Dumb Luck - Vũ Trọng Phụng

"Dumb Luck and Zinoman's thorough, scholarly, eye-opening introduction to it ought to earn Phụng a secure niche in the academic world lit canon for some time to come." - MultiCultural Review

"An amusing read both in Vietnamese and English, and worthwhile for its unique and comical look at Hanoi in social transition." - World Literature Today

Dumb Luck, by the brilliant, controversial, and influential writer Vũ Trọng Phụng, is a bitter satire of the rage for modernization in Vietnam during the late- colonial era. First published in 1936 but banned in most of Vietnam until 1986, it follows the absurd and unexpected rise within colonial society of a street-smart vagabond named Red-haired Xuân. As it charts Xuân's fantastic social ascent, the novel provides a panoramic view of late-colonial urban social order-from the filthy sidewalks of Hanoi's old commercial quarter to the gaudy mansions of the emergent Francophile northern upper classes. This masterful English transla- tion richly captures the novel's humor, richly drawn characters, clever plot, and its preoccupation with sex, fashion, and capitalism.