BA

In the editor's introduction to "A Time Far Past," we are encouraged to read this novel as a North Vietnamese perspective on the American Wars. Don't come here for such a story. Le Luu weaves a simple, heroic love story around life of a villager who refusal to submit to the fate of his childhood, arranged marriage. Going off to war to escape his wife, he still lacks the ability to define his sense of self. We watch his late-blooming after many failed relationships through the eyes of a somewhat moralizing and acutely critical narrator whose portrayal of shifting cultural values in Viet Nam is intimate and human. While this experimental, multiperspective narrative is sometimes unconvincing, I found I could not put it down. Among the few novels mentioned in the plot is Jane Eyre. My opinion is that if you like a good romance you will enjoy this.

This seems to be made up of many obsolete words. There was no intoduction to explain how the Vietnamese alphabet is used - that it is in a different order than in English. It explains to the Vietnamese user how the English is pronounced but does not do the same for the English speaker.

I am studying Vietnamese in college, and I have found that this book causes more confusion than it helps. It does not cleary define words, and it is inconsistent when translating from english to vietnamese and vietnamese to english. I would definitely not recommend this book. However, I did give it two stars (instead of one) because it did contain some obscure words I would not be able to find else where (like 'Jesus freak'). :)

This dictionary serves its purpose as a dictionary, giving Vietnamese equivalents for English words and English equivalents for Vietnamese words. If you expect any more than that, such as explanations on how to pronounce Vietnamese, grammatical explanations, or other resources that may helpful to the foreign learner of Vietnamese, you will have to look elsewhere. Things like sections on synonyms and antonyms in English would seem to make this dictionary more suited to the Vietnamese-speaking learner of English. The print quality isn't as horrible as it is in some Hippocrene dictionaries, but readability in some spots is iffy. This is especially a problem given the intricate array of accent marks that Vietnamese uses.

this book is undoubtedly awefully written. I normally do not bother to make any comments unless it is beyond bear and forbear. This one fits nicely and consequently got my comment. Can someone write a better book?

Recognize that this is only a second edition and that all the bugs have not been worked out yet. I have found several typos, misprints, errored calculations, etc. within this text. Also, the layout is not student friendly. Studying for several hours from this text will cause headaches. It is very difficult to look back in a chapter and find something as the sections don't readily stand out. The authors appear to struggle at times to clarify the issues surrounding a topic. Very often this vague writing leaves the student with the responsibility of deciphering the author's intentions. Also, the errors can cause horrendous confusion. They can be overcome, but only when the student understands the material enough to recognize an error. Overall, this is a fairly poor book especially for those looking to learn advanced accounting. This book should be more accurate as the only change it really recieved is an update concerning the impairment of goodwill.