Kim Thúy: The young voice of Canadian literature
Quebec-based writer Kim Thúy who has been described as ‘the young voice of Canadian literature’ is in the shortlist for Alternative Nobel Award this year.
Thúy who is one of the earliest boat people to flee Vietnam in the 60s ‘as communist tanks rolled into Saigon’ has been shortlisted, along with three other celebrated writers. Two superstars of Canadian literature, writer Margaret Atwood and poet Anne Carson, who were originally in the long list did not make it to the final four selected by public vote. Thúy who has only three books to her credit is vying for the prize in the prestigious company of Haruki Murakami (Japan), Maryse Condé (France/Guadeloupe) and Neil Gaiman (United Kingdom). (Murakami withdrew from the award one day ago saying he doesn’t want to be considered for the new prize. He is often mentioned as a possible winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, although he has said he’s not interested in that honour, telling the New Yorker in 2012, “No, I don’t want prizes. That means you’re finished.”)
The winner will be announced on October 12 and the award will be handed out on December 9. The prize has been created as an alternative to the annual Nobel Award which will not be awarded this year as a result of the #metoo allegations against Jean-Claude Arnault, a jury member of the Swedish Academy.
Originally written in French Vi has been translated into English by Sheila Fischman. It has been nominated for a prestigious Canadian literary prize, the Giller Award, this year along with 11 other finalists. The winner will be announced on October 12 and a formal celebration will be held on December 9, the same day as the Alternative Noble Prize will be handed over to the winner.
Boa Vi, Thúy’s heroine’s voyage to freedom was filled with many dangers. Her family and friends boarded rickety boats near the ‘Ca mau forest surrounding three seas perfectly placed for flights by boat’. The passage to Malaysia arranged by human smugglers was paid in gold; and the voyage was hell on earth.
Refugees were robbed by pirates, women were raped, some were killed or dumped into the sea while those who survived had to wait till they picked up by western countries. Vi’s family was selected by Canada from a Malaysian refugee camp for their proficiency in French language.
Protagonist Vi’s ‘spoilt’ aristocratic father was left behind with his concubines to a life slowly being deprived of social status. Before his fortunes began to change with the war, he was hobnobbing with global luminaries such as writer Gontran De Poncins who explored the Candian Arctics and Ivon Petra, Wimbeldon winner in 1946, and always booked the table at a restaurant where Graham Greene conceived his novel The Quiet American.
Vi who studied law and became lawyer in Quebec went back with a Canadian delegation on a mission to advise the post-war government was shocked to find how the old way of living had vanished. The pho made by sidewalk restaurants was bland and ‘I had to ask the woman not to season my bowl with a spoonful of monosodium glutamate…I was enraged (when) indecently luxurious cars of the new millionaires passed by five-six- year old shoeshine kids’.
Vi obviously is Thúy’s fictional avatar relating her own experiences offering a fascinating view of Vietnamese culture while her liberated attitudes clash with traditional family values. She is considered too modern by the Vietnamese men who dated her – a constant worry for her mother – and her engagement to a man called Tan was called off as she was seen ‘too western’.
Maryse Conde, one of the Caribbean’s most renowned authors, won the Alternative Nobel Award for Literature. The Guadeloupian author, 81, won about C$148,000. She will receive the prize at a ceremony on 9 December
Though Vi’s large family is alienated from their land of birth they are not really cut off from their culture as where ever they live in the world they are capable of creating little Vietnams. While Vi was in Vietnam as a ten-year-old kid, her mother who thought that her daughter was timid and drab put her in touch with Ha, a close friend. Ha took Vi under her wings teaching her to dress fashionably and the ways of the world at a time when fashion icon Twiggy reigned supreme.
Ha, faced rather miserable experiences during her voyage to freedom. She was married to a Vietnamese general who constantly beat her and had to hide her black eyes with makeup and oversize hats. She was raped by the pirates countless times and was picked up by a Danish ship when her refugee boat developed mechanical problems. Ha who became a massage therapist fixing ‘damaged women’ in Copenhagen finally married a Canadian, Louis, reconnecting with Vi’s family after coming to Ottawa.
Vi was not successful in love like Ha. After her failed engagement she got involved with a French ecologist/anthologist, Vincent, while living in Vietnam. We thought that Vi had found her soul mate. Vincent adored her and called Vi ‘an udumbara flower’ which the Buddhists believe blooms in every 3000 years. He even went to the extent of inking her name on his right hip but never returned after going to France to see his ailing grandmother.
The novel is written like entries in a diary with the title of brief chapter names as side notes. The language is simple yet acquires depth and intensity coloured by the writer’s own views and astute observations of life constantly shifting gears.
Thúy who did lot of jobs in Quebec started writing after her Quebec restaurant went bust. Her debut Ru won 2010 Governor General Award, and the second, Mãn, was published in 2015. – Somasiri Munasinghe
