Author Ho Thi Ngoc Hoai: "Be grateful for suffering to love life"

Difficult career

Ho Thi Ngoc Hoai's youth was quite bumpy on the road to literature. After finishing high school, at the age of 16, she took the entrance exam for the Literature Department of the University. She failed. Her mother advised her to study commerce to keep up with the times. Literature was not a reasonable choice in the eyes of most people in Tan Ky, in the 1989s and 1990s.

The following year, Hoai switched to Commerce, thinking that at least the knowledge she learned would help her mother develop her small business in her hometown. Although Hoai never liked numbers and calculations, she only managed to keep up for 2 years before dropping out of school to return home to get married. Pursuing something you don’t love is very difficult to overcome when faced with difficult circumstances.

Author Ho Thi Ngoc Hoai in a literary exchange session with readers. Photo: NVCC

Having worked as a tailor and doing business with her mother, Hoai still couldn't stop missing the books in the lecture hall. "I craved reading books terribly, especially literature books." The small countryside couldn't satisfy that, so Hoa persuaded her husband to let her go back to take the exam. Her husband and most of her family objected. Because she was living a peaceful life with her husband and children, and was content with her life in the countryside, she packed her bags and went to take the exam and study for a year. Luckily, her husband's sister and her husband supported her. Hoai had more motivation to be determined to follow her lonely path. She was so determined that she "dared" to threaten her husband: "If you don't let Hoai take the exam and go to school, maybe we'll break up." In the end, her husband had to give in.

Packing up and returning to school at the age of 24, and becoming a teacher at the age of 30, Hoai returned to writing during the summer vacations. Preparing lesson plans, teaching, and taking care of the family took up all her time. Hoai wrote very slowly, meticulously and carefully with each word. Sometimes she had to go back and forth several times over several years to finish a short story.Thung Lam(the short story that immediately identified Ho Thi Ngoc Hoai) was written during that time.

At the age of nearly 40, she suddenly moved to Ho Chi Minh City with her husband and children. She herself did not expect that decision to come so quickly. She is a person who lives with a strong love for her hometown, attached to her hometown for so long that she never thought that she would go far away. The decision to go to the South to start a career was a fate, although what followed were quite difficult years for both husband and wife when they were no longer young. Thinking back, she still regrets that she did not start the change sooner.

Happy to "save" the character

About his short story, which is loved by many readers, Hoai confided: “Thung LamIt brings me happiness not only while writing, but it brings me even more happiness when it is shared by many people… Someone told me they cried while reading itThung Lam(not people living far from home), some people said that after reading it for the third time, they discovered that each time the character returned, he lost something, and gradually lost everything... some people said that I wrote it for them (mainly men), some people saidThung LamIt's global, some people told me they read it but didn't understand, and I heard somewhere someone read it and said, "His parents (my parents) are still alive, not dead"...

Short story Thung Lam and published works of writer Ngoc Hoai

Hoai used his life experience of over thirty, "not much at all" at that time, along with listening to his uncles and friends - those who had the opportunity to travel far and return more often than him - tell their stories to write Thung Lam. Few people know that Hoai wrote this short story when the farthest place from home was over Ben Thuy bridge, to Ha Tinh. Yet, Hoai's Thung Lam is full of haunting memories of the journey to understand the origin. Writer Pham Xuan Nguyen once commented on this work: "Thung Lamfull of poetry. A poetry from the emotional voice, from the beauty of Lam valley as a spiritual source, as a support for life, from the sadness and regret for traditional values ​​that are fading and eroding in modern life. The story is written gently, hauntingly and vaguely.

Although she writes slowly and doesn't write much (after more than 10 years of writing, she has only written 2 works - one poem, one prose), Hoai still makes many people admire her when she has created her own style. Hoai is one of the very few writers that I know, who respects and is meticulous with every word and literary work. Writing a short story can take her years and sometimes, to "revive" her character, she is happy with the joy of "thinking she is a doctor". She enthusiastically talks about her "cases" of saving her character: "Not every short story or character written can be successful. If the character is not strong enough to live, then just leave it there, there will come a time when I am inspired to nurture and develop it further. The feeling of reviving a character can sometimes feel like I am a doctor".

"Ordinary person, likes writing and growing flowers"

Ho Thi Ngoc Hoai of the writing dayThung Lam, her literary friends only know that she is a district school teacher who rarely appears but when she does, she is very attractive. Now she is more open, she said, choosing a rather simple lifestyle. Her main job is to take care of her family, likes to write, likes to grow flowers. In every house, no matter how big or small, Hoai grows flowers and plants and sees them as friends with vitality and soul by her side. Flowers bring small but meaningful joys that are indispensable in her life.

Ho Thi Ngoc Hoai shares about her artistic work and her hobby of growing flowers. Photo: VTH

With her children or husband, she rarely says that she is a writer or talks about her work in a special way, but simply that she "loves to write". She wants people around her to see her as a normal person, without any difference. "If my child is not good, I cannot teach him, then how can I write for others to read?" - sometimes that is all Hoai shares about her career with her relatives. For many years, her husband has been the one to read each of his wife's manuscripts and short stories and give sincere opinions from the perspective of a reader. And she still feels happy when her husband and children understand and sympathize with the writing career she is pursuing.

Hoai can talk enthusiastically about the trees and flowers she grows. It is the story of the laurel tree that brings small joys every time it blooms, but one day it is suddenly attacked by brown aphids. The tree dies, she cannot save it even though she has picked every leaf to kill the aphids, and at times even cut off all the branches… she feels terribly sorry for the deaths of the trees. And there is also the story of the faded peach trees in the land of Tan Ky where she has been attached for decades. Once, a parent said that the six-petal peach blossom will bring luck all year round to the family. From then on, every time she sees a peach blossom blooming, Hoai looks for the six-petal peach blossom but most of the time she only sees the five-petal peach blossom. On Tet holiday, when coming to anyone’s house and seeing the six-petal peach blossom, she feels a joyful excitement…

Through the ups and downs, the changes, what I feel in Ho Thi Ngoc Hoai is the maturity, slowness and certainty in her appearance, style as well as her creativity, the way she deals with everything in this life. She said: “I am grateful for what I have experienced. Even the suffering! It is scary when suffering comes to you, but when you have overcome it, it is as a writer said: “Suffering is an asset”, and “Only through suffering can we learn to love life”.

Ho Thi Ngoc Hoai is from Nghe An, and used to be a Literature teacher at Tan Ky High School. She is the author of the short story Thung Lam, which won first prize in the short story category of Van Nghe Newspaper (a prestigious award in domestic literature) in 2007. She currently lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City. Published works: Going there (short story collection), This festival (poetry collection).