A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler
"A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain" by Robert Olen Butler is a poignant exploration of identity, memory, and the complexities of political and familial ties within the Vietnamese American community. The narrative centers around Dao, an elderly Vietnamese man living in New Orleans, who reflects on his life through a series of dream conversations with the ghost of Ho Chi Minh, the former leader of Vietnam. These dreams serve as a medium for Dao to reconnect with his past, including his experiences with Ho as a young man in Europe.
As Dao navigates his dreams, he grapples with a troubling mystery involving his family, particularly regarding their connection to a recent political assassination in the Vietnamese expatriate community. This murder is linked to the controversial views expressed by a local publisher, prompting a broader discussion about the relationship between Vietnamese expatriates and the current communist government in Vietnam. The story also delves into themes of choice and consequence, highlighting the divergent paths taken by Dao as a peaceful Buddhist and Ho as a revolutionary leader. Ultimately, the story weaves a rich tapestry of personal and collective histories, reflecting the enduring impact of war and political strife on individual lives.
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A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler
First published: 1992
Type of plot: Political, allegory
Time of work: The 1980's, with flashbacks to 1917 and 1918
Locale: New Orleans, London, Paris
Principal Characters:
Dao , the narrator, a Vietnamese man nearly one hundred years oldThang , his son-in-law, a former colonel in the army of the Republic of VietnamLoi , his grandsonHo Chi Minh , the former leader of Vietnam
The Story
Dao, a very old Vietnamese man who lives in New Orleans with his family, begins by recounting his most recent dream, in which he is visited by the ghost of former Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, whom he had known in Europe as a young man. The Vietnamese leader, then known as Nguyen Ai Quoc ("Nguyen the Patriot"), lived in London from 1915 to 1917 and in France from 1917 to 1923. Dao was a dishwasher at the London hotel where Ho was a pastry cook. Dao alludes to the work Ho did retouching photos in France.
Dao, who has three dream conversations with Ho, alternates between narrating details of his dreams and describing recent developments in his extended family. He realizes that they are keeping a secret from him but is unable to guess what it concerns. He suspects, however, that the mystery is connected with a recent murder. Nguyen Bich Le, publisher of a Vietnamese newspaper in New Orleans, was shot the week before because he wrote an article arguing that it was time for Vietnamese expatriates to accept the reality of the communist government in Vietnam and to begin to work with the people who control their home country. A nameless representative of a Vietnamese anticommunist group telephoned the paper to claim credit for the murder.
In Dao's three dream conversations with Ho, they recall their past and debate the divergent paths they chose: Dao became a Buddhist and Ho led a political revolution and then a war. Dao finally comes to realize that his son-in-law, Thang, and grandson, Loi, were directly involved in the recent political murder.
Bibliography
Beidler, Philip D. Re-Writing America: Vietnam Authors in Their Generation. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1991.
Broyard, Anatole. Review of The Alleys of Eden, by Robert Olen Butler. The New York Times, November 11, 1981, 29.
Lohafer, Susan. "Real-World Characters in Fictional Story Worlds: Robert Olen Butler's 'JFK Secretly Attends Jackie Auction.'" In The Art of Brevity: Excursions in Short Fiction Theory and Analysis, edited by Per Winther et al. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2004.
Myers, Thomas. Walking Point: American Narratives of Vietnam. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Packer, George. "From the Mekong to the Bayous." The New York Times Book Review 97 (June 7, 1992): 24.
Ryan, Maureen. "Robert Olen Butler's Vietnam Veterans: Strangers in an Alien Home." The Midwest Quarterly 38, no. 3 (1997): 274-294.
Sartisky, Michael. "A Pulitzer Profile: Louisiana's Robert Olen Butler." Cultural Vistas: Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities 4 (Fall, 1993): 10-21.
Womack, Kenneth. "Reading the Titanic: Contemporary Literary Representations of the Ship of Dreams." Interdisciplinary Literary Studies 5, no. 1 (2003): 34-44.