Blog One - "A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain"

Throughout the short story "A Good Scent...," there are two main narratives that tie together to present the overall idea of the story. The first of these narratives is the narrative of the story's present-timed reality, involving a dying grandfather who has lived a long, interesting life that connected to the political changes that occurred in Vietnam. This connection includes a friendship with Ho Chi Minh which leads to the second of these narratives, visions experienced in his dying of their shared experiences.

The overall idea of the story but also the essence of the relationship between the two narratives can be extrapolated from the beautifully written last few lines of the story: "I was only a washer of dishes but I did listen carefully...I wanted to understand everything. His kitchen was full of such smells that you knew you had to understand everything or you would be incomplete forever." Though the most interesting part of the story in my opinion were the flashbacks and imaginations of Ho Chi Minh, the most important point made to me was that even as a dying old man, even residing in a new world, even recollecting an old friend, the questions and thoughts about the politics of Vietnam continue in this man's mind even most likely until his death (though we do not witness it).

As a young man, the now elderly man worked making pastries with Ho Chi Minh in Paris, though in their youth they spoke at length about politics and philosophy. At this time, Ho Chi Minh was not the leader that came to be known in the western world but a young man with dreams. In his final days, in his new home in New Orleans, he recollects the murder of a man who was most likely killed because of the clashing of his views of Vietnam against the hopeful ones that the government pushed. From these two narratives, there is certainly a difference in the events, but the constant is that the politics never die and the present is always a battle to realize the correct politics, which comes from my interpretation from "...[having] to understand everything or [being] incomplete."