A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

By: Robert Olen Butler

Narrated by: Robert Olen Butler

Pulitzer Prize, Fiction, 1993

Robert Olen Butler's lyrical and poignant collection of stories about the aftermath of the Vietnam War and its impact on the Vietnamese was acclaimed by critics across the nation and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993. This edition includes two subsequently published stories - "Salem" and "Missing" - that brilliantly complete the collection's narrative journey with a return to the jungles of Vietnam.

©1992 Robert Olen Butler (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Pulitzer Prize, Fiction, 1993

"Butler's literary ventriloquism, as he mines the experiences of a people with a great literary tradition of their own, is uncanny; but his talents as a writer of universal truths is what makes this a collection for the ages." (Amazon.com review)

Messages from Vietnam

How odd today to read short stories written by a white Midwestern American in the voices of Vietnamese women and men. The stories focus on the lives of Vietnamese during and after the Vietnam War, mostly South Vietnamese who have relocated to Louisiana. The stories are subtle and believable, even the ghost story. While there are questions today as to the propriety of white men writing from the perspective of different ethnic groups and genders, Robert Olen Butler has the empathy and imagination that makes fiction work—his Vietnamese narrators are compelling.

The stories deal primarily with family relationships: narrators dealing with grandfathers, husbands, sons, best friends and even an unborn child in the womb. There are plot twists and surprises, as well as cameos from celebrity possessions—John Lennon’s shoe, Elizabeth Taylor’s Puerto Vallarta movie set. The stories sometimes seem dated, 25 years after publication and long after the horrors of that particular war have faded in general memory. But they are well worth reading.

As with some other story collections, I had difficulty listening to these short stories in the car. It takes time to warm up to the characters in each story and to get a sense of who they are and what they think. Then, as we begin to enjoy their company, the story ends and we start again with a new narrator in a different context. This is frustrating, even in a book like A Good Scent, with interrelated themes.

Another quibble is with Butler’s decision to narrate the stories himself. It takes time to get used to his flat Midwestern voice, in story after story, speaking as a Vietnamese expatriate. He does a fair job, with good tone and inflection, but the novel would have benefited from professional actors as narrators.

Beautiful writing and interesting characters

These stories are subtle, unique, and completely captivating. The writing is simple and yet each character feels urgently alive. I loved this book.

what a trip into a post Vietnam world,

I loved the stories and I loved the narration. it gave me insight into a world unknown to me

Stories full of soul

Would you listen to A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain again? Why?

Perhaps. There are some outstanding short stories. One in particular was about Vietnamese intelligence officers who are working with the Australian military. It is about a clash of values with devastating consequences.Other stories set in the United States were less compelling,

Would you be willing to try another book from Robert Olen Butler? Why or why not?

Likely

Would you listen to another book narrated by Robert Olen Butler?

I did not enjoy the narration style.

If you could rename A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, what would you call it?

It is an interesting, intriguing title so I would not rename it

A collection of beautiful short stories

I really loved listening to Strange Mountain. Each story gave a glimpse into tue sometimes beautiful and sometimes tragic experience of Vietnamese Americans and one story about an American who quit the war and stayed in Vietnam. Very lovely overall.