Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - The Mountains Sing

Lyrical and enchanting, The Mountains Sing tells the history of a whole country through the tale of two generations of women. A must read! Quê' Mai details a large part of the atrocities committed during the Vietnam war with painstaking care, covering everything from PTSD to the devastating impact of chemical warfare. At the same time, this story is filled with love, hope and compassion. The language is just beautiful and you can really tell that the author also writes poetry. The only issue I had with the book was that the pacing was a little off at times. The resolution came too quick, which undermined the build up that the two different time lines were supposed to set up. I think the book could have benefited from a few extra chapters, especially in Diêu Lan's perspective. My rating would be 4.5 stars if possible but will round up because I still really enjoyed it.

Content Warnings

alexhaydon's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

katie_biggs7's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Content Warnings

ktrecs's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful informative sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

The scope and breadth of this novel is ambitious, and, I think, perhaps its downfall. In trying to show so much of Viet Nam's history, the narrative jumps through time in an inconsistent way, especially in Grandma Dieu Lan's perspective. In being tailored for a unfamiliar audience, the narration includes jarring moments, especially in the first half of the novel, where the prose digresses into unnecessary historical facts and figures, breaking the stride of the novel's plot and undercutting its heart. In being written for an English-speaking audience, words in Vietnamese are almost always followed by a shoehorned definition, making the narrative voice feel clunky and inauthentic in places, especially in dialogue. At the beginning, especially in audiobook format, these peculiarities made it difficult for me to become immersed in the story and attached to the characters. It was not at all that the information was there; I am extremely grateful for the context and knowledge, just that I felt that the more non-fiction elements were less thematically successful and articulated with less poise and beauty, than the emotional core of the novel.

But by the 50% mark, I was hooked. I have trouble DNFing books and books like this are exactly why. Had I decided to set this book aside I'd have missed the growth and nuance in the later half. All throughout, the prose is alternatively lush and crushing, evocative and tender. Each scene is built with such precision and care. Each generation of the Tran family is weaved carefully into the structure of the novel, part epistolary, part oral tradition, stories upon stories, realistic and compelling. As Hương ages and time inexorably moves forward, the tale becomes more intimate somehow. The poetic close of the novel drew its themes together perfectly, leaving us with a vision of hope and peace even throughout the dark events laid out in the past. The intimacy of it brings the personal into the political in an unforgettable way.

Nguyen Phan Que Mai's voice is clear, profound and powerful, and I will certainly look forward to encountering it again.

Content Warnings

More...