Flesh

by Khanh Ha, Ha Khanh

Overview

The setting is Tonkin (northern Vietnam) at the turn of the 20th century. A boy, Tai, witnesses the beheading of his father, a notorious bandit, and sets out to recover his head and then to find the man who betrayed his father to the authorities. On this quest, Tai's entire world will shift. FLESH takes the reader into dark and delightful places in the human condition, places where allies are not always your friends, true love hurts, and your worst enemy may bring you the most comfort. In that emotionally harrowing world, Tai must learn to deal with new responsibilities in his life while at the same time acknowledge his bond, and his resemblance, to a man he barely knew-his father. Through this story of revenge is woven a another story, one of love, but love purchased with the blood of murders Tai commits. A coming-of-age story, but also a love story, the sensuality of the author's writing style belies the sometimes brutal world he depicts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780930773885
Publisher:	Black Heron Press
Publication date:	06/15/2012
Edition description:	First Edition, First edition
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.70(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Khanh Ha was born in Hue, the former capital of Vietnam. During his teen years, he began writing short stories which won several awards in Vietnamese adolescent magazines. He graduated from Ohio University (Athens, Ohio) with a bachelor's degree in Journalism. Flesh is his first novel. He is at work on another novel. Khanh Ha was born in Hue, the former capital of Vietnam. During his teen years, he began writing short stories which won several awards in Vietnamese adolescent magazines. He graduated from Ohio University (Athens, Ohio) with a bachelor's degree in Journalism. Flesh is his first novel. He is at work on another novel.

Editorial Reviews

Vietnam-born Ha’s beautifully described yet murkily executed first novel, set in his native country at the turn of the 20th century, opens with an infamous yet respected bandit being beheaded in front of his wife and their two young sons. This beginning casts a pall over the tale as Tai, the eldest son, embarks on a far-reaching journey to retrieve his father’s skull, find a suitable burial site, and seek revenge on the man who betrayed his father’s trust. Through a series of twists and turns—some more developed than others—Tai trades two years’ service to a wealthy entrepreneur for land on which to bury the father’s remains. During that time, Tai loses his heart to Xiaoli, an indentured servant working in an opium den, and will do anything—including holding off on vengeance and killing a French soldier—to protect her. In this dark, violent, and poetic saga, with disjointed cinematic vignettes that make it often read like a screenplay, characters are not who they seem. While this makes for a thrilling finale, what lingers more than the somewhat weak plot is Ha’s descriptive prose. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"‘Flesh’ is a strong addition to any historical fiction collection, much recommended.” — Midwest Book Review


“In this dark, violent, and poetic saga, with disjointed cinematic vignettes that make it often read like a screenplay, characters are not who they seem. While this makes for a thrilling finale, what lingers . . . is Ha’s descriptive prose.” — Publisher’s Weekly


“Readers who enjoy epic sagas set in faraway lands will find absorbing satisfaction.” — Library Journal

“Set in late-nineteenth-century ancestor-worshipping Annam (later to become Viet Nam), Flesh tells the remarkable story of one boy’s quest to reunite his bandit father’s skull with his bones and bury them together in ‘a lucky hole.’ The horrifying opening scene of his father’s beheading is so realistic it make me feel I was in the crowd, watching.

“The story continues with a fascinating journey laced with authentic details of a time and place that used to be, a world of geomancers, spirit dancers, river pirates and opium addicts, of simmering resentment toward converted Catholics, ancient cures like the dead eel rotting in a smallpox victim’s bed, a world where magical burial holes bring fortune to the dead one’s children.

“Author Khanh Ha is particularly good with sounds an smells: from sweat and rain and incense and the smacking of dry lips, to the sounding of the village gong and spicy odor of beetles in the forest.

“Anyone looking for a gripping adventure story combined with a painless history lesson is going to love this novel.” — Joanna Catherine Scott, author of Indochina’s Refugees: Oral Histories from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam and Charlie: a novel of Vietnam.

“Good historical fiction allows a reader to enter another time and place. However, Khanh Ha’s Flesh goes further, not only creating a rich portrait of late nineteenth century northern Vietnam, but presenting a hero who is entirely a product of that world, violent and tender. His story is more than a period piece. It is grounded in his own loyalties, his desires, and his slow understanding of the secrets of the human heart.

“I was particularly impressed by the voice of the narrator—and he really was a hero—and the way we learned about life then without being told, just by inhabiting his consciousness. The vivid descriptions of things, like the door in that courtyard that keeps appearing, keep coming back to me. I also loved that yellow monkey! But really, none of it could be real to me unless it was tied to that narrator.” — Simone Zelitch, author of The Confession of Jack Straw, Moses in Sinai, and Louisa

From the Publisher

Set mostly in turn-of-the-20th-century Hanoi, this debut novel begins and ends with gruesome beheadings. Bearing witness to both executions is Tài, a poor teenage village boy quickly forced into manhood. In an effort to reclaim his betrayed bandit father's severed head and finance an auspicious burial, Tài spends the next year on an odyssey about his father, their troubled family, and his own unsure self. Indentured to a geomancer who sells his contract to a wealthy Chinese merchant, Tài glimpses the backstreet Hanoi life of opium dens, desperate coolies, and the lawless rich—and has his first experience of falling in love, which incites his own vengeful violence. VERDICT Written in a cowboyish twang filled with "yup," "ain't," "em," and "gonna"—possibly meant to simulate the vernacular of the day—the novel never quite loses its anachronistic feel. One more edit might have trimmed some of the meandering passages and extraneous characters, but the fast-paced story pushes briskly to the finish. Readers who enjoy epic sagas set in faraway lands will find absorbing satisfaction here.—Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC

Library Journal