The Perfume River

"This anthology, named The perfume river after one of Vietnam's most poetic waterways, draws together writing 'from Vietnam' in every sense. The writers live in vietnam and a number of other countries. Some are of Vietnamese background, others are not. For all, Vietnam has defined itself as a voice of inspiration, of homeland, memory and discovery."-- Book jacket.

"Eighteen-year-old Jimmy Miller, called Singer by his platoon mates, wants to prove his bravery in the trials of war, but he never considered how hard it would be to kill a man or what might happen if he did. He doesn't think about death and dying; he only imagines the glory. But when a vicious North Vietnamese Army ambush engulfs Singer and his friends, everything changes. In the heat of battle, Singer confronts the terrible truth of war and discovers a frightening darkness within himself. His struggle to survive takes on a deeper meaning that tests his courage in ways he never expected"--Back cover.

Post World War II America and teenage boys dreamed of adventure growing up in the 1950s, listened to Elvis Presley and read Jack Kerouac, yet it wasn't cruising Route 66 in a Corvette that united them, but Highway 1, known as the Street Without Joy, on the way to Hue city during the 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam. It was the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, Civil Rights and the pill, young girls in long boots and short skirts, but not for those in the jungle and rice paddies of Southeast Asia. Full of innocence and dreams, adolescent passion and coming of age horror, RIVER OF PERFUMES captures the contradictions of the times and what the brutality of war does to young men in battle, and a country that stayed home and abandoned them. "Mike Stokey has written a story which slowly sucks you in until you're trapped. Then, as you get deeper and deeper, you don't want it to end. Worse...you begin dreading what might happen to characters you've come to know, with whom you now identify. The battle for Hue, Tet 1968 is well-known, but the story for Arthur Latimere, a newbie Marine combat correspondent, hasn't been told before. Hang on to your guts when you take this journey." John M. Del Vecchio New York Times bestselling author of The 13th Valley

The 2022 Kirkus Prize Winner for Nonfiction Fragrance has long been used to mark who is civilized and who is barbaric, who is pure and who is polluted, who is free and who is damned— Focusing their gaze on our most primordial sense, writer and perfumer Tanaïs weaves a brilliant and expansive memoir, a reckoning that offers a critical, alternate history of South Asia from an American Bangladeshi Muslim femme perspective. From stories of their childhood in the South, Midwest, and New York; to transcendent experiences with lovers, psychedelics, and fragrances; to trips home to their motherland, Tanaïs builds a universe of memories and scent: a sensorium. Alongside their personal history, and at the very heart of this work, is an interrogation of the ancient violence of caste, rape culture, patriarchy, war, and the inherited ancestral trauma of being from a lush land constantly denuded, a land still threatened and disappearing because of colonization, capitalism, and climate change. Structured like a perfume—moving from base to heart to head notes—IN SENSORIUM interlaces eons of South Asian perfume history, erotic and religious texts, survivor testimonies, and material culture with memoir. In Sensorium is archive and art, illuminating the great crises of our time with the language of Liberation.

Hue is one of Vietnam's treasures, a city that until fairly recently was the royal capital. So naturally, there is a strong legacy of court life in the architecture, the cuisine, even in the manners of this elegant city on the Perfume River. With a keen grasp of Hue's turbulent history and a deep appreciation of its remaining imperial architecture - a World Heritage Site - journalist and travel writer Carol Howland is the perfect guide to Hue's unique palaces, gardens, food, theatre, literature, crafts, and religions. She explains why and how the French eventually seized control of Vietnam, here in Hue, and the dramatic effects this had on the royal family and the people of Hue. She relates the stories of their grandparents and even receives a history lesson from one of the men who might have become emperor. She reveals the daily life of a Nguyen emperor and the exotic foods of an imperial banquet. Infinitely insightful, HUE, VIETNAM'S LAST IMPERIAL CAPITAL will appeal to anyone intrigued by an elaborate, feudal, oriental court life, only recently disappeared.

Originally published in a slightly different form: Oakton, VA: RavensYard, 2005.

"Along the Perfume River lives an old woman who has never left her village, who has raised children and grandchildren, never having seen the other side of the river. A nightclub owner from Vietnam travels the world, hobnobbing with international celebrities. A young man goes to college in America, only to return to Vietnam with made-up stories and forged photographs of himself with President Clinton. And another grows up both an American teenager and a Vietnamese general's son ... the author himself." "In this collection of essays, noted journalist Andrew Lam explores his lifelong struggle for identity and challenges definitions - both society's and his own - of what it means to be an immigrant, a son, and a survivor."--BOOK JACKET.

An erotic masterpiece of twentieth century fiction - a tale of sensual obsession and bloodlust in eighteenth century Paris 'An astonishing tour de force both in concept and execution' Guardian In eighteenth-century France there lived a man who was one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages. His name was Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, and if his name has been forgotten today. It is certainly not because Grenouille fell short of those more famous blackguards when it came to arrogance, misanthropy, immorality, or, more succinctly, wickedness, but because his gifts and his sole ambition were restricted to a domain that leaves no traces in history: to the fleeting realm of scent . . . 'A fantastic tale of murder and twisted eroticism controlled by a disgusted loathing of humanity . .. Clever, stylish, absorbing and well worth reading' Literary Review 'A meditation on the nature of death, desire and decay . . . A remarkable début' Peter Ackroyd, The New York Times Book Review 'Unlike anything else one has read. A phenomenon . . . [It] will remain unique in contemporary literature' Figaro 'An ingenious and totally absorbing fantasy' Daily Telegraph 'Witty, stylish and ferociously absorbing' Observer

A river is a thread, embroidering our world. This non-fiction picture book brings attention to the rivers that stitch and thread our world together.

A powerful novel of a family haunted by the aftershocks of the Vietnam War—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of a A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain. “You share a war in one way. You pass it on in another.” Passionate student activism brought Robert Quinlan together with his future wife during the tumultuous years of the Vietnam War. But since then, the long-married Florida university professors have grown apart. Their crumbling relationship is mirrored by Robert’s estrangement from his brother . . . alienated by the same controversial war. Now, with their father—a World War II veteran—lying close to death, the rift in the family is sorely tested when Robert’s brother refuses to put the past aside and return to say goodbye. And when Robert mistakes a homeless stranger for a fellow Vietnam veteran, his unstable presence in their lives will further stir the emotional scars that shattered the Quinlan men . . . and take its toll on those they love most. “Butler’s Faulknerian shuttling back and forth across the decades has less to do with literary pyrotechnics than with cutting to the chase. Perfume River hits its marks with a high-stakes intensity . . . Butler’s prose is fluid, and his handling of his many time-shifts as lucid as it is urgent. His descriptive gifts don’t extend just to his characters’ traits or their Florida and New Orleans settings, but to the history he’s addressing.” —Michael Upchurch, New York Times Book Review “Butler moves easily among his characters to create a composite portrait of a family that has been wrecked by choices made during the Vietnam War.” —Beth Nguyen, San Francisco Chronicle “The story builds its force with great care . . . Its power is that we want to keep reading. The entire journey is masterfully rendered, Butler lighting a path back into the cave, completely unafraid.” —Benjamin Busch, Washington Post “Butler greatly enlarges our sense of what the Vietnam War cost to a generation . . . Perfume River tells a human story that sums up an entire era of American life.” —Miami Herald “Butler’s assured, elegant novel . . . speaks eloquently of the way the past bleeds into the present, history reverberates through individual lives, and mortality challenges our perceptions of ourselves and others.” —Publishers Weekly “A heartbreaking story of fathers and sons and their expectations and disappointments . . . Perfume River is a powerful work that asks profound questions about betrayal and loyalty.” —BookPage