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handsome than any textbook they owned. “I can
5
get used to this.”
“That’s the spirit.”
The guests at the neighboring table rose,
and on the way out two of them paused beside
Phuong, the brunette taking a photograph of
the musicians strumming their zithers. “They’re
just like butterflies,” she said in an Australian
Redefining America
accent, squinting at the image on her camera.
Eavesdropping on them, Phuong was relieved
not to be the object of their fascination. “So
delicate and tiny.”
“I’ll bet they never worry about what they 15
eat.” Her friend flipped open her compact to
inspect her lipstick. “Those dresses look stitched Pictures from History/Bridgeman Images
onto them.”
Night after night, Phuong had observed
the customs of tourists like these, her degree in
biology no more than a memory as she opened
the doors of Nam Kha with a small bow. Having This is the cover of a 1962 pocket guide that was
come to dine on elegantly presented peasant distributed to U.S. forces serving in Vietnam. The
cuisine, the guests were suitably impressed by the woman with the bicycle is wearing the traditional
Cham statuary, by the Chinese scrolls hanging ao dai, the same kind of outfit Phuong wears when
she works as a hostess at an upscale restaurant.
on the walls, and by Phuong herself, her slim and How does this cover depict that outfit? To
petite body sheathed in a golden, form-fitting ao what extent does this portrayal contrast with
dai. Sometimes guests would ask to photograph the way it is characterized in “Fatherland”?
her, requests that initially flattered her and now
irritated her. Still, she could not decline, as her visit reassuring her mother that Vivien’s
manager had made clear, and so she would force return would be a safe one, especially when
herself to smile and tilt her head, a trellis of hair armed with a US passport and dollar bills. So
as black and silky as her trousers falling over her equipped, Vivien had insisted on paying for
shoulder. Striking this or another pose, Phuong the family during all their outings, her father
could pretend that she was not a hostess doing a putting up only token resistance. While Phuong
foreigner’s bidding but rather a model, a starlet, was impressed by Vivien’s approach, as if
or her sibling namesake. What she actually looked vacationing were a job at which she sought
like she never knew, for while everyone promised promotion, she was not surprised. In the
to send her the pictures, no one ever had. occasional dispatches sent by Vivien’s mother, a
picture had emerged of an independent young
• • •
woman, the unmarried pediatrician who had
When she arrived, Vivien carried with her backpacked solo through western Europe and
a schedule of the sights she wanted to see, vacationed in Hawaii, the Bahamas, Rio. Mr. Ly,
complete with estimated travel times via train, who made a humble living as a tour guide,
bus, car, hydrofoil, or plane. President Clinton reviewed the itinerary and said, “I couldn’t have
had come the year before, his much-celebrated done better myself.”
22
Copyright © 2021 by Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample chapter.
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