“My characters and stories are often considered too complicated, following neither moral nor cultural standards. People also complain that my writing is difficult to read—that if only Chinatown was divided into paragraphs, chapters, if the timelines were not jumbled up together, or if I didn’t joke around. . . But like everywhere else, the Vietnamese society of today—one with nearly one hundred million people—also has to deal with problems such as unemployment, corruption, prostitution, sense of alienation, and loneliness. Not to mention the characteristic oppression of the communist regime and the hard-to-heal wounds left by successive wars. All of this has made Vietnam a rich material and a complex subject.”
Full interview on Asymptote Journal. A hearty thank for Phương Anh who arranged, conducted, and then gracefully translated my first interview in English.