The Renovation (iii)

from Do Hoang Ngoc Anh and đổi mới

“That night, she wrote a letter to her husband but could not finish it.”

Well, she has just betrayed him. At the lunar new year, she has taken a piglet into their home to sell for profit at the following Tet.

“She was not sure if he read her other letters, because he didn’t reply.”

That is, the Army has fallen out of touch with the people, at the most intimate level.

“But she just sent her letters without expecting any replies.”

As was sane during wartime but in peace shows despair in the human connection fundamental to their life.

“Every month she sent a letter, normally there was no reply.”

Note author Do Hoang Ngoc Anh’s tic in this novel of Renovation, a sentence that is a series of independent clauses.

“She just needed her letter not to be returned, that meant he received it, and the system still worked.”

There is another series, verbs knocking once, twice, and a third time on the hollow of this woman’s life in a system that is not working for her.

“That was enough for her.”

No it wasn’t.

This was the third of 10 Viet Nam letters so far about The Renovation by Do Ngoc Hoang Anh. The first appeared on February 16, 2022, the second on February 23, 2022, then the fourth on April 2, 2022 and the fifth on May 2, 2022.

The sixth appeared on June 4, 2022, the seventh on July 16, 2022, the eighth on September 10, 2022, and the ninth on September 14, 2022.

The tenth, on May 29, 2023, was also the first and only Viet Nam letter so far about Đổi Mới by Đô Hoàng Ngọc Ánh.

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.

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