Vu Tran (1) (1975–)

I'm not sure if I really loved this book or if it was just so different than everything I've read recently that I loved the novelty, but this was an incredibly enjoyable audiobook listen.

Vu Tran is an Vietnamese-American writer who wrote about a white cop that believes himself to be in love with is ex-wife, a Vietnamese-American woman. The racial identities feel important because throughout this story, there's a sort of underlying discussion about what makes interracial relationships show more difficult. And while this phenom isn't unique to white men, through this white male protagonist, Tran shows us how a man can claim to love a woman without really knowing her, how he can claim to love her while also hurting her. We also get a very keen sense of this white man's entitlement, of his inclination to forgive himself of his sins while also judging others (all Vietnamese people) of the same sins extremely harshly. His lack of self-awareness is...*chefs kiss*. Near the end of the book, a Vietnamese man calls our protagonist "pathetic" and I'd wholeheartedly agree. He's just another entitled white cop with daddy issues. But I loved reading about him.

What I like about Tran's writing though is that he plays it very straight. He writes the protagonist like a hero because the protagonist sees himself as a hero. He does things that make him unlikeable to me, but it didn't feel like the author was forcing that "unlikeable" characteristic on the hero, he was just telling the facts.

I also loved Suzy as a second protagonist. She falls into the "bad mom" trope that I love. She is a complex woman who never really let marriage or motherhood completely consume her. And it seemed like her core desire was to be understood, which was hard because of her complexity. We spend most of the book watching this cop make every effort to hunt her down and understand her, while also getting stories from Suzy about her past.

This was the first neo-noir I read and I could see myself reading a lot more. show less

Vu Tran tackles an American immigrant theme by loosely adopting multiple noir conventions, but ultimately tells a refugee tale. There is a tough and dedicated detective (Robert), a mysterious damsel in distress (Suzy/Hong), a dangerous husband (Sonny) and a suitcase filled with money. The setting is suitably seedy (Vegas) with dangerous tough guys and an abandoned child in a taut action-filled story. Most of this seems like window dressing because Tran’s main goal is to focus on Suzy’s show more strange behavior that derives from the trauma she experienced during the fall of Saigon, the loss of her husband and her ultimate flight with daughter, Mai, to a refugee camp in Malaysia. She is unable to reconcile her past with her present in America and this manifests as an inability to connect with the people she loves.

Her relationship with Robert represents her present as an American, while that with Sonny is her embracing a Vietnamese past. Ultimately both relationships fail, leaving Suzy confused, adrift and clinging to one possible sustaining relationship—Mai, the daughter she brought out of Vietnam but inexplicably later abandoned. Robert is unfailingly optimistic and seems to need stability (e.g., he abandons a promising career as a detective to become a beat cop.) Sonny, on the other hand, is a gambler with a violent streak, much like the Vietnam war zone she fled. Mai is also a gambler but with a highly analytical mind. She seems to have successfully navigated adaptation to America with her successful career as a poker player.

Although both Robert and Suzy narrate the story, the key elements actually arise from Suzy’s secret diary, a series of notes she writes and multiple long letters she writes to Mai while holed up in a seedy Vegas hotel. Her memories of events in Vietnam seem clear, but her reactions to them are often baffling to herself and to others. This leads to spousal abuse and estrangement from her daughter. Flight seems to be Suzy’s default mode: in addition to fleeing Vietnam, she also flees Mai, Robert and Sonny. Suzy’s fate is left unresolved, but it is not easy to be optimistic about her future based on past performance.

Although there is much in the novel that is quite enjoyable (e.g., the noir elements, the characterization of the difficulty that refugees traumatized by war can have coming to terms with their experiences), Tran seems satisfied with leaving many loose ends in his story. Ultimately, Suzy is a cipher. Much of her strange behavior is left unresolved and since Tran never explores her thoughts at the time of the action, it is impossible for the reader to understand her rationales. That seems to be an intentional plot element but can seem like just lazy writing. When Robert persists in finding her diary and letters as a way to understand her, Mai tells him, "The story is still incomplete. It will always be incomplete. Live with it." One expects more than this from a totally satisfying reading experience. show less

A classic noir with a literary inner life. Really explores how sometimes we really don't know those we think are closest to us, and what drives them. Follows all the conventions of the noir, with a not-always-that-sharp protagonist, the femme fatale and a gangster. All the characters have flaws. But also explores the impacts of being a refugee / immigrant and how one traumatic event can shape your life in ways not always visible to others. And I just love book cover design...

I know that the noir mystery has been around for a long time. I know there’s a sort of “recipe” for writing one, but I also know that Dragonfish is done well. With flashbacks to life in Viet Nam and the escape on the boat connecting the story to a missing wife in Las Vegas, the author shows his worth. His writing is straightforward---just what I like in a cop mystery. I look forward to more writing by this debut author.