Library Director’s NotebookMay 2013 The Beauty of Humanity Movement by Camilla Gibb is about many...

Thu, 05/02/2013 - 1:37pm -- KChin

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Library Director’s Notebook

May 2013

The Beauty of Humanity Movement by Camilla Gibb is about many things: love, freedom, courage, forgiveness, and food!

First, let’s talk about the food.  This book, more than any other I’ve read lately ,is one that you cannot read without getting very, very hungry.  The Beauty of Humanity Movement is primarily the story of Hung, a poor man who is rich in compassion, friends, and talent, especially the talent for good, satisfying cooking.

For many years Hung has made a hard-scrabble living selling pho, a kind of broth with noodles with other flavorings that is a staple in Vietnamese cooking.  Primarily pho is a peasant food. Like all peasant foods it is  simple and satisfying and not easy to make well.  Pho’s very simplicity and its centuries-old link to Vietnam makes it a kind of cultural icon, loaded with symbolism and emotion.

In his life of poverty and struggle, Hung had known many artists, writers, and revolutionaries, cooking for them, learning from them, and ultimately preserving their legacies in his own simple ways. In fact his small pho shop had served as a kind of home base for many earnest and creative countrymen who sought artist freedom for what they labeled “the beauty of humanity movement”, a kind of counter balance to the rigid, state-dictated “art” of the communist party. 

Hung himself, neither revolutionary nor artist, is a soft spoken man who has made a quiet impact on the lives of countless of his customers, friends, and neighbors.  Like many, he has suffered terribly under the communist regime for decades, so when a young woman arrives to buy a cup of his pho, Hung is at first suspicious of her motives.  She is a lovely Viet Kieu , i.e. a person born in Viet Nam but who now lives outside of the country.  Her name is Maggie, and she is hoping Hung remembers her father, the artist  Ly Van Hai  who was part of the Beauty of Humanity Movement.

Hung is an old man and his memories are clouded.  Still he tries hard to help Maggie, and in helping her, he ultimately finds his own way to redemption and forgiveness .

The language of this slender novel is as fresh and vibrant as the most clear-sighted poetry. Although heartbreaking at times, the story ends on a note of quiet triumph, as lovers reunite, a new romance begins to blossom, and two young men discover how they might make lives that are  satisfying and successful, the type of lives their fathers and grandfathers could only dream about.

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