“The Lotus and the Storm” by Lan Cao, Vietnamese-American lawyer, like Mai, her protagonist, whose alternate personality talks to a myna bird

The first third of this novel switches back and forth between Vietnam in the 1960s and the USA in 2006.

During Mai’s childhood in southern Vietnam, her grandfather has been decapitated by the Vietcong and her sister is killed by a stray bullet. As an adult in Virginia, USA, she works as a lawyer and looks after her ailing father.

Mai as Adult

Her father describes an episode in which Mai, who is usually calm and supportive, suddenly becomes agitated and uncommunicative:

“Suddenly, there is a crash. My heart leaps inside my chest. A calamitous look flashes across Mai’s face…She has turned stormy. She is an exclamation mark that screams out at you. I am unsure. Is she reachable…?

“ ‘Don’t talk to me,’ she says…Her voice comes from a place outside herself…

“Is it madness, spirit possession…?

“…and then as quickly as it all began, the storm vanishes” (1, pp. 79-80).

Mai and the Mynah Bird

When Mai is nine, her sister, thirteen, is killed by a stray bullet, and Mai becomes mute for many months.

During this time, Mai is vaguely aware of a mysterious presence, her interpretation of which is that “My sister has turned into a ghost” (1, p. 129).

And then there is the episode of the mynah bird, who not only repeats what people in the family say to it, but, to some extent, converses. The mystery is how the bird is picking up all kinds of new words that nobody is known to have said to it.

Then, strangely, the bird starts to address Mai as “Cecile” and says “Cecile plays” (1, pp. 137-138). Mai does not know what the bird is talking about.

Apparently, mute Mai has a speaking alternate personality, Cecile, who has been playing with the mynah bird (although neither Mai nor her family thinks of it in terms of multiple personality). All are pleased when Mai soon starts to speak again.

1. Lan Cao. The Lotus and the Storm. New York, Viking, 2014.

2. Lan Cao interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_rFxf0spWg

3. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lan_Cao

4. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lotus_and_the_Storm