Each story is less than 5,000 words, but opens up very deep humanistic silences in people's hearts. Each work is a slice of fierce and haunting life, writing about people in the midst of natural disasters, war, poverty, sin and the journey of salvation. Not leaning towards superficial drama, the author chooses a slow, cinematic, and regional cultural narrative, to open up major issues of today's society from small people. Each story closes very quickly, but the aftertaste lasts for a long time. Readers seem to be contemplating with the 87-year-old author.
The central novel, "Simply I Wear White Clothes", tells the story of H'Mong female doctor - Lo Thi Hoa. Her father once died unjustly because of indifference and greed in the city hospital. Carrying that pain, Hoa is determined to return to her hometown to build a hospital for people in the highlands. The white blouse in the story is both a symbol of medical ethics and a lingering question about human conscience. The work is a harsh contrast between the inhumane "white shirts" and poor but loving people. In the colorful H'Mong cultural space and the Northwest mountains, the story is touched by the spirit of saving people, the awakening of the medical profession and the aspiration to bring the light of civilization to the dark.
Or like the work "Heaven stops - Tears have not dried" which is a tragic cry from the Northwest mountains and forests. After many years of indiscriminate deforestation, Nam Che village was buried by landslides. Sam Si Mui - a H'Mong person who once helped illegal loggers - lost his wife and children in the great flood caused by the woods he cut. That tragedy turned him from a forest destroyer into a human awakening in pain. The work not only denounces the destruction of nature, forestry corruption, but also raises a painful question about the revenge of nature against human greed. In the depths of loss, the author still sows a seed of hope: Humans can stand up to atone for their mistakes with love and responsibility to the motherland.
The remaining novels continue to extend that ideological thread with small but vibrant fates. Those are people who are forgotten by society, suffer many injustices but still try to maintain dignity and kindness. The characters of author Dang Huynh Thai often carry deep spiritual wounds: losing loved ones, wandering, poverty, war, illness... but always looking towards the light of humanity. That is what creates the special beauty of the book.
The highlight of "Simply I Wear White Clothes" is the combination of realistic brushstrokes and folk fantasy. The author uses simple but richly visual language, with tearful smiles, imbued with the breath of mountains, mines, battlefields and rustic life. Details such as the Tay Nguyen tomb house, the spirit calling ceremony of the H'Mong people, the sound of gongs, bamboo rafts on flooded rivers or the white doctor's shirt... all become artistic symbols with long-lasting haunting power.
Although it is a super short novel, each story opens up a vast social space and contains depth of philosophy about people. The book does not tell great heroes, but focuses on ordinary people trying to live compassionately in a volatile world. It is the "simpleness" in form that highlights the humanistic depth and humanistic value of the work.
Super short novels are a very difficult writing genre. With "Simply I Wear White Clothes", after the books "Land and Blood" 750 pages thick, "Northeast Coal Basin" 450 pages thick, author Dang Huynh Thai continues to try his hand at shorter forms. Previously, he had the collection "Mother Returns to Heaven" including 50 super short stories, each story 200 words. With this collection, the author wants to contribute to the trend of super short, super thin - a suitable choice for readers in the digital age. If you are on the bus, in the airport waiting room... readers can open the book and read. In that "simpleness" is a whole life of words, a whole heart and responsibility to nature, to fellow human beings and to conscience. He writes for people and society.
