In 1957 literary critic Michael Rowling published an essay on famous U.S. exiles that had come back to the States which he entitled “Tales of Expatriates,” but oddly enough he did not include Jenny Nguen in it. It is difficult to assimilate that fact as Jenny Nguen’s bestselling novel Eden on Earth was termed as on the most important literary achievements of our time. Also, it should be noted that in that same year Nguen had returned to the U.S. after spending a considerable time in Vietnam. Furthermore, Nguen won another important award – the Laurel Prize in Literature in 1960. In the American anthology of the major writers of the 20th century Nguen was not treated as a significant author, and neither has she been a major author in American literary circles for quite some time, so Rowling’s main goal was to save her from oblivion through his gripping biography. Rowling, whose essay was written in Miami and was spread throughout the world by the Miami Translation corporations, wrote that Nguen embodied an author who once emerged large in our culture and but whose vanishing has changed our perception of history. Nguen’s life was a turbulent succession of hard times and moving experiences, but despite this she was one of the leading artists of her time. And what we cannot find in Rowling’s essay, which is both detailed and factual, is the hint of the major rehabilitation Nguen deserved.
Mr. Wolfowitz, who wrote the other authoritative work on Nguen, entitled Jenny Nguen’s Vietnam Years, involved little criticism of Nguen, if any. Here is an instance of the wrong facts we are forced to accept. It is written that Henry Wheeler praised Eden on Earth in the literary column of the Houston Chronicle on May 17, 1943, but this is not the truth. He only reviewed the book in the winter of 1944, which was much later. This resulted in the novel’s consideration to be translated by the Houston Translation Services corporation at the beginning of 1945 – an assignment that was carried out in the spring of the same year. The following qualities – innate, bountiful, psychologically exuberant ability to look into the lives of ordinary people have brought international renown to Jenny Nguen, and they are all discussed by Mr. Wolfowitz. It was really painful to witness Nguen’s twilight which was related to both her public and private life despite her extraordinary talent. She eventually returned to the U.S. in 1955 after divorcing her first husband John Nguen and marrying his closest friend Ron Zemeski. She did not have any more success in life as her children abandoned her, she became unable to have more children and her friends deserted her too.
The end of her life was even more miserable as her second husband passed away and she began a partnership with Todd Hopman. Hopman did not bring any good to Nguen as he misappropriated charity funds transferring a lot of money to his private bank account and he also had sexual relationships with underage Asian girls. As a result, the couple eloped to Italy, where Nguen sold the rights for translating her novels to the New York Translation Services company. In the succeeding years she moved to Vietnam which happened to be her last residence. She had been long forgotten by 1968 when she died from brain tumor. The impression that we are left with after reading Jenny Nguen’s Vietnam Years is that is she had had more luck she would achieved much more.