Ticket to Childhood
A Novel
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
"This charming short work recalls The Little Prince in its depiction of childhood sensibilities pitted against an often illogical and absurd adult world" (Publishers Weekly).
A fable for all ages and a massive bestseller in the author's home country of Vietnam, Ticket to Childhood captures the texture of childhood in all of its richness. Narrated by a man looking back, it explores the small miracles and tragedies, the misadventures and misdeeds, that made up his life. We meet his long-lost friends, none of whom can forget how rich their lives once were. Even if Nguyen Nhat Anh can't take us back to our own younger days, he proves himself a master at capturing those innocent times with great deftness—in a novel that also offers "a startlingly vivid portrait of 21st-century Vietnam and its growing pains" (Shelf Awareness).
"A hugely appealing and engaging author." —The New Criterion
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A massive bestseller in Nguy n's native Vietnam, this charming short work recalls The Little Prince in its depiction of childhood sensibilities pitted against an often illogical and absurd adult world. Mui, an older adult, remembers himself at eight, the age when he first realized "that life was dull and boring." He and his childhood friends the missing-toothed Ti; the beautiful Tun, object of his affection; and the tall Hai, sadly the object of Tun's affection spend their days scheming ways to alleviate that boredom. They reinvent language ("We wanted to rename everything in the universe as if we had just created it"), put their parents on mock trial, and even go so far as to eat and drink from unusual objects (including a tin wash basin) for the novel flavor of altered expectations. But since the balance of power only tips in one direction, each of their efforts lands them in trouble. Adults are devoted to dictionaries, loathe silliness, and, even when they themselves go to extremes for the sake of novelty, fail to appreciate the same desires in their children. Conveyed in sparse prose, the insights are often simple ("The function of children, as adults see it, is to outgrow their childishness"), but they ring true, and their effect is sweet and endearing.
