What disgusts Linh so thoroughly is that Nguyen has sold out to the communist system, which after liberation quickly rotted through to the core. He adapted with zeal to the system in which good old fashioned ass-kissing is the surest ticket to advancement, but in the process he debased himself and undermined the foundations of his relationship with Linh. For this, his wife could not forgive him, no matter what comforts it provided.
Beyond Illusions can also be seen as an allegory of Huong's place in Vietnamese society, with the author as Linh. The country's revolutionary generation became bureaucrats grabbing for the spoils of their newly gained power, while the rest of the population simply tried to stay under the radar and eke out a decent material life. Just as Linh wanted no association with Nguyen or all the other busybody, conniving cadres, Huong likewise withdrew from the Communist Party and has been a vocal critic of the conspicuous consumption of the new generation as much as of the Vietnamese leadership.
This book is the first of three novels written in the 1980s before Huong's arrest, which begs the question why English readers had to wait so long for the translation, which was beautifully done by Nina McPherson and Phan Huy Duong. Huong is an underground literary star in Vietnam and a modest celebrity in France. This translation of Beyond Illusions may lend her celebrity in the English-speaking world.
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