What readers think of The Beauty of Humanity Movement, plus links to write your own review.

Having been a huge fan of Camilla Gibb's previous book, "Sweetness In the Belly", I expected to immediately be swept up with her new one. I was slightly disappointed that it wasn't to happen right away in this book, but very much rewarded as she slowly wove her magic, unveiling an exquisite story of contemporary Vietnam, particularly her tying in of its art and literature. The main character, Old Man Hung, is a private, yet charming man who creates his own magic with his secret recipe for pho, an aromatic beef noodle soup that makes him sought after in the nearby towns. Among some of his frequent customers are a woman who is Vietnamese from the US in search of her artist father, and a young man named Tu, who is an enterprising tour guide that she enlists to show her around.
These characters, as well as others in the story, are very likable, and the author does a wonderful job in her descriptions of the foods, smells, the poverty, as well as the beauty of the land and the art. A lovely and gripping novel.

Camilla Gibb has created a love story, a history, and a biography which takes place in Viet Nam. This book contains so much of an education, yet it is delivered in a beautiful and interesting manor. I enjoyed this book and have been inspired to find out more of the history of Viet Nam both yesterday and today.

I found this a compelling, very well-written book that touches on many issues and ideas: Vietnam and Vietnamese history, culture and society; family; art and politics; how cultures and traditions shift in the face of history; “outsider” perspectives on America and Americans; food and cooking; and love and relationships. I've been to Hanoi, where the book takes place, once, for only a single week, but found her descriptions so accurate that I assumed her cultural and historical perceptions must be as well. Highly recommended.

I enjoyed reading this book. The Vietnamese characters were skillfully brought to life by the author. A good job was done showing contemporary Vietnamese life while reviewing much of the history of this country. In America we don't know the story of the North Vietnamese people. This book brings out the problems and delights of their culture. By seeing North Vietnam through the eyes of a woman who is Vietnamese by birth but spent much of her life in America we can relate to many of her impressions.
This book would be good for discussions in a book club.

A haunting tale of the lingering effects of the Vietnam War for the country of Vietnam and its people. I recently read The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli, which takes place during the Vietnam War, and I found The Beauty of Humanity Movement to be a lovely follow-up. I think my knowledge gained from Soli's novel about Vietnam and the war was helpful and added more meaning to Gibb's work.

A tautly written book about the long-lasting effects of the war in Vietnam on the Vietnamese people makes for very interesting reading. The three main characters are well developed, especially that of old man Hung. The bitter-sweet romances lighten the harsh realities in which the characters find themselves. A MUST for my reading group not only for story line but also for discussions about the art, government, family life. culture, and traditions of Vietnam.

This was a difficult book to rate because, while it was slow getting going, I loved the central character, and was led to think a lot about the history and culture of Vietnam from a very new perspective. Since I had many peers who faced the draft during the Vietnam war, my previous exposure to the history and culture was a very westernized version and centered on wartime issues. This novel cast things in a very different light and Gibbs very effectively used Hung, the aging pho vendor, to draw the reader through Vietnam's turbulent late colonial, wartime, and post-war periods, always from the point of view of a poor North Vietnamese man who became educated and heavily influenced by the artists and intellectuals who frequented his pho shop. While vacationing in Vietnam, Gibbs was inspired to write this work, by a young tour guide who allowed her to question him, sharing his thoughts and aspirations. She did a nice job presenting the setting, developed a marvelous main character, but fell just a bit short in the secondary characters and developed a somewhat forced conclusion to the story.

I had myriad of emotions while reading this heartfelt story. I was grateful to the author for writing a book which focused on the people of the northern part of Vietnam and their need to free themselves from the colonial presences and in the end retained a different yoke on their souls. I was sadden to once again be reminded that war damages people far longer than the conflict itself and is never-ending. I was amazed by the resilience of the people to maintain their humanity through the horror of the many conflicts. And lastly I was enlightened on the history and culture of North Vietnam.

The author was able to invoke all of these emotions through the skillful storytelling of the three main characters, each of whom will need to resolve their personal demons, and find that will come when they come together and accept each other for who they are. A strong cast of secondary characters rounds out the story. The writing was beautifully subtle invoking time and place.

While overall I enjoyed the story, at places the story was repetitive and this seemed to drag out the events.