Rating: 
Summary: An excellent book
Review: Since I am a Vietnamese, I am speaking from a Vietnamese perspective. Unless you can read Vietnamese, this is the best book that you can find written about Vietnam in recent years. I find that Mr. Templer's knowledge about Vietnamese literature, politics, culture is extraordinary. He quotes a lot of Vietnamese poems and literature that are unknown to a regular Vietnamese unless he/she is highly educated. His stories reflect the truth of what is happening in Vietnam right now unlike the info that are published by the Vietnamese government. When I read those books, I feel like they are talking about life in another planet. So if you want accurate info on current Vietnamese life, then you should read Robert Templer's book. An excellent book from any point of view. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Get the facts behind the headlines!
Review: This book and memoir "The Bamboo Chest: An Adventure in Healing the Trauma of War" by Frederick "Cork Graham are the best books on Vietnam that my reading club and I have read in the last ten years. Both of them stories that have never been told by any other writers who appear only to be regurgitating the findings of previous writers many of them long since dead. If you really want to know what is behind the veil of secrecy in Vietnam then these "Shadows and Wind" and "The Bamboo Chest" are the books for you! Both are written by authors who spent more than a year in Vietnam. Graham spent eleven months as the first american political prisoner held in that country since the end of outright fighting.
Rating:
Summary: a real politick understanding of present day Vietnam
Review: This book is not so much an explanation of the Vietnamese "people" as it is of Vietnamese government and bureaucracy. And on that score, the book is superb. Just don't expect it to give you a deep understanding of culture or history. It goes back in time only far enough to explain Vietnam's current situation (usually no more than 10 years back). And it only gets into cultural issues only to the extent that it effects political and economic decisions. Templer is no diplomat beholden to his hosts for their hospitality. Neither is he a liberal academic in an ivory tower removed from his subject. As a Britisher, he is not affected by the Vietnam War in the way that most Americans are. In other words, he was neither on the right nor the left the American political debate. He therefore does not give credit or discredit where neither are due. The tone of the book is fairly critical, but those criticisms are always justified with specific facts of each case. So if you are looking for a book that gives a good structural, realpolitick understanding of present day Vietnam, I would highly recommend this one.
Rating:
Summary: a real politick understanding of present day Vietnam
Review: This book is not so much an explanation of the Vietnamese "people" as it is of Vietnamese government and bureaucracy. And on that score, the book is superb. Just don't expect it to give you a deep understanding of culture or history. It goes back in time only far enough to explain Vietnam's current situation (usually no more than 10 years back). And it only gets into cultural issues only to the extent that it effects political and economic decisions. Templer is no diplomat beholden to his hosts for their hospitality. Neither is he a liberal academic in an ivory tower removed from his subject. As a Britisher, he is not affected by the Vietnam War in the way that most Americans are. In other words, he was neither on the right nor the left the American political debate. He therefore does not give credit or discredit where neither are due. The tone of the book is fairly critical, but those criticisms are always justified with specific facts of each case. So if you are looking for a book that gives a good structural, realpolitick understanding of present day Vietnam, I would highly recommend this one.
Rating:
Summary: Best book on contemporary Vietnam
Review: This is the best book written recently on Vietnam. Unlike so many other books it goes beyond just the war and looks at how Vietnamese live. It really explores and explains so much about Vietnamese culture and the problems the country faces now. I was surprised how much information he was able to get for this book. A great read that really shows what is happening in Vietnam now.
Rating:
Summary: Templer can see from inside and outside
Review: What strikes me most when reading this book is this: Robert Templer has the ability to see things through a Vietnamese person's eyes but at the same time look at that same person's issues from an outside vantage point belonging to an impartial investigator. The book has 16 substantive chapters, each covering an angle of this investigator's view. For example, the chapter called "Famine" concentrates on the famine caused by the Japanese which killed millions of Vietnamese. I know some older Vietnamese who still vividly remember seeing hungry people dropping dead everyday on the streets and who, because of that hellish experience, even now will never throw away leftover rice but will keep for the next meal. If you want to know what "shadows and wind" means, go to the chapter "Cymbals ..". Hint: it is to do with a fairly peculiarly Vietnamese way of talking when you can't talk. Other chapters deal with Vietnamese food (Feast), youth (I think called Young & Restless), religion (Faith), media, etc. Templer expressed perhaps thousands of observations in his book. I found that most of them correspond with, extend, or challenge my own observations as a Vietnamese. I didn't agree with a few observations, but these may be differences of opinion rather than a lack of research or impartiality. While a small problem, Templer should have been more careful in spelling a few names. He may not remain cool if I spelled his name as Temper, yet he mis-spelled the name of a well-known Vietnamese in Australia. I would offer another constructive criticism: the book is quite dry, with lots of facts and observations but nothing - like entertainment, pictures, etc. - to lighten the reading load. Overall, this book is well researched, and not weighed down with ideology or historical baggage. Trung
Rating: 
Summary: Too Western, too detailed, and too boring
Review: While this book does exactly what it says, gives "a view of modern Vietnam", and does so with an impressive swath of parts of society, I wasn't satisfied with the "view" that it presents. First, there are marked Western overtones; in one chapter, young people's valuing reform above democracy is presented with some cynicism, as young people's valuing material gain over freedom. It could just as easily be argued that these young people believe that their country is not ready for Western-style democracy. Another example is the incredible detail into which the author delves, on phenomena that are different from the Western experience but are applicable to many Third World countries. The names in the anecdotes are Vietnamese, but Templer doesn't do a good job of saying what about the phenomena themselves are particularly Vietnamese. If this book were my only experience with Vietnam and someone asked me, "What makes Vietnam different from other Third World countries?" I would be virtually stumped. Still another example is his beyond-superficial treatment of Buddhism and its influence on Vietnamese people, history, and culture. He has an entire chapter on religion in Vietnam, and virtually all of its focus is on Vietnamese Catholics and their history. Vietnamese Catholics make up about eight percent of the Vietnamese population, and Buddhists are some sixty percent. Instead of exploring the particularities of Buddhism, Vietnamese-style, Templer basically dismisses it as a ... mishmash of beliefs. There is a palpable anti-Communist tone in certain portions of the book, which is annoying because in countries like Vietnam the system would be corrupt whether you called the ruling class "the Communist Party", "the Socialist Party", or even the "Coalition of Freely Elected Non-Party Affiliated Officials". Templer seems to direct wrath at Communism that is more logically directed at a corrupt system and entrenched power in general. Second, some of the chapters are just not that interesting. One chapter seems to be "the architecture chapter". That's just not the kind of thing that someone who buys a text-only book on Vietnam is interested in, in general.
Third, the detail Templer goes into is admirable, and shows how well-researched the book is, but it isn't that interesting. After a while, the anecdotes in a particular chapter all seem to run together. I got the sense that this book could have been cut down to a friendlier length if each chapter had contained only one major anecdote.
Overall, it's a decent book, especially if your library already contains some books about the country, but if you're only going to read one book on Vietnam, this DEFINITELY shouldn't be it.
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