Book description
When it first appeared in 1987, the title story of this collection of stories by Nguyen Huy Thiep caused a sensation in Vietnam. Not since the Communist revolution had readers found as stark and compelling a view of their world as The General Retires offered them. Written in spare, succinct…
Why read it?
1 author picked The General Retires and Other Stories as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Most North Vietnamese soldiers were of peasant background and believed in the sacred cause for which they fought. Then came the end of the war and, eventually, economic reforms. The old general is lost in this new consumerist society, his devotion to egalitarian ideals mocked by his children.
From Hue-Tam's list on The best books for someone who grew up in wartime Vietnam in a family of anti-colonial activists.
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