Biết ơn độc giả

 

Ta lang thang trong oép của ḿnh, đọc lại 4 phản ứng của sinh viên Mỹ về truyện ngắn The billion $ squeleton. Ta cảm động. Bạn Việt Nam của ta đọc, đă giận ta. Bạn Mỹ cũng thế. Ta không mong văn chương của ta có thể gỡ được thành kiến của người đời trong mọi nền văn hoá. Ta chỉ mong nó khơi ư cho vài thanh niên bước vào đời một cách tự tin, tự do, tŕu mến, thông cảm con người và vững vàng tiến bước. Thế thôi. Những phản ứng sau khiến ta nghĩ điều ấy khả thi. Nếu thế thực, cầm bút là chuyện đáng làm.

Nancy K. Davis

The past cannot be changed, but the future is ours for the making.  The past provides a blueprint for people to use so as to try to not repeat the mistakes of the past. 

 Yamato Tsutsumi

Besides, it is also similar description that the man exchanged the unknown bone with his own son’s and took it back to the US with him.  I felt this is like exchanging the “peace.” 

I want the reader to notice that the sentimental change of the billionaire man who was really selfish first.  I also want reader to think what he thought during sitting for hours, without moving.  We may be able to think about the war with the both aspects American and Vietnam.

 Manny Otiko

This story is the strangest of all the ones I have read in the book. It is written in a very simplistic style and the final paragraph of the story has an upbeat end, like many fairy tales.  In addition, like many of the other stories written by Vietnamese authors it shows that the victors also suffered many physical and mental wounds during the war. The piles of bones and the funeral pyre are symbolic of all the lives lost during the war.   

 Linda Correa

I recommend reading "The Billion Dollar Skeleton" because I found it to be an escape into the world of the fantastic – to be able to accomplish the "impossible" provided there is unlimited resources to accomplish that.  The question that comes to my mind as I was reading it is:  If I had access to all the money and resources in the world and the freedom to do anything I wanted with it, what "impossible task" would I want to accomplish with it?        

 

2008-11-06