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Rating: 
Summary: The Collective Unconscious of Vietnam
Review: This epic poem dates from the seventeenth century and is a cornerstone of Vietnamese literature. Radical in its subversion of traditional Confucian mores (the protagonist is a woman), *Truyen Kieu* defines the boundaries of modern Vietnamese culture. It is necessary reading for anyone who would hope to understand the bittersweet sentiment that undergirds the Vietnamese worldview.
Rating:
Summary: The Collective Unconscious of Vietnam
Review: This epic poem dates from the seventeenth century and is a cornerstone of Vietnamese literature. Radical in its subversion of traditional Confucian mores (the protagonist is a woman), *Truyen Kieu* defines the boundaries of modern Vietnamese culture. It is necessary reading for anyone who would hope to understand the bittersweet sentiment that undergirds the Vietnamese worldview.
Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece.
Review: This is the epic tale of Thuy Kieu, a middle class teenage girl who was as gifted as beautiful. The future, despite its promising outlook turned out to be a life-wrecking nightmare for Kieu. Her travails are beautifully described in this lengthy narrative poem written by Nguyen Du, a 19th century scholar.The work explores the many conflicting virtues imposed on Kieu by a Confucian society and how they affect her life. It is a classic as it is taught in school and quoted by almost any Vietnamese: the verses are even recited at social gatherings. Huynh Sanh Thong has done a great job in translating this work in English.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the best epic, but certainly ranks among the 2nd best...
Review: _The Tale of Kieu_ is engaging in a whistfully episodic sort of way. This version is more complete than the paperback (Vintage press), offering a few dozen extra verses not offered in the earlier edition. Ultimately a victory by the hand of fate, the long-suffering heroine Kieu eventually becomes queen, but only after becoming a prostitute, and suffering a complete loss of social status. Though Kieu's wanderings are somewhat episodic, the entire epic is rather enchantingly framed by a Cinderella-like relationship with a departed spirit who protects the girl and woman. For Kieu's dependence upon fate (and her impotence as a female within her society), the tale can seem like another tiresome account not of female heroism, but of misogynistic fun with a female lead. Nonetheless, as Thong's introduction explains, Kieu can also be seen as a depiction of strife-torn Vietnam, a country whose history of national sorrow precedes the Vietnam war by centuries. All things considered, this book is certainly worth the brief effort that will go to reading it. Anyone doing research along the lines of women's studies would definitely benefit from this work.
Rating:
Summary: Not the best epic, but certainly ranks among the 2nd best...
Review: _The Tale of Kieu_ is engaging in a whistfully episodic sort of way. This version is more complete than the paperback (Vintage press), offering a few dozen extra verses not offered in the earlier edition. Ultimately a victory by the hand of fate, the long-suffering heroine Kieu eventually becomes queen, but only after becoming a prostitute, and suffering a complete loss of social status. Though Kieu's wanderings are somewhat episodic, the entire epic is rather enchantingly framed by a Cinderella-like relationship with a departed spirit who protects the girl and woman. For Kieu's dependence upon fate (and her impotence as a female within her society), the tale can seem like another tiresome account not of female heroism, but of misogynistic fun with a female lead. Nonetheless, as Thong's introduction explains, Kieu can also be seen as a depiction of strife-torn Vietnam, a country whose history of national sorrow precedes the Vietnam war by centuries. All things considered, this book is certainly worth the brief effort that will go to reading it. Anyone doing research along the lines of women's studies would definitely benefit from this work.
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