 | | |
| A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain: Stories | 
 enlarge | Author: Robert Olen Butler
Publisher: Grove Press
Category: Book
List Price: $13.00
Buy New: $4.80
You Save: $8.20 (63%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $3.24
Avg. Customer Rating:  (34 reviews)
Sales Rank: 25013
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0802137989
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780802137982
ASIN: 0802137989
Publication Date: May 10, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
The Vietnam War continues to play itself out in fiction, autobiography, and history books, but no American author has captured the experiences of the Vietnamese themselves--and caught their voices--more tellingly than Robert Olen Butler, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain. The 15 stories collected here, all written in the first person, blend Vietnamese folklore, the terrible, lingering memories of war, American pop culture and family drama. Butler's literary ventriloquism, as he mines the experiences of a people with a great literary tradition of their own, is uncanny; but his talents as a writer of universal truths is what makes this a collection for the ages.
Product Description
Robert Olen Butler's lyrical and poignant collection of stories about the aftermath of the Vietnam War and its impact on the Vietnamese was acclaimed by critics across the nation and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993. Now Grove Press is proud to reissue this contemporary classic by one of America's most important living writers, in a new edition of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain that includes two subsequently published stories -- "Salem" and "Missing" -- that brilliantly complete the collection's narrative journey, returning to the jungles of Vietnam.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 29 more reviews...
 Nothing to write home about. May 30, 2008
I can't say that I hated this piece of fiction but when I browse some of these glowing five star reviews I wonder If they can possibly be referring to the same book as I am. I enjoyed some of the stories and I admire Butler for stepping out of himself and writing about a culture that isn't his own. It is a bold move and I think he does it well enough... However, I just can't rank it that high, I mean five stars! I can name a dozen other books that really rocked my world and made me think about things differently or contain certain phrases and scenes I still think about! Some of the reviewers here are too generous Im afraid.
Summary: Sorry folks, no epiphany here.
- this review was not written by the named above.
Poor May 26, 2008
This is highly sentimental writing that bored me to the core. It tinkers with high emotions and big themes but mostly manages to paint everything in either bright pink or drab grays. Some of the outsider perspective shines through, but the tinny two-dimensional (and often child-like) tone had me folding the book without quite completing it.
 One of the best books I have ever read May 20, 2008
This book has been reviewed many times. I only wanted to say that I read it when it first came out, and all these years later, it is still one of my all-time favorite books. It truly did deserve the Pulizter.
 Review for Audio Version September 19, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Yes, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain won the Pulitzer, so I had to get it. I have both the print version and audio--stick to print, it's a winner.
As for the audio, Robert Olen Butler, though an awesome writer and who apparently trained as an actor, didn't do the reading of these stories justice.
Anyway, I'm giving the audio version 3 stars, good stories--but not all the stories are read, only 5 are. I'd stick to the print version.
Well Worth the Pulitzer Prize January 16, 2007
A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain is a wonderful study of the life of Vietnamese people after the fall of South Vietnam. Many of the stories in this collection take place in the United States, especially in Louisiana. What captivates the reader in these stories is the fact that, while placing these stories within the Vietnamese community, Butler is able to discuss universal themes of jealousy, discrimination, alienation, and many others. The stories are in easily accessible prose and have meanings that challenge our self-understandings. On another level, Butler allows the reader a glimpse into the Vietnamese worldview - one that is very different from the American way of looking at life. This book is well worth picking up and savoring.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| | |