I see yellow flowers on green grass" is not the same as previous stories by Nguyen Nhat Anh. He still adopts the humorous style but it looked as if he wrote without any previous arrangements, the characters just appeared in very short “parts”. Some of them are kids’ actions or words for fun but linked together they are collections of human behaviors.

Adults and kids, the good and the bad people are not separated but woven together. Poet Do Trung Quan said, ‘What is new in "I see yellow flowers on green grass" by Nguyen Nhat Anh is that he included not very good behaviors in the characters. Bad things have never before appeared in his works. It can’t have created very bad characters but what he put in the characters in this story indicated that there are hidden evils in good people. Also, bad things were included in a limited amount, just enough to make people think and choose a good behavior in their lives’.

"I see yellow flowers on green grass" can be said to be a new step of the social ladder of the best-selling author Nguyen Nhat Anh. He told the children story in a very strange way that he himself said his stories are containing more and more problems to be dealt with and they are more and more dramatic. In that way, he creates opportunities for young readers to think and improve their awareness and maturity.

Stories for adults to think about

"I see yellow flowers on green grass" is not simply about naughty kids. The story contains things that make adults find it necessary to think about their behaviors. Adults have love affairs in their own ways and never think that kids have to “suffer”. And kids sometimes make devotional and lofty sacrifices. Any kid needs love but sometimes a kid can give part of his or her happiness to other people. Sacrifice is not something great for a kid. Sometimes it is just an act of enduring a spanking for another kid; but such minor behaviors are a major source of ingredients that help each person develop good personality.

Writers who are also his friends often joke that Nguyen Nhat Anh seems to have an endless source of children stories. What is most admirable about Nguyen Nhat Anh, according to writer Tran Quoc Toan, is that there aren’t boring repetitions. His humorous style remains the same but he always knows how to create new characters.

By Tieu Quyen, journalist

(Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper December 11, 2010)