Chicago Translations Services Provide A Stunning Glipse of Life in Vietnam

The novel Eden on Earth, which was the third novel written by American writer of Vietnamese origin Jenny Nguen, was given the book of the year award by the prestigious Bookworm Club in Los Angeles, in November 1956. When Nguen was informed about their decision she exclaimed, “How come they have chosen me when I’m not one of their club members?” Nevertheless, some of the most elite clubs would very soon invite Nguen to join them. In 1957 Eden on Earth was awarded the Publishers' Prize, and in 1960 Nguen received the Laurel Prize in Literature. A touching and heartbreaking tale of the lives of the poor, countryside Vietnamese fieldworkers, the novel was a best seller for several years. Up to then the Americans had perceived the Vietnamese as scattered comic strips showing degenerate opium smokers with yellow fingernails and long mustaches, but the translation provided by the Los Angeles Translation Services changed that stereotype. No sooner the novel was published than some delicate authorities branded it as obscene as it discussed some bodily issues like sex and copulation.

Eden on Earth was never quite respected by the Vietnamese literary circles who felt they had overlooked some of the aspects of Vietnamese life that were discussed by an American. A similar view was expressed by the American literary circles who never fully accepted Nguen. Chicago based critic Anton Wolfowitz’s piercing new book, Jenny Nguen’s Vietnam Years approaches Nguen’s life the way a restorer approaches a neglected but important sculpture. Aided by the Chicago Translator he clears away the dirt, fills in the most conspicuous dents and smooths out the surface. The final result is a sculpture of the most exquisite quality and of smooth like silk touch. Mr. Wolfowitz’s book is not a biography that gives mere facts about the life of a particular person. The emphasis on the book falls on Nguen’s formative years as a woman and a writer, which are the first three decades of her life. Born in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1923 to John Huong and Marry Preston, she had a difficult childhood. In order to complete their obligations to the Southern Baptist Convention, her parents had to move to Vietnam where she grew up. This is how she became concerned with the lives of the Vietnamese and her criticism of the missionaries was largely based on the exercising of racial superiority she often witnessed.

Nguen went to college in America, but soon returned to Vietnam as Vietnamese was her first language and she felt more at home there than in the States. Having found a partner, she married Henry Nguen in 1948. He was a missionary whose interest in Vietnamese rural life drew Jennifer's attention. The patriarchal society in Vietnam became the underlying theme in Nguen’s writing as she directed her sharp criticism against those who did not allowed women to speak unless they were spoken to by their husbands, and especially against those who dared to kill female babies at birth for being useless. This was all documented by the San Francisco Translator who helped Nguen a lot in popularizing her work. Nguen fired campaign for social justice in Vietnam and in America, where she stood out for women’s rights. One of the reasons for Nguen's becoming a writers was probably the fact that she had the feeling that the period between her 20s and 40s was a waste of time, which was necessitated by the mental handicaps her first child, a son, was born with. Eden on Earth was written by her first in Vietnamese and then being translated into English.