Dust Child by Nguyen Phan Que Mai

 

In this novel, the issue of those children born of Vietnamese mothers and American soldiers during the Vietnam war is explored.  Most of these children were left behind by the soldiers some of whom never knew they had a child.  Others were born of one night stands when women working in bars to keep their families afloat became pregnant, often without knowing who the father was.  These children were often abandoned by their mothers as well, left at orphanages or just deserted to make their way on the streets.  They were called 'dust child' as their survival was as tenuous as dust and their relationship to any family the same.

Dan and his wife Linda have come back to Vietnam forty years after he was there as a young man.  Although he and Linda had been engaged, Dan was so lonely and distraught while there that he formed a relationship with Kim, a bar girl who fell in love with him.  He paid for an apartment for her but when she told him they were going to have a baby, he went ahead and returned to the United States after his service without seeing her again.  Now he has come back and he knows he must tell Linda about that time and try to find Kim and his child.

Phong is one of the dust children.  He was left as a baby in a sling up in a tree outside the orphanage.  Raised by a nun there, he was forced out on his own at twelve when she died.  Phong was the child of an African-American soldier and a Vietnamese mother.  He now has his own wife and children and has tried several times to get papers to go to America and try to find his father.  He meets Dan and Linda and they try to help each other.

This is a heartbreaking book that explores a topic that has been ignored too long.  Children are often the longest lasting victims of war and that is definitely the case for these children who were often denied any education or training that allowed them to make a living.  American soldiers were often left with guilt and secrets they felt they could never share.  Although a real problem, it is often a hidden one and readers will be exposed to sadness they never knew existed.  This book is recommended to readers interested in other cultures and in family stories.