MORNING COFFEE REVIEW — THE SORROW OF WAR

MORNING COFFEE REVIEW — THE SORROW OF WAR

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam has just honored 50 outstanding literary and artistic works produced after national reunification — and among them is The Sorrow of War by Bảo Ninh. The recognition immediately sparked two streams of public opinion: the majority believes the novel fully deserves the honor, while a sizable group insists it is “not truthful,” even calling for its withdrawal.

This morning, while sipping my usual black coffee with no sugar at a familiar café on Lê Lợi Street, I held The Sorrow of War in hand but didn’t open a single page. Instead, I browsed online to see what people were arguing about, then thought: every book has its own destiny, and how we feel about it depends on the heart of the reader.

Then I happened to read the foreword by Yan Lianke for the Chinese translation — and his lavish praise genuinely startled me.

Yan Lianke calls The Sorrow of War a rare masterpiece, a truly modern war novel, standing alongside the world’s great works. He considers Bảo Ninh one of the few Asian writers daring enough to go all the way into the darkest depths of war’s tragedy.

According to him, The Sorrow of War is not only Vietnam’s story, but the story of every nation that has lived through war; the story of any soldier who survived yet never truly “returned”; the story of human destiny in the face of great historical upheavals.

Yan Lianke himself is a renowned Chinese novelist, winner of many major domestic and international awards. For a writer as sharp and uncompromising as he is to speak so respectfully of Bảo Ninh tells us all we need to know about how deserving this novel is of recognition.

When I get home today, I will finally open The Sorrow of War and read it properly — to make up for daring to review it first.

For now, I’ll just keep sipping my coffee and admiring the book for extra motivation.

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Mr. Old Man, 09.12.2025

At Traditional Coffee