On December 13th, at Nam Thi House (152 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia Street, Saigon Ward, Ho Chi Minh City), Du But Company organized a book launch and discussion event for "La Vie est Belle - Life Is Still Beautiful" (Vietnam Women's Publishing House). This is a graphic memoir – an autobiographical comic book, a genre that is rapidly developing worldwide thanks to its ability to convey profound emotions through images and dialogue.
Le Thu is a female illustrator living and teaching in Ho Chi Minh City and is also a familiar name through many publications such as: Cloud Pillow (2013), Chicken in Love with Traditional Music (2014), Tiger's Bakery (2015), Ancient Beautiful Words (2023), Sending to You (2022), Blindfolded Cat Catching (2023), Cat Chasing Mouse (2023). Notably, among these is my Saigon (2018), which was awarded the B prize at the 2020 National Book Awards.
La Vie est Belle is a slice of real life told through an artistic lens, full of personal emotion and empathy for the reader. The story begins when the main character, a young woman, faces a psychological crisis after her seemingly perfect relationship unexpectedly ends. Unable to endure the long, exhausting days of medication, work pressure, and feelings of abandonment, she decides to leave the city and seek refuge in a place with a poetic name: the La Vie est Belle summer camp.
Far from the city, across giant wind turbine fields, past cloud-making facilities and star-filled storage... La Vie est Belle became the starting point for a journey of self-salvation. At La Vie, adults have the opportunity to shed their familiar shells, learn to untangle their hearts, and see the world once again through the eyes of a child.
The most endearing and memorable aspects of the book are the children who appear at the summer camp: each with their own personality, no two alike. The work doesn't idealize childhood, but rather realistically portrays the diversity and variability in children's emotions – they argue, get angry with each other, and then a few minutes later they're playing together as if nothing ever happened.
The most beautiful thing is that in the world of La Vie est Belle , it is the adults who need to relearn how to live. Watching the children happily making masks, brewing tea from herbs, drawing paper dolls, hugging each other and bursting into laughter over a joke... both the main character and the reader realize that happiness doesn't lie in anything grand. Just being yourself, being loved without having to prove anything, being forgiven for mistakes – that is already a beautiful life.
Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/tu-truyen-bang-tranh-cuoc-doi-van-dep-sao-nhac-nho-nguoi-lon-hoc-cach-yeu-thuong-tu-tre-nho-post828507.html
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