While I'm late coming to the book release party for "SHOOT THE BASTARDS" - because apparently that happened this summer in June...
Here's the setup from the article down at twincities.com
When her good friend goes missing in South Africa while exploring rhino-horn poaching and international smuggling, Crys gets an assignment from National Geographic to pick up where her friend’s last email came from and continue reporting on this dangerous trade.
Nguyen travels from South Africa to Mozambique to Vietnam, never knowing whom she can trust among the government officials and rhino-protection groups she meets. What she does learn is that there is mountains of money to be made with these horns, and men of several nationalities won’t hesitate to kill anyone who interferes
Is there anything inherently wrong with this plot - not really I guess (however I wouldn't trust any government official - least of all one from the Trump administration) - but, you know - it's just - I mean - and no - I haven't read the book - but...
DO WHITE PEOPLE HAVE TO TAKE EVERYTHING?
Why not a new heroine called SUZY FROM ALABAMA?
Why's she Viet?
Can WHITE PEOPLE IN MN NAME ME 5 VIET AUTHORS NOT ALREADY NAMED BAO PHI?
Does that make sense? Most non-Viet people in MN probably can't name me 5 Vietnamese American authors, but yet there's a celebration of a book (small or large I DON'T CARE) written by two White Guys, with a Vietnamese heroine?
It just feels incongruent to me.
And I get it - writers write. Art is art. Fiction is friction is fucktion.
BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH.
But isn't there also the tenet "WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW"?
Even if it's still fiction? Even if it's still made up?
Don't you still have to have that base?
I mean why choose a Vietnamese woman?
Does someone have a Viet wife? Maybe an adopted grandkid? Did they give money to the overseas coin tappers to help save the children and the people? And these books are to honor the Viet people?
I'm not trying to be a dick - that's legit (because maybe I'm just getting soft in the prime of my life) - but again - it just feels incongruous.
It's like when you were a kid and you accidentally peed down your leg.
You knew it wasn't right. You did it anyway. And it did feel good to get it out.
But it still wasn't right...
