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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Michel L'Herpiniere was a child of the French empire who arrived in Hanoi in 1936 with his family as a teenager. The family became enamoured with the country and the story follows the next fifteen turbulent years: through Michel's school and university years, his loves and opium addictions, his soldiering experiences, through resistance and incarceration and starvation under the Japanese, his marriage to a planter's daughter and the loss of their estate, through his experiences during the Vietminh siege of Hanoi and its aftermath, and his desperate attempts to keep his business going and raise a family in Hanoi long after most French civilians had left the country. The story is inevitably entwined through the traumatic events of the time, including the Japanese occupation in WWII, the post-war Chinese occupation, the rise of the Vietminh, the fall of French Indochina and the beginning of the American involvement in Vietnam. (author's website)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Family China
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: Brisbane News , 2 - 8 August no. 598 2006; (p. 25)
— Review of Hanoi, Adieu : A Bittersweet Memoir of French Indochina 2005 single work biography -
The Quiet Frenchman
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 18 - 19 March 2006; (p. 18-19)
— Review of Hanoi, Adieu : A Bittersweet Memoir of French Indochina 2005 single work biography -
War's Bitter Legacy
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 11 March 2006; (p. 7)
— Review of Hanoi, Adieu : A Bittersweet Memoir of French Indochina 2005 single work biography -
Vietnam Revisited: A Land of Broken Dreams
2005
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 22 October 2005; (p. 13)
— Review of Hanoi, Adieu : A Bittersweet Memoir of French Indochina 2005 single work biography
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Vietnam Revisited: A Land of Broken Dreams
2005
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 22 October 2005; (p. 13)
— Review of Hanoi, Adieu : A Bittersweet Memoir of French Indochina 2005 single work biography -
War's Bitter Legacy
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 11 March 2006; (p. 7)
— Review of Hanoi, Adieu : A Bittersweet Memoir of French Indochina 2005 single work biography -
The Quiet Frenchman
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 18 - 19 March 2006; (p. 18-19)
— Review of Hanoi, Adieu : A Bittersweet Memoir of French Indochina 2005 single work biography -
Family China
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: Brisbane News , 2 - 8 August no. 598 2006; (p. 25)
— Review of Hanoi, Adieu : A Bittersweet Memoir of French Indochina 2005 single work biography
Awards
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cVietnam,cSoutheast Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
- ca. 1936-1970