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| Short story collection "Green Moss Window" , Thuan Hoa Publishing House, March 2023. |
I have been reading Le Ha for about 2 years now, starting from the green prose of love for life, for plants and flowers, then to the short stories passionate about women, sparkling with the happy light at the end of the road. Suddenly, I was surprised why there was such a profound writing style. It was as if the sorrows and miseries of the world were collected by this female writer into her works in a bitter but light way. Sometimes when I read Ha, I feel a certain clarity in each slice of fate, in each fateful perspective.
After many co-published books, it was not until the beginning of April that Le Ha released her first collection of short stories, “The Green Moss Door” (Thuan Hoa Publishing House). The collection of short stories includes 23 works by a female writer who is at the peak of her literary power. Le Ha brings a peaceful memory to readers. Although the doors the author opens are all filled with thoughts about life, fate, destiny and human nature, they are always filled with deep love, bustling with the sounds of life, and blooming with green buds.
Once a reporter, then a freelance writer and now struggling with a terrible disease, literature is like a spiritual medicine for this young girl to have more faith in life. The Hue girl with her smooth, soaring but very honest and simple way of using words has led the reader through many stories as if somewhere the reader is the character, or at least has seen and heard them. Right in the short story used as the title of the whole collection, Le Ha tells the story of an old couple waiting for their child to the point of heartache. In the midst of the nostalgia of that old age, the old woman still meticulously cooks a pot of dried fish so that the children who come over will have something to bring home. Is the fish cooked too much with the spicy chili or is it the old woman's longing for her children and grandchildren from her past life that makes her tears fall? No delicacy can make up for the void of compassion in the elderly.
6 years ago, facing the line between life and death, Le Ha chose to fight to the end with cancer. Only after she gradually started to feel better did this Hue girl share with her friends. Ha always had a desire to live, to accept and adapt to her fate. Le Ha chose literature to open her heart. Literature also chose Ha to spread the value of life. Live like the birds that still chirp every morning. Live like the flowers that endure the sun and rain storms but still give life their brilliant colors. Live like the earth that is never cruel to people. Live like the fate of the grass that is bruised but still green on the hillsides. And live as if understanding the philosophy that there is no peace without going through the vicissitudes of life, without tasting the sour, the spicy, the salty, the bitter, and the sorrowful. Only then will the peace be a brilliant peace.
Le Ha chose a voice that seemed to whisper to the readers. Sitting together, making a cup of tea, opening each window, this is the window with the chirping of birds, those bustling sounds turned out to be a way to heal An, the girl in the story "The Sparrows on the Tile Roof" , after a stormy life of her fate. Or like Thao in "Thong dong ngoai noi co" , it was the smell of the soil that made her choose to return to her mother, to her homeland to see that love is always waiting. Only people leave their homeland, but the homeland never leaves its people. The pungent smell of the soil is the unforgettable memory of any child of the countryside. The city is green and red with colorful lights, luxurious and splendid, but in reality, those reinforced concrete blocks never give us a taste of the homeland. And as long as we still remember the smell of the soil, then we still have the homeland in our hearts. Only those who love their homeland can deeply feel the nostalgia for the land and crave its taste and seek it out.
Le Ha brings healing to her readers, because I believe that for young people of this era, the story of food, clothing, and money revolves them into a machine with all kinds of oppressive pressures. In fact, the lightness of life in Le Ha's short stories is what makes people remember this female writer the most. Le Ha does not choose a writing style that is full of details, thorny sentences, or inserting situations. Le Ha chooses a style of narrating the story in a leisurely and rhythmic manner. Until the last page of the book, I thought I was sitting with Le Ha in a house full of windows, each window Le Ha opened would be a story that this Hue girl whispered to me. Slowly, just enough to hear, just enough to like, just enough to love, and just enough to remember. Remembering to then breathe lightly in the midst of the hustle and bustle of life. The lighter the breath, the more leisurely the life.
Le Ha published this collection of stories after days of struggling with major surgery, with chemotherapy, with the haunting of an unannounced departure. Yet readers cannot find a gloomy space, a gray background, or any negative details. They only see a vast green color in 23 short stories, spanning nearly 200 pages, I believe that is an extraordinary, persistent optimism. I think Le Ha loves this life very much. And I also believe that when readers have the chance to encounter Le Ha's words, they will also love this brave little Hue girl. Love like a person who knows how to love others.
Le Ha's real name is Le Thi Ngoc Ha, she used to be a reporter for the Vietnam Law Newspaper, now she is a freelance writer. She has won several awards from Thanh Nien Newspaper, Tuoi Tre Newspaper, and the Propaganda Department of the Thua Thien Hue Provincial Party Committee. She is currently completing the collection of essays "The Smell of Smoke in the Kitchen" and "Sunshine Through the Porch" |
TONG PHUOC BAO
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