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Chi Vu

Hoa Pham reviews Anguli Ma: A Gothic Tale by Chi Vu

Hoa Pham reviews Anguli Ma: A Gothic Tale by Chi Vu

Hoa Pham, Mascara, June 2013

'The suburban setting is portrayed as stark and unfriendly to the Vietnamese characters. The characterisation of Anguli Ma is similarly intense, from the bloody scissors he uses for his work at the abattoir, to the running over and eating of a dog in a suburban wasteland.'

Hoa Pham, writer, playwright, and founding editor of Peril, illuminates the Buddhist and Australian gothic elements in Chi Vu’s 2013 novella Anguli Ma: A Gothic Tale, which was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Community Relations Prize. Hoa Pham observes that, importantly, Chi Vu’s dark novella offers ‘a counter-narrative to the brightness of other popular refugee narratives’.

Those interested in reading the critical essay on 1.5 Generation Vietnamese-American writers by Chi Vu, which is referenced in the piece, can do so via the Kunapipi magazine archive.

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