This is a free short story on Kindle that I downloaded a long time ago. I finally got around to reading it, and I'm glad that I did. It is one story from a collection of stories by Angie Chau about Vietnamese immigrants who have escaped the Vietcong in the 1970s.
This particular story is about the very quiet, reserved Viet, and his family. His wife, Huong, was a former model in the Vietnam. The couple has two young daughters, who have quickly and gracefully adapted to life in America.
Although he was a professor in Vietnam, he has a quiet life in America as a postal worker. The reader learns early that although he is soft-spoken and shy, Viet once killed a man. The story takes you back to that moment, and it becomes clear that when his family is threatened, Viet will stop at nothing to stop the threat. Soon, Viet finds himself pushed to the verge of losing control once again.
This is very short, but it packs a very large punch. Chau is talented at putting a lot of emotion into very few words. Her writing is beautiful, and I wished this had been a full-length novel. I want to read the other short stories in this collection soon.
4/5 stars
Read from February 28, 2011 to March 1, 2011
--C
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