_-theA-_ here is your review. I hope you are satisfied.

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WE ARE ALL BROKEN. THAT'S HOW THE LIGHTS GET IN (*)

Review by Emma

I asked TheA if she would let me review her story in English. She said yes. It is hard to explain, but I always have a tendency to communicate in English whenever I am with her.

"Cạn Sáp" is a collection of extreme short stories, at least that's what TheA told me. "Tan" is the first and only work in the collection. It was beautifully written, telling the story of Tân, who was getting drowned in his thoughts on his way home from a bar. Tân questioned his boring life, waiting for something extraodinary to happen. It is what we do very often, isn't it? Except for the fact that we get carried away with this kind of thought when we are in the toilet, not in a bar. Probably because most of us do not have the gut to be there.

I have read most of TheA's works. I would say that I know her style of writing very well. TheA has a mind of an artist. She tends to focus on the beauty of a scenery and the aesthetic feeling comming out of each of her words. "Cạn Sáp" is no exception. She told a very beautiful story of Tân and painted a really artistic picture of her work in front of her readers. For me, "Cạn Sáp" is like a short movie that aims for the Cinematography Prize at the Oscars. There are several line of "Tan" that truly impress me:

"Ánh đèn nhấp nháy sau lưng người đàn ông nhoè đi, vỡ ra thành từng chấm màu sặc sỡ loang lổ trên nền khung vải bố xanh ngắt xung quanh y."

"Y nhìn vào trang giấy trắng không vết mực đã ghi chép lại hoàn hảo cảm xúc của Tân bao năm nay."

TheA always gives us a feeling that there is a hidden meaning between her lines. What excellent is that we do not have to think much to figure out those meanings. By that way, TheA has successfully sastified the philosophical need of most of the average readers, which I pride her on.

Here comes the problem. "Cạn Sáp" could only win the Cinematography Prize. It is too short to make an impact, or to give us any new perspective. Frankly, it told a regular story which anyone could tell, but with a really good narative. I always favor the plot of a story, not how the author telling it.

Because "Cạn Sáp" is an extreme short story, I do not have much to say. In conclusion, "Cạn Sáp" was written in a very aesthetic way - which is TheA's writing style - but did not have a good story to tell. There are many ways you could use to tell a good extreme short story. You should ask Hemingway for advice. All we have to do is to think of something worth telling.

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(*): The title is written by Ernest Hemingway. I found this line fitting the theme of "Tan" very well. That's why I quoted it. Most of TheA's works have this "broken" theme. She loves to tell story of a character who is at lost, not knowing what to fight for.