Nam Le. Canongate

Mar 27, 2024 | artreview.com | Nirmala Devi |Nam Le. Canongate

36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem by Nam Le is a rallying call for freedom – from representation, history and language‘Whatever I write is / Vietnamese. I can never not – / You won’t let me not –’, writes Nam Le early on in this collection of poems. From then on in it’s not clear who’s projecting identity. The writer or the reader. And it makes for uncomfortable reading.