Writer To Nhuan Vy (second from right) presents personal artifacts to National Archives Center III.

The pages of war literature

Writer To Nhuan Vy was born in Mai Vinh village, Vinh Xuan commune, Phu Vang district, but followed his parents to the North when he was young. His life was a dedication to two parallel creative streams of literature and journalism, which made people highly respect him.

In the early days, To Nhuan Vy wrote in many genres such as poetry, memoirs, notes, but only articles rich in literary quality. From 1969, after the short story "The First Patrol" won the Literature and Arts Newspaper Award, he had three collections of short stories released to readers: "Nguoi Song Huong" (1970), "Em Be Lang Dao" (1971), "Lang Thuc" (1973).

The work that made To Nhuan Vy famous in the literary world is the 3-volume novel "The Calm River" about the fight of the Hue army and people in the General Offensive and Uprising in the Spring of Mau Than 1968. This novel was written when he was not yet 27 years old, nearly 2,000 pages, published in 1974, reprinted 6 times and made into a film of the same name by Vietnam Television Film Studio. Although it is a novel about war, it is not noisy, not only full of historical data but also goes deep into each person's fate with To Nhuan Vy's calm, thoughtful and humane style, different from many epic war novels of the same period.

After the country's reunification, writer To Nhuan Vy published several more impressive novels, such as: Suburbs (1982); The Other Side is the Horizon (1988); Deep Region (2012)... His novels received major awards: Type A Award from the People's Committee of Binh Tri Thien Province for the novel "Suburbs"; Type A Ancient Capital Literature and Arts Award for the novel "The Other Side is the Horizon"... In 2012, he was awarded the State Prize for Literature and Arts.

Cultural competence of a journalist

Although he had published many novels, he still said: "Compared to many other writers, the number of my books is too small." That is understandable because the positions he held: Editor-in-Chief of Song Huong Magazine; General Secretary, Chairman of the Literature and Arts Association, Director of the Department of Foreign Affairs... dominated all of his time. Song Huong Magazine during his time as Editor-in-Chief was famous throughout the country. At that time, Song Huong's policy was "Writing about the old must be profound, the new must be strong and look out to the world ."

He sent reporters to write series of articles that caused great public opinion, such as: “Story in Thuy Thanh” (author Nguyen Quang Ha) about the loss of democracy in Thuy Thanh; or attractive topics of life, such as: “Following the shark fishing boat” (author Vinh Nguyen)… Song Huong Magazine created “shocks” in the press, making readers all over the country always look forward to it. The magazine printed 5,000 copies and sold out, sometimes having to reprint copies to meet the needs of readers. He made the “provincial” Song Huong Magazine become a national-level magazine.

At that time, he also had the foresight to find a way to bring the Ca Hue troupe to perform in the US while our country was under a strict US embargo. He was also the first person to connect Hue with the William Joiner Center - University of Massachusetts, thereby "connecting" the Vietnam Writers Association , creating the premise for the process of integrating Vietnamese literature into the US. He also campaigned for Thua Thien Hue province to reserve the most prestigious positions for the art of Diem Phung Thi and Le Ba Dang from France to Hue.

In 2014, he published the book "Cultural Courage", including articles and essays recording a long period of time on the path he has traveled, providing new perspectives, highlighting many pressing issues in society, culture, economics and politics.

Besides his literary career, he also had a journalism career that made great contributions to Hue and Vietnam, through his dedication and inspiration.

Willpower and love

Two years ago, he suddenly suffered a stroke, making it difficult for him to move and speak clearly. Refusing to accept his illness, he practiced walking and speaking every day. The coffee shop on Nguyen Truong To Street is where he practiced talking. At the age of over 80, he still plays with both young and old people because of his generosity, openness, and youthfulness, which is rare for his age. Many people are happy when he gradually regains his ability to express himself clearly.

In the conversation with me, writer To Nhuan Vy talked a lot about the love of family members and friends. Suddenly, I remembered one of his characters during the war saying: “If we don’t even have love anymore, what will we use to fight against the Americans?”. Realizing in him, the idea of ​​love is not only a way of behaving during the war, but it has been forever, in every aspect of his life, he lived, devoted himself and inspired…

Ho Dang Thanh Ngoc

Source: https://huengaynay.vn/van-hoa-nghe-thuat/to-nhuan-vy-ban-linh-nguoi-truyen-lua-154762.html