A fictional look at life after the war and currently in Vietnam through the memory of a soup maker. It made you think of how much a person can do to make life bearable and how important relationships are for living. ( )

Really a 4.5. Beautifully told story based in Vietnam; the Partition, the War, and what happened after the war. The story is full of well developed characters with rich lives. This is a story about people who have lived hard, almost unbearably hard lives, who have never become hard or bitter. It is not a big book yet the reader gets a strong sense of each characters life and the history of this country. This is my third Vietnam book running, (Sentimentalists and Matterhorn), and it is my favorite. As another reader noted, it is nice to read a Can-Lit book with a happy ending! Be warned, the main character makes his living making and selling Pho - you will be craving some throughout the book! ( )

The novel focuses on a group of residents of Hanoi. Hung is an elderly pho merchant, moving his portable kitchen cart from location to location, but maintaining a loyal following. Tu is a young tour guide leading tourists, including American Vietnam Vets, through the city. He and his father, Binh, try to watch out for the old man. Maggie is Vietnamese by birth but raised in America. She has come to Hanoi as an art curator for a major luxury hotel; but her real purpose is to seek out clues as to what happened to her father, a dissident artist who survived a re-education camp in the 1950s.

I have to thank my F2F book club buddy for recommending this book, as I had totally missed it when it was first published. Told from multiple points of view, and moving back and forth in time, it requires some attention by the reader. I found it very atmospheric. I’ve been to Vietnam and her descriptions of the sights of Hanoi – the markets, the new construction, the lake, the restaurants and art galleries – were exactly what I remember. Gibb also perfectly captured the noise and bustle, the traffic (crossing the street!!!), the torrential rains, and the smell of pho.

My heart broke for Hung and Lan, the woman who lived in the shack next to his. I was equally touched by the heartache that Maggie faced, not knowing what happened to her father. ( )

This story takes over two time periods in Vietnam: 1950s during The Communist period when Ho Chi Minh was leader and 2008 when the country is more stable, people are not starving and families and friends are not turning each over to the Communists.

The main character Hung runs a small restaurant selling pho according to a recipe he learned from his Uncle Chien in the 1950s. His restaurant becomes a gathering place for authors and artists who welcome the equalization they anticipate with the Communist government reforms. This group. Eco es the Beauty of Humanity Movement as they anticipate a better, freer life for everyone. Among them are Dao and Lui Van Huy.

The story is about family, friendship, loyalty and forgiveness. The background of treachery and selling secrets for small privileges during the communist regime destroys the lives of many artists and authors and of close friends. Hung manages to keep and hide copies of poems and art works but these are stolen from him.
Modern day introduces us to Maggie, a Vietnamese woman who grew up in Minneapolis when her mother fled after her husband disappeared. Maggie is an art curator and she is looking for works attributable to her father Lui Van Huy.
Binh, son of Dao and father of Tu, figure prominently in the Hung’s life and then in Maggie’s. They all care for Hung who is now an old penniless pho seller with a decrepit cart who wanders around the city. His pho is the best that anyone has ever tasted and the descriptions of its creation, aroma and flavour are mouth watering.
Good story, good characters, happy ending ( )

Lovely, gentle book. Perfect for reading when on holiday in Vietnam. ( )