“Perfume River” is the 16th novel written by the man who was once declared to have forever changed the genre of Vietnamese-related fiction. Robert Olen Butler makes his return to Off Square Books to share his latest novel today at 5 p.m.
Robert Quinlan serves as Butler’s main character and protagonist. At the heart of the novel are Robert’s relationships and history with the important people in his life. He and his wife Darla share both the college where they work and their strained marriage. Robert’s brother Jimmy ran away years ago to escape the Vietnam War, and the two brothers have been estranged ever since. “Robert goes to Vietnam to win his father’s love and pride. Jimmy takes the other path to Canada and exile,” Butler said. Another veteran, Robert and Jimmy’s father, is on his deathbed with a secret to share. And a homeless Vietnam veteran proves to have much more effect on Robert’s life than he ever anticipated.
“I’ve been working on this story for 60 of my 71 years,” Butler said. “‘Perfume River’ pulls together what I have experienced and is intuitive about the human condition. I was an adoptee within their culture, I was connected to Vietnam in a compassionate way. My experiences have involved a collision of cultures.”
The novel that paved the way for Butler’s fame for his contributions to the Vietnamese War genre, “A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain,” involved similar themes of reinvention. “Eighteen years after I was in Vietnam, I wrote a book in the voices of the Vietnamese people exiled into the United States. These people were forced to reinvent themselves into their new world,” Butler said. The idea of reinvention and communicating with the past runs through ‘Perfume River,’ too. Older generations must find peace and new life in their later years.
“I have seen the titular river, not during the war, but when I went back,” Butler added. “I’ve been back to Vietnam four times since the war. The river flows through the ancient capital Hue. It runs from the Vietnamese highlands to the sea. There are fruit orchards that drop blossoms into the river, which means the river gives a sweet smell nearer to the sea. The river is suggestive of the ways that the past flows through the present in ‘Perfume River.’ The past is always in dialogue with the present.”
Butler has written 16 novels and several short story collections. He is also the Michael Shaara Chair in Creative Writing at Florida State University, which means he knows a thing or two about the creative process. “My ideas come from the artistic unconscious,” Butler said. “I like to paraphrase from Graham Greene, who said that all authors have bad memories and what you do remember comes out as bad journalism. What you forget goes into the compost of imagination. What you have forgotten turns into dreams, which turns into books of the literary genre.
“My compost heap is quite a lot of life experiences,” Butler continued. “My time in Vietnam is certainly a major stratum there. My experience was singular because I spoke fluent Vietnamese. I was sent to language school before arriving in Vietnam. A lot of these experiences I pull from were with the Vietnamese people. I had a deep connection to the land and with the people. I was the translator and assistant to a diplomat in Saigon. At night, I would wander alone and unarmed into the steaming back allies of Saigon. The Vietnamese were a warm people, who welcomed me into their homes and lives. I ‘Vietnamesed’ myself there.
“Fiction is the art of human yearning,” Butler said. “Yearning for an identity and place in the universe. ‘Perfume River’ is ultimately a story about characters who are looking to their fathers and sons to find those answers for themselves.”
