The Beauty of Humanity Movement

The intertwined stories of many characters are set against the backdrop of everyday life in Vietnam. Jennifer Ikeda is a good choice for a novel that needs an Asian sensibility to subtly dramatize the action. Ikeda portrays the male characters who dominate the novel in a slightly husky voice. Her delivery of the flat tones of Vietnamese words--such as "pho," a noodle soup--makes them flow smoothly amid the English. The novel is both a personal and a national story--a story of individuals who lived their lives amid the French occupation and the civil war that split the country and involved the U.S. The noodle soup in the story is a symbol of the introduction of communism, of the resulting deprivation for some and the abundance for others. Ikeda manages history, description, and a fair amount of cultural explanation deftly, keeping the listener's interest. M.R. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine