With two books Three Cassia Seeds in a Sedge Basket and The Woodpecker's Winter Sonata , following the short story collections The Woman and the Piano, The Hawthorn Garden Under the Moon (Dan Tri Publishing House 2023, 2024); A Star That Never Cries (Kim Dong Publishing House, 2024), and two novels Dark Moonland, Blind Wharf (Dan Tri Publishing House 2023, 2024)... Vu Ngoc Giao has shaped her literary style with pure, simple, uncomplicated language, but what she writes is a meticulous, passionate, and sincere distillation from a heart and soul rich in love, sympathy, and sharing.
Find beauty in the midst of sadness
Choosing the short story "Three Cassia Seeds in a Sedge Basket" as the general title for his 8th book, Vu Ngoc Giao tells readers about the fates and lives of poverty and sadness.
Two new works by writer Vu Ngoc Giao: Three Cassia Seeds in a Sedge Basket and The Woodpecker's Winter Sonata
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An old man named Phenh "with an ugly face with one cheek sunken in like a socket, causing his eye to be pulled down to reveal a cloudy pupil that always seemed to be staring at others" ( A warm house in the wild garden ) or Mr. Nhót "both old and thin", "a dilapidated bicycle weighed down by his skinny legs with crisscrossed veins, his back curved as if it were rolled up in a brown shirt that had faded on the back like a white patch" ( The flute of the snake seller )... That is Mr. Du - an old fisherman at the remote Lo wharf, carrying a lifetime of anxiety, when he left his young wife and small child because he could not bear the responsibility of a reckless youth ( The endlessly flowing rivers ); the little girl Lem was twice put in an orphanage ( What childhood for Lem? ); or girls who are past their prime, pregnant out of wedlock, unable to make a living with the "wool carpet weaving" job, having to work as coolies, laundry workers ( Wild Alley )...
Those simple, hard-working people also love, also dream, and they shine with their own beautiful souls. In that sad color, there is always a sparkling fairy tale color somewhere, and the "magic" is not far away, it is tolerance and kindness. The author's delicate pen seems to be absorbed in finding these beauties of salvation. The girl "looking for her mother" - the woman abandoned at Muc wharf with her three-year-old daughter drowning in the flood is the one who soothes Mr. Du's heartache. Mr. Phenh "also has a family" with Du, De, and Vau whom he takes care of; the women in Ngo Hoang also have the joy of holding and caressing their children...
Three Cassia Seeds in a Sedge Basket is a simple, everyday fairy tale without any twists or drama. The story still attracts readers when it leads them to follow the simple, small dreams of Mrs. Tuc, and then it is very touching when she is willing to "forget" her own dreams, giving her last "magic" for her grandchild to be cured and go to school like his friends. The peaceful town also brings a beautiful picture: an old couple selling noodles on the street, the wife has lost her memory, the husband has to bring her along to take care of her, when the girl wants to draw a portrait of the old lady, the husband also wants to be in the picture, simply because "she drew my wife sitting alone and sad, she has to have me sitting next to her to be satisfied". The picture - art, or "magic" is only valuable when it sparkles with the light of human love in real life. That is the humane message that the author Vu Ngoc Giao wants to convey.
Waiting melted by love
In these two new short story collections by Vu Ngoc Giao, there is a lot of waiting and accompanying nostalgia, lingering anguish, pervading the spaces she chooses as the setting.
In The Moonlit Riverbank , the stubborn old man Muong "lives alone in a grass hut by the river, considering the ferry as his home" just because "I'm still waiting for someone... Fifty years or a hundred years, I'm still waiting". That haunting, endless wait is also lingering in The Wind Labyrinth , "She once had a marriage that broke up, now she's still alone and waiting... she's waiting for someone"... Or like Ms. Thoa who loves Uncle An, he's gone forever and never returned, even his body hasn't been found, she still keeps the scent of chestnut flowers because Uncle An likes it; the seasons of white reeds, even though she got married late after long years of hopeless waiting, she still looks forward to imagining "Uncle An coming back in the most beautiful cloud" on the late afternoon of the year when the sun is setting (Afternoon on the River is brilliant ).
Writer Vu Ngoc Giao
NVCC
If the characters in the collection of stories Three Cassia Seeds in a Straw Basket are mostly hard-working men and women, where sad lullabies and folk songs are sung, then The Woodpecker's Winter Sonata devotes many short stories to the character "her" - in which, there are glimpses of paintings and music of a different, more luxurious and also more mysterious world , sometimes cut off from the outside world. The author's pen when writing about these characters often has a dreamy color, a bit of a ghost story, making readers imagine the secrets around them, the faces that we pass by, or meet somewhere that seem unrelated to us but are actually tragedies showing that life is not as smooth as it seems ( The Crimson Velvet Curtain, The Woodpecker's Winter Sonata, The Olive Tree by the Sea... ).
Waiting is the common sound, to rise on it the levels of longing, anxiety, torment, and sadness. However, the author's narrative pen, strangely, finally brings a sense of relief: after all, those people, they have lived truly with the feelings in their hearts, lived as themselves, as their hearts told them, no matter what the outcome.
Just like the rainbow that always appears after the rain, "the clouds entwined with the rainbow suddenly turned into a radiant heart", waiting - after all, is still the silent connection of happiness, like when the man returned to the distant valley, when he held tightly the small hand of the child he never thought existed, and read the innocent letter full of trust: "I believe, one day you will return. Wait for me this spring. Apricot blossom season" ( See you in the apricot blossom season ). Vu Ngoc Giao's short stories still have "fairy tale" endings like that, making the heart warm.
Reading the two stories Three Cassia Seeds in a Sedge Bag and The Woodpecker's Winter Sonata, I suddenly thought of the story in the animated film Coco (Oscar Best Animated Feature 2018). The film tells the story of a journey to discover the meaning and value of family, connecting generations, to convey the message that "the dead will die one last time" if no one in this world remembers them. Vu Ngoc Giao's short story has a similarity in the opposite direction: people - no matter who they are, what their status, will never disappear from the memory of others as long as they are always waited for, and loyal human love is always loved and defended.
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/truyen-ngan-vu-ngoc-giao-con-thuong-con-doi-mai-con-18525060721471418.htm
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