Kim Thúy revisits the horror and beauty of Vietnam's past in novel Em
Em is on the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist
Kim Thúy is a celebrated Vietnamese-born Canadian author. Her acclaimed first novel, Ru, won the Governor General's Literary Award for French-language fiction and was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2002. It also won Canada Reads 2015, when it was championed by Cameron Bailey.
Born in Saigon, Thúy left Vietnam in a boat at 10 years old and settled with her family in Quebec. Thúy's latest novel, Em, revisits the horrors of the Vietnam War. Em is about a young Vietnamese boy, abandoned by a long-gone American soldier and living on the streets, who finds a baby abandoned in Saigon.
Translated from French by Sheila Fischman, Em takes inspiration from historical events, including Operation Babylift and how the global nail polish industry is largely driven by former Vietnamese refugees, to sift through the layers of pain and trauma — revealing the invincibility of the human spirit.
Em is on the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist. The shortlist will be announced on Oct. 5, 2021 and the winner will be announced on Nov. 8, 2021.
Thúy spoke with CBC Books about writing the novel.
How does it feel to be on the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist for Em?
Every time that I get to be nominated for something, I call my parents to let them know. And every time, their first reaction is, "OK, now you know that you have to work harder to deserve this honour." To them, an award nomination is never to confirm what you've done, it's something that you have to deserve. To them, an award has prestige only if you continue to perform well after receiving it.
Every time that I get to be nominated for something, I call my parents to let them know.
So I will have to keep on going!
What is Em about, in your own words?
Em is about love. I hope readers will feel the same way after reading it. It's also about beauty. Each time I write, I try to only share beauty. Most of the time, beauty can be best seen when we put it in context — particularly in light of atrocity or horror.
That's where beauty is more important. That's where beauty will reveal itself even more. In this case, the context is Operation Babylift, which was about evacuating thousands of orphans from Saigon in April 1975. But I also have to explain where these babies came from. I had to go back to the American War and also the French IndoChina period.
But then I wanted to talk about nail polish! I had to take these kids into that industry as well. So it's about the journey of the Vietnamese during these years.
How conscious are you of the theme when you write?
I had done a lot of research for Em. But the reality of what happened during that time was so harsh that I would go to bed crying. I would wake up feeling like I was drowning in my tears. During those moments, I cannot write. I don't allow myself to write from anger or frustration — I have to wait. And so I find beauty.
Em is about love. I hope readers will feel the same way after reading it.
Every story I tell, it's in order to bring out like that small ray of light.
Em is also very much about the power of perspective. You mentioned "The American War." In the West, it's known as "The Vietnam War." It's also known as "the Second Indochina War." What is your take on perspective in writing historical fiction?
I try to look at various points of view — because nobody is wrong in this. The Americans could not call that war anything other than the Vietnam War — and the same for the Vietnamese calling it the American War.
I'm trying to tell this story where nobody is wrong — but then everybody is wrong at the same time. In the context of war, war is never right. War has never solved anything. All war creates is the victims, that's all you have.
What compels you to write stories about the burdens and horrors of the past — even at the potential cost of your emotional well-being?
I hope that I have succeeded at covering this war. If you change the word "Vietnam" to "Afghanistan" — or Saigon to Kabul — it still applies. This is not going back, in my mind — this is still what's happening. We need to know that we are human and we are born with cruelty, with jealousy, will these things make us do wrong things.
I want to remind us that yes, we're capable of being cruel but we can choose to be kind. We forget that we're also capable of grand gestures in everyday life. So the context is almost an accessory to what I'm trying to say.
WATCH | Cameron Bailey defends Ru on Canada Reads:
Despite the horror in the novel, you are intentional about leading with love. Why?
Some of us are lucky in that we don't encounter or suffer through horrors and atrocity. But we all have a chance to experience beauty, at least once. So when I share with the reader a horror or a horrible situation, I think the reader will understand it on a cerebral level. But when you talk about beauty, we've all seen a blue sky, smelled a beautiful flower or eaten something sweet at least once in our life. We all understand what beauty is. So when I talk about beauty, then we're linked right away from the gut and from the heart. Once that you do, you connect with the other person from the heart and not from the head.
Some of us are lucky in that we don't encounter or suffer through horrors and atrocity. But we all have a chance to experience beauty, at least once.
That's why I give myself the right to use beauty to have a conversation.
Given your extensive body of work and critical acclaim, how do you define success?
It's funny: the word success is not something we use in the Vietnamese language. And I still have kids at home. I still have to wash the toilet bowl, because they are boys! I'm so happy to have this privilege to sit down and write and play with words and stories and pretend that it's work!
Kim Thúy's comments have been edited for length and clarity.
