"Street Stories" - A narrative about contemporary urban areas by writer Pham Quang Long

The seminar received the attention and participation of the Board of Directors, lecturers, staff of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Women's Publishing House, the Writers' Association, many veteran writers, researchers, literary critics, and many students and young readers from many universities. Under the guidance of Researcher Pham Xuan Nguyen, scholars: Prof. Dr. Tran Nho Thin, Assoc. Prof. Dr. La Khac Hoa, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Van Toan, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Thanh Hung, Researcher Tran Hinh, Researcher Bui Viet Thang, Prof. Dr. Tran Ngoc Vuong, Dr. Tran Ngoc Hieu and many of his students at the Faculty of Literature, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi National University of Education,... discussed many interesting issues surroundingStreet storiesand poetics of Pham Quang Long's novel.

The workshop was held right at the Hall on the 1st floor of Building E, creating an extremely open, intimate, and simple space, but it was the person and artistic style of writer Pham Quang Long that
 

Researcher Pham Xuan Nguyen leads the professional exchange part of the discussion.

Pham Quang Long brings readers profound insights and unique philosophies about "villages" and "cities".

Readers have known a writer Pham Quang Long who is full of concerns about the problems of the world, of the country in the movements and changes, passionate about the stories of the countryside from the past to the present. Recently, we have known the novelist Pham Quang Long who penetrates and understands urban life, imagines people and urban life through a special space - the space of the old town, through stories about people who were familiar to him during his years at the University in "Chuyen pho".
Author Pham Quang Long emotionally shared:“I write and look at my teachers’ generation, they will forever be the most beautiful images in my life, the intelligence and personality of the teachers are so high and at the most difficult times, I have clung to that to live, I will live, work to live up to the reputation of the school I studied, not to make my teachers worry and now I write to express my gratitude to my teachers, colleagues and friends”.

Author Pham Quang Long shares at the discussion about the novel "Street Stories"
 

"Pham Quang Long's novels are all stories, from stories about friends to stories about the countryside, from stories about life philosophy to stories about the city and current events. They are all stories, stories that go beyond the dry framework of written records and become confidences and feelings like stories of the heart, that cannot be helped but be confided and shared with friends and readers.

Street Stories, the latest novel by writer Pham Quang Long

Street storiesRevolving around the story of Mr. Muu's family, Chuyen Pho recreates the vivid landscape of the life of a "original" Hanoi family in the evacuation area; especially after Mr. Muu returned to the city, the single father raised his children and struggled through two wars. The attitude of Mr. Muu - a true merchant, quietly knowing the future and avoiding the storms of the times, and the conflicts and clashes arising from the grudges and plots between his children, causing the family's traditional cultural foundation to increasingly crack,... all of these things have created narrative knots, at the same time making the perspective on "Street" and "Hanoi" in Pham Quang Long's works become new and encompass many layers of hidden meanings. “Street Stories” is also a story of life, or more accurately, a story about the society and urban culture of contemporary Hanoi, which he vividly recreated through the ups and downs of the fate of people from many regions far from Hanoi who came to the capital to make a living. But the atmosphere that pervades the novel is still the excitement of the work of building and creating a socialist-oriented society, which is, in truth, the work of making a living and seeking happiness for oneself.” "Each character in the novel has his own destiny and his own concerns. "Street Stories" presents a mosaic of fragments of Hanoi's streets. In it, author Pham Quang Long, using a dialogue writing style, puts the characters in a state of frustration, with little action, mostly "doing little, talking a lot" so that the issues raised for discussion are transformed into "stories". Many stories do not take place sequentially according to a time structure but are shortened and synthesized into an issue of urgent significance that makes readers ponder.

A humanistic outlook on life and the concern to preserve the nation's traditional cultural quintessence

450 pages thick, the novel “Chuyen pho” by writer Pham Quang Long is considered by many critics as a “work worth reading” with a rich and unique world of characters, with a profound humanistic perspective. As a novel of world affairs, reflecting the hot stories of the times, “Chuyen pho” has a historical color, reminiscent of “the old traces of horse carriages and the soul of autumn grass” in the described ancient townhouses, in the character traits of the original characters of Trang An that are dotted.

In the "Afterword" of the novel, Associate Professor Dr. Pham Thanh Hung shared:“Chuyen pho” is also a story of life or more precisely a story about the society and urban culture of contemporary Hanoi, which he vividly recreated through the ups and downs of the fate of people from many regions far from Hanoi who came to the capital to make a living. But the atmosphere that pervades the novel is still the excitement of the work of building and creating a socialist-oriented society, which is, frankly, the work of making a living and seeking happiness for oneself.”