The Vietnamese Gulag

The Vietnamese Gulag is the autobiography of the Vietnamese pro-democracy activist Doan Van Toai. The book focuses specifically on his arrest and imprisonment by the Communist Vietnamese government, events which precipitated a change in his political belief from lukewarm communist to advocate of democracy.

Le Goulag Vietnamien
(First edition)
AuthorDoan Van Toai, as told to Michel Voirol
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
GenreAutobiography
PublisherParis : R. Laffont
Media typePrint
Pages341 p.
ISBN2-221-00385-3
OCLC476545048
The Vietnamese Gulag
(First English translation)
AuthorDoan Van Toai, David Chanoff
Original titleLe Goulag Vietnamien
TranslatorSylvie Romanowski and Françoise Simon-Miller.
Countrytr. from France
Languagetr. from French
PublisherSimon & Schuster
Publication date
tr. from 1979
Published in English
1986
Media typePrint
Pages351 p.
ISBN0-671-60350-7
OCLC12840146

Writing in The New York Times, Robert Shaplan said that the book "is reminiscent, at its best, of E. E. Cummings's Enormous Room and Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon."[1] Shaplan also notes that the book's "value derives from [the author] having been one of the first Vietnamese to write effectively of his experience, and to describe what he calls 'the method of the betrayal' of his revolutionary hopes and ideals."[1] John P Roche, who reviewed the book for the Los Angeles Times, called the narrative "moving" and "written with a striking lack of self-pity".[2]

The Vietnamese Gulag was originally written in French (Le Goulag Vietnamien) and published in 1979.[1][3] A German translation followed in 1980.[4] The English translation was published in 1986 and generally met with critical approval.

See also

  • Xinjiang reeducation camps

References

  1. Robert Shaplan (July 13, 1986). "Rethinking the Revolution". The New York Times. Retrieved April 10, 2011.
  2. John P Roche (June 1, 1986). "The Vietnamese Gulag by Doan Van Toai and David Chanoff (Simon & Schuster: $18.95; 312 pp., illustrated)". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 10, 2011.
  3. Le Goulag Vietnamien OCLC 476545048
  4. Der Vietnamesische Gulag OCLC 14405683
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