Shadows and Wind: A View of Modern Vietnam

I think anyone who has spent any time in Vietnam will recognise so much in this book. I went back to what I used to think of as my homeland but now I no longer feel at home there and this book made me understand why. This beautiful cultured country is laboring under a system that still tries to crush people rather than help them. This book sometimes paints a gloomy picture of what the communist party has done but it also captures the spirit of the Vietnamese in the chapters on food, arts and religion.Those reviewers who have attacked this book seem to be people who have never been to Vietnam and are no position to know whether the book is accurate or not. Their aggressive attacks are motivated more by ignorance and spite than any knowledge of the country. One strangely complains that Mr. Templer says he knows everything because he is lived in the country three years but this is from a person who has clearly never been there and knows nothing about the country. This books is detailed and a little dense but no other book available today comes close to giving a sense of life in Vietnam and an understanding of the culture and people and government. Read this if you really want to know about the country.

Shadows and Wind is among the best books about my homeland that I've ever read. It really brings to life the country and the issues it faces and it is written with a depth of knowledge that I am surprised a non-Vietnamese could learn. This is one of the most important books about the country written in recent years and the first that views it through the eyes of Vietnamese rather than through the view of Americans and people who fought in the war. Parts of this book made me cry when I understood how much people in Vietnam still have to endure. This is a book for the post-War Vietnam, nto for those who only see the country through the war or those who still view it through the ignorant lens of Hollywood and American war books.

For those expecting a soft-focus tourist travelogue vision of Vietnam, this may not be the book for you but if you want to read a really penetrating, insightful book about Vietnam and Vietnamese culture this is the best book to come along in a long time. It is illuminating, well written and covers so much about Vietnam from its food to religion to literature to politics to art and popular culture. For Vietnamese it is surprising that a non-Vietnamese learned so much about the country. Most books by foreigners about Vietnam are terrible. This is the exception in that the author really seems to have listened to people and reflects the real situation in Vietnam today, not just the tourist view or the government's propaganda.

Since I am a Vietnamese, I am speaking from a Vietnamese perspective. Unless you can read Vietnamese, this is the best book that you can find written about Vietnam in recent years. I find that Mr. Templer's knowledge about Vietnamese literature, politics, culture is extraordinary. He quotes a lot of Vietnamese poems and literature that are unknown to a regular Vietnamese unless he/she is highly educated. His stories reflect the truth of what is happening in Vietnam right now unlike the info that are published by the Vietnamese government. When I read those books, I feel like they are talking about life in another planet. So if you want accurate info on current Vietnamese life, then you should read Robert Templer's book. An excellent book from any point of view. I highly recommend it.

I am preparing a trip to Vietnam and I have been reading several publications on Vietnam and the Vietnamese people. I have to say that this book is so far the most revealing and objective account of Vietnam, it's recent history, and the trials and joys of it's people that I have read. It's incredibly refreshing to read something that so objectively discusses the many influences Vietnamese culture has endured in the past 50 years. Hopefully many will find that this book finally allows them to see the Vietnamese and their history from a perspective outside the American invasion.