[Vnbiz] [BOOK] Hay Tim Toi Giua Canh Dong by Dang Nguyen Dong Vy

[Tran Dinh Hoanh]

Dear CACC,

A couple of days after the Saigon Gathering, Dong Vy sent a copy of
her hot-off-the-press book to Phuong's address in Tay Ninh (I was
about to leave Hanoi for Philippines).  I sent a thank you note and
said that I would read the book and write a review on VNBIZ.  Little
did I know then that I would be in for such an intense emotional trip
that would swirl me through different times and spaces and familiar
names and faces that would rapidly fill the big vacuum of the missing
years in my memory.

Although in this forum we address each other as anh/chi as the rule of
decorum requires, Dong Vy is indeed the daughter of my best friend in
highschool and college.  Dong Vy's father, Dang The Dung, was so close
to me for many years that sometimes it was hard to say whether there
was any difference between me and him other than the fact that he was
taller than I.  We were of the same age, both born in Quang Binh,
lived in the same neighborhood (Cu Xa Kien Thiet close to Nha Tho Ba
Chuong, Phu Nhuan, Saigon), studied together at St Thomas High School
at Nha Tho Ba Chuong, then Dai Hoc Van Khoa Sai Gon.  On the terrace
of Dung's home was a small room where we slept together with several
other boys in the "gang."  I was there more than I was at my own home.
 My parents knew Dung's parents very well.  Dung's family was my
family.  I think we were even supposed to be related somehow, although
my memory can't remember anything that requires a cannon shot to
reach.

Since 1975 we were separate.  I got lost to the US (I mean "lost," a
long story); Dung settled in Cam Ranh and built a family there.  We
did not communicate, although my heart was always with him.  In those
years, life was tough and  tele-communicating with a friend on the
other side of the globe was the last emotional luxury on everyone's
mind.

Twenty years later, in 1995, on our way between Da Lat and Nha Trang,
Phuong and I stopped by Cam Ranh for a night to visit with Dung and
his family.  I think we met Dong Vy over dinner.  I was busy talking
with Dung and his wife that I rarely talked to his quiet girl at the
table, who appeared to follow our conversation with interest.  But I
managed to learn that she was in 11th grade and she impressed me as a
quiet, intelligent, confident and very mature girl.

Several years ago, I posted on both VNBIZ and Vern Weitzel's
Development list at UNDP a message on my experience in teaching a law
seminar at the Ministry of Justice.  A couple days later I got a
message in Vietnamese:  "Dear Chu Hoanh,  I am a reporter at Bao Sinh
Vien Viet Nam.  Your message about education interests me.  I would
like to have your permission to translate that into Vietnamese for our
magazine."   I responded: "Yes, as long as you keep my content
intact."  The next day I got a thank-you note with a sentence: "You
probably don't remember me, but I think I met you once.  My dad is
Dang The Dung in Cam Ranh."  That is how we met again!  Soon later
Dong Vy joined VNBIZ.

The 224-page book is a compilation of many short writings, each a
reflection about something, some event, with someone, that reveals to
the author (and the readers) a small, beautiful piece of truth about
the human heart.  It is written in very simple and direct language,
the kind of language that naturally flows into your heart like the
plain "I love you" without the need for interpretation often required
in the more colorful language. The book has two parts, tan van with 20
pieces of short writing, and truyen ngan with 10 short stories.  But
the all these little pieces really integrate themselves well into a
complete whole, for they all are written with the same simple direct
language and the same style of thinking and reflection, which is
simple, sharp, focused and ultimately gentle, about people and
everyday's events that are intimate to the author and to everyone of
us--mom, dad, grand father, grand mother, brothers, sisters, uncles,
aunts, friends, teachers, the rice fields, the cassava plants, the
fruits, poverty, love, hopes, dreams.  Each subject is explored in a
little story told with the intimate voice of a sister to her siblings
on the family veranda.

For me personally, these writings go much deeper, because almost
everyone in the book is someone I know and love.  Of course, Dong Vy's
dad is my best friend, her mom is the wife of my best friend.  Her
grand father is by best friend's father, who I used to call "chu
Linh,"  the man I admired greatly but was scared to be close, because
he worked hard and was serious with life (which was not something we
kids could appreciate then).  Dong Vy's grand mother is my "thim
Linh," who loved me dearly and who I loved dearly.  The house where
the Dong Vy grew up in, I knew it before she was even around.  When I
was just finished Bacc I (11th grade) and that house was only a couple
of years old, Dung and I went to Bai Gieng, Cam Ranh, to visit his
mother. I stayed in that house for a week or so.  The house was, and
still is, on National Route 1.  I would sit in front of the house
watching buses (xe khach) go by.  The scene of a xe khach on that long
highway with the distant engine sound fluttering over the open ocean
sky always made me feel lonely and lost.  Today, whenever seeing a xe
khach on a stretch of open highway, the memory of that house and the
same lost feeling still rush back to me with such an intensity.

So you can see how I feel when I read about all these folks, and these
places, Bai Gieng, Cam Ranh, the parish church, the house, the yard,
the trees, the fields, Nha Trang, Sai Gon, Da Lat, Nha Tho Duc Ba...
I almost feel like I played a role in every event in the book.  It
filled a big gap in my memory-- the years and the pieces of lives I
have lost, have not got a chance to participate, even just to witness.
 I read the book in one shot, from cover to cover, feeling an intense
emotion that usually comes when your memory is hit by images that are
so dear, so intimate and so far, so that you feel like you are
floating in midair through an immense ocean looking down on dark waves
and fog-covered islands while your heart is squeezed hard by such an
intense nostalgia that comes whenever you remember a lost love.

Thank you, Dong Vy my dear, for such a beautiful gift.

Great day, Dong Vy and all.

Hoanh

-- 
Tran Dinh Hoanh, LLB, JD
Attorney of Law
Washington DC