Dumb Luck by Vũ Trọng Phụng

Translated from Vietnamese by Nguyệt Cầm Nguyễn and Peter Zinoman

Dumb Luck, by the brilliant, controversial, and influential Vietnamese writer Vũ Trọng Phụng, is a bitter satire of the rage for modernization in Vietnam during the late-colonial era. First published in Hanoi in 1936, it follows the absurd and unexpected rise within colonial society of a street-smart vagabond named Red-haired Xuân. As it charts Xuân's fantastic social ascent, the novel provides a panoramic view of late-colonial urban social order -- from the filthy sidewalks of Hanoi's old commercial quarter to the gaudy mansions of the emergent Francophile northern upper classes.

Paperback, Trade

Condition: Very Good (light wear on top edge)

Publisher: University of Michigan Press, 2002

ISBN 13: 9780472068043