Author Description

From Kirkus Reviews Night, Again ($25.00; paper $12.95; Jul. 15, 1996; 176 pp.; 1- 888363-02-9; paper 1-888363-07-X): A welcome collection of 12 stories by Vietnamese writers who are only recently freed from the yoke of censorship (and in some cases imprisonment). The war and its aftereffects are of course powerful presences, but even in stories that center in memories of Hanoi under siege--Duong Thu Hong's ``Reflections of Spring'' and Bao Ninh's ``A Marker on the Side of the Boat''--the impulse, and the effect, seem more individualized and personal, less doctrinaire. All the selections are interesting, though they're of uneven quality, and two stand out: Nguyen Huy Thiep's Balzacian study of an embattled and mutually destructive extended family (``Without a King''), and especially Tran Vu's horrific and perfectly convincing portrayal of an incestuous brother and sister (``Gunboat on the Yangtze''). An important anthology. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Product Description Including stories by Vietnam's most important novelists, Bao Nihn and Duong Thu Huong, a collection of thirteen contemporary short stories by writers--some of whom have been imprisoned for their writing--explores life under the decline of communism. IP. About the Author Awarded a Pew Fellowship in 1993 and a guest of the IPW's Cities of Asylum in 2003, Linh Dinh is an author, poet, and translator. He has written two collections of stories, "Fake House" and "Blood and Soap," been anthologized in Best American Poetry 2000(Scribner 2000), Best American Poetry 2004 (Scribner 2004) and Great American Prose Poems from Poe to the Present (Scribner 2003).