‘The Gangster’ of Prose
Jason Andrea

In 1978 a splintered refugee family washed up on the sun-kissed beaches of San Diego. A sea odyssey. For the sake of survival, and a better life. From the South China Sea to America. That was the ultimate decision by Ba. And one that would define his small family forever. Landing in the mundane, lackluster apartment community of Linda Vista, San Diego, the family begins to assimilate.

It seems as though the plight of the refugee will always be part of America’s narrative. The journey of the refugee is destined to leave in its wake scratches and scrapes, sometimes death, and often, broken pieces in the lives of those who’ve made the bold and dangerous decision to reset their lives in places remote, unfamiliar, and very far from home. In The Gangster We Are All Looking For, written in 2003, Le Thi Diem Thuy (lay tee yim twee), shares with us her story.

Drawn from real events in the author’s life, she writes this fictional account, as disclosed through the eyes of a pensive little girl. She chronicles a series of cultural confrontations that contrast the foreignness of America, with the soothing, and sometimes painful, memories of home. Underneath the raucous facade of the little girl, smolders a strong connection to Vietnam. A tenuous, but enduring lifeline from which she cannot escape, and one that often leaves her feeling fundamentally alone.

The style and tone of the writing gives us the sense that we are observing the events, instead of being told about them. Throughout the work, as if by secrets whispered under a blanket between friends and flashlights, she opens her heart and employs soft, lyrical phrases that channel us back to our own childhood. She tells of her mother, Ma, a Catholic schoolgirl from South Vietnam, who years ago was swept off her feet by a young, Buddhist gangster from the North. The gangster went on to become her father, Ba. She conveys her parents’ courtship as a tale of epic love with phrases like “His name becomes a tree she presses her body against…. When she utters her own name, it is the second half of a verse that begins with his.” But the relationship was doomed in her grandparents’ eyes, and so her mother fled with the gangster to begin a new life. But the allure of adventurous love is not always as polished and sparkling as it first appears. As the story begins in Linda Vista, the gangster has already disappeared into himself, and the Catholic schoolgirl is struggling under her own burdens. Burdens that have left her sullen, and haunted, and passing the days in a characterless new home by the sea. We often find her brooding near water, as if contemplating the life she left behind across the outstretched sea. And of the author herself, “I trail behind them, the tip of their dragon’s tail. I am drawn along, like a silken banner on the body of a kite.”

Multiple themes are touched upon during the story. Alcoholism, lost love, cultural barriers, and loss, to name a few. But perhaps the theme that left a more lasting impression came about a day, or so, after I had finished the book. In a quiet, more subtle manner, as the title states, the Ba character, the harsh, detached father of the little girl, settled upon me allowing for a deeper understanding and empathy on my part. It became clear that he was most likely suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, which is, most assuredly, a universal idea. “My first memory of my father’s face,” she remembers, “is framed by the coiling barbed wire of a military camp in South Vietnam.” Ba, a former soldier in the North Vietnamese army, also sacrificed greatly, and, like many U.S. soldiers, was ultimately transformed, and left to pick up the scattered pieces of himself, his family, and his life. “Ma says war is a bird with a broken wing flying over the countryside, trailing blood and burying crops in sorrow. If something grows in spite of this, it is both a curse and a miracle.”

But this is not a tragic story of epic pain and hardship. On the contrary, depicted is, seemingly, a very ‘normal’ family. And Thuy gives us insights through an easy and enjoyable weaving of thoughts and experiences that read more like a childlike memoir than that of a heavy saga. The little girl is an observer of life and of herself, an artist. She regards inanimate objects and figurines with beatific admiration. One day, she becomes captivated by a butterfly encased in glass. She sees herself as the butterfly and manages to destroy an entire display case full of glass figurines in an attempt to free the solidified specimen. “The whole world is two butterfly wings rubbing against my ear,” she writes. Crafted in savory prose, the story moves along with visually opulent ebbs and flows, much like a dream. Thuy uses imagery of mystical simplicity to tell of things like war, a first kiss, and mythical love. The plot glides with continuity, dancing between past and present, in a mildly disjointed, though never fractured, chronology. At it’s heart ‘The Gangster’ is a series of relatable glimpses into what could be the remembrances that have shaped any one of our lives. From a personal perspective, perhaps this is what made the character of the little girl so endearing and reachable.

In a sense, we are all just fisherman. Alone in a squid boat, at night, under an umbrella of stars. Our hope is illuminated on the calm surface of the South China Sea. In the glow of dangling lights, we wait for love, sustenance, or whatever happens upon our nets. In the end, it is left for the reader to decide whether or not the little girl begins to escape the burdens of her past on that fateful day when she hurled the glass butterfly through the air. Does she finally untangle the enigma of her family, and discover the gangster she is looking for? Perhaps more importantly, just getting close to her is reward enough. Her rambunctious antics and rebellious spirit, are more than eclipsed by her poetic, ceaselessly searching soul. “Slowly and firmly,” she states, “they pressed against my sleep, the Catholic schoolgirl and the gangster, two dogs chasing each other’s tails. They have been running like this for so long, they have become one dog, one tail.”

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Created Feb 15, 2017 at 10:15pm • Submit your own review...