September 29, 2014
A massive bestseller in Nguyê˜n’s native Vietnam, this charming short work recalls The Little Prince in its depiction of childhood sensibilities pitted against an often illogical and absurd adult world. Mui, an older adult, remembers himself at eight, the age when he first realized “that life was dull and boring.” He and his childhood friends—the missing-toothed Ti; the beautiful Tun, object of his affection; and the tall Hai, sadly the object of Tun’s affection—spend their days scheming ways to alleviate that boredom. They
reinvent language (“We wanted to rename everything in the universe as if we had just created it”), put their parents on mock trial, and even go so far as to eat and drink from unusual objects (including a tin wash basin) for the novel flavor of altered expectations. But since the balance of power only tips in one direction, each of their efforts lands them in trouble. Adults are devoted to dictionaries, loathe silliness, and, even when they themselves go to extremes for the sake of novelty, fail to appreciate the same desires in their children. Conveyed in sparse prose, the insights are often simple (“The function of children, as adults see it, is to outgrow their childishness”), but they ring true, and their effect is sweet and endearing.