Blog 1

“A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain” is a short story written by Robert Olen Butler and narrated by an elderly Buddhist named Dao. In the story, Dao alternates back and forth between a visit from his family and dream-like encounter with his old from Ho Chi Minh. Dao’s friend Ho is visiting from the afterlife as Dao is nearing the end of his life. Ho comes to Dao’s room for three nights in a row, and every night he is very preoccupied with a sugar glaze coating his hands. He tells Dao that he cannot figure out what is wrong with the recipe he learned when working with Monsieur Escoffier, a past employer of both Dao and Ho. The presence of the glaze on Ho’s hands triggers memories of Ho’s and his youth. Dao remembers Ho’s persistence in fighting for equal rights and representation of the Vietnamese. The narration of this fictional conversation represents the Vietnamese struggles of the past. Inversely, Dao’s narration of the interaction with his family illustrates how that same struggle is still taking place. Dao tells the story as he is sitting with his eyes closed listening to his son-in-law talk to his son. Through the undertones of their conversation, Dao believes that the two boys were involved in the shooting of a local Vietnamese man, Mr. Le, who spoke out in favor of Vietnamese communism. “Thang laughed and said [to his son], “You have proved yourself no coward” (247). Both Mr. Le and Ho share the same views that Vietnamese communism must be accepted and represented, and that is the problem that embodies this story. The two separate narrations connect the story by showing the constant presence of political debate as well as the extent of the struggle that the Vietnamese government has had.