Lotusland (iii)

From novelist David Joiner after đổi mới

Nathan tossed and turned on the hard lower bunk of his sleeper-class room. He peered at his cell phone; it would take 30 more hours to reach Hanoi. He was struck by how things were always a long wait for him. Nothing was simple, and whatever seemed certain had a way of being turned on its head without warning.

First paragraph, first chapter. Our hero Nathan Monroe is neurotic. He cannot sit still and be happy. Why he is in transit from Saigon to Ha Noi, both of them cities far from home, alone.

Life is not simple. He cannot rely on it or cope with its change. He makes his way to the end of the train to sit looking backwards into the dark.

Nathan turned around at the sound of someone approaching the platform door. He was surprised to find a young woman with a train-issued blanket draped over her head. It was an odd way to wander through a train, and coming outside alone and as late as this piqued his interest. As she stood in the doorway considering the small space that Nathan occupied, or whatever was on her mind, he gestured for her to sit with him.

Last paragraph to begin on the first page of the novel. Our heroine, an ingenue, reveals herself in the next one, first to start on the second page:

She tugged the blanket from her head and, when she slipped into a shaft of moonlight, her hair appeared as pink as a rose.

Nguyen Van Le paints in lacquer, a technique that emerged among the Indochinese students at the colonial art school in Ha Noi. She paints herself with a very long neck. She deals in art from her own gallery.

She sizes Nathan Monroe up, goes back to her bunk, then sticks out her neck the next morning to offer him a deal. She will be his girlfriend for help in emigrating to the United States. He fumbles.

He pulled out his cell phone to see the time, and noticed that his old friend, Anthony, had sent him a pre-dawn message. “Big week coming up. Not sure how much time I’ll have for you in Ha Noi.”

Middle of the fourth page. Nathan doesn’t know Le’s name yet. She hasn’t pitched him yet. She has woke him with breakfast where he fell asleep on the platform at the back of the train. She has vanished again.

Anthony and Nathan arrived in-country about the same time, 7 years before. Anthony started a real estate company in Ha Noi while Nathan has persisted in teaching English in Saigon.

Nathan now wants a job with Anthony to pay off the thousands he borrowed from his running buddy when his mom got sick and he returned to the States to watch her die and Anthony married Huong, previously with Nathan.

Bildung. Phức tạp quá rồi. Toute une histoire. Let us see how this neurotic gets himself unfucked and what help or hindrance his development in action and insight brings his 2 friends.

Viet Nam letters have addressed the novel Lotusland by David Joiner 4 times so far: for the first time on August 27, 2022, the second on August 29. 2022, and fourth on June 9, 2023.

Viet Nam letters respects the property of others under paragraph 107 of United States Code Title 17. If we asked for permission it wouldn’t be criticism. We explain our fair use at length in the letter of September 12, 2022.

The colophon of these Viet Nam letters, directly above, shows the janitor speaking with poet David A. Willson on a Veterans Day.