After Sorrow: An American Among the Vietnamese - Hardcover

Borton, Lady

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670843326 ISBN 13: 9780670843329

Publisher: Viking Adult, 1995

Synopsis

A memoir commemorates the twentieth anniversary of the fall of Saigon and recalls the stories of women in the struggle against the French, from a young intellectual to an eighty-one-year-old peasant who stitched the national flag in 1940. 20,000 first printing. $17,500 ad/promo. Tour.

About this title

About the Author:

Lady Borton is now field director of the American Friends Service Committee in Ha Noi.

From Publishers Weekly:

As an administrator for the Friends Service Committee in Quang Ngai Province, Borton (Sensing the Enemy: An American Among the Boat People of Vietnam) was one of the few Americans to work in both South and North Vietnam during the war. Much later, 1987-1993, she lived in Vietnamese villages, including a former Viet Cong base where women played a prominent role during the war. Her beautifully modulated memoir is less about the war itself than about the unique character of the village women: their formalized social interaction, use of traditional medicine, food-gathering and preparation and the Buddhist beliefs that guide their behavior. Borton's gently compelling narrative follows the rhythm of the seasons and weather patterns and records the jarring advent of Western-style consumerism with the appearance of jeans, tennis shoes, motorcycles and VCRs. Describing her life in Hanoi ("Vietnam's largest village"), where in 1990 she opened a Quaker Service office, she conveys her great affection for its hurly-burly pace. The author conversed with Vietnamese women fluently in their own language and thus is able to present fuller portraits than could be found elsewhere in English. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking Adult
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0670843326
• ISBN 13: 9780670843329
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304