The Frangipani Hotel

I recently read The Frangipani Hotel by Violet Kupersmith.

It’s a collection of short stories about Vietnam and its myths and legends. It’s obviously colored by the influence of the Vietnam War; many of the stories are ghost stories of fantastical creatures who have followed Vietnamese characters and haunt them in a variety of ways. Kupersmith’s grandmother’s folk tales are the basis for many of these stories.

This is Kupersmith’s first book, and it is very well-written. As always, though, with short stories, there are some that are amazing and some that are not as amazing; these lean towards almost all amazing, which is nice. I did think the collection was very good and hope to see a longer book out of her in the future. Her ability to turn the story around, to make you wonder what just happened, and her characters’ abilities to deal with the crazy and the scary were definitely worth a second read. Most of the characters lead fairly normal, boring lives until they mix with the supernatural. The connections to Vietnamese culture and the shadow of the Vietnam War are also intriguing. The book is due to release April 1.