Overview:
Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen will be in conversation at the Coronado Library with author Lily Hoang on Wednesday, June 4 at 7 p.m.
Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen will be at the Coronado Library this week with his latest book, “To Save and To Destroy.”
Born in war-ravaged Vietnam, Viet Nguyen arrived in the United States as a child refugee in 1975. The Nguyen family would soon move to San Jose, California, where the author grew up, attending UC Berkeley in the aftermath of the shocking murder of Vincent Chin, which shaped the political sensibilities of a new generation of Asian Americans.
Nguyen brings these personal experiences into his writing. His most recent collection of essays, “To Save and To Destroy,” was published earlier this year.
The essays, delivered originally as the prestigious Norton Lectures, proffer a new answer to a classic literary question: What does the outsider mean to literary writing?
Over the course of six captivating and moving chapters, Nguyen explores the idea of being an outsider through lenses that are, by turns, literary, historical, political, and familial.
Each piece moves between writers who influenced Nguyen’s craft and weaves in the haunting story of his late mother’s mental illness. Nguyen unfolds the novels and nonfiction of Herman Melville, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ralph Ellison, William Carlos Williams, and Maxine Hong Kingston, until aesthetic theories give way to pressing concerns raised by war and politics.
What is a writer’s responsibility in a time of violence? Should we celebrate fiction that gives voice to the voiceless — or do we confront the forces that render millions voiceless in the first place? What are the burdens and pleasures of the “minor” writer in any society?
Unsatisfied with the modest inclusion accorded to “model minorities” such as Asian Americans, Nguyen sets the agenda for a more radical and disquieting solidarity with those whose lives have been devastated by imperialism and forever wars.
Professor of literature at UC San Diego and local author Lily Hoang will be speaking with Nguyen.
The event is happening June 4 at 7 p.m. This event is free and open to the public. Seating is first-come, first-served, subject to availability. Limited preferred seating is available with purchase of “To Save and To Destroy” through Warwick’s bookstore. There will be a book signing opportunity after the conversation. Visit cplevents.org for more information.
