Reviewed by Kristin
Bich (pronounced “Bit”) Minh Nguyen came to the
United States from Saigon in 1975, when she was only eight months old. Amidst the bombing, thousands of people were
running, trying to maneuver their way onto the departing boats. Bich’s family made it onto one of the last
available boats. Once in the United
States, her family was kept in a refugee camp in Arkansas for months until a
sponsor was found to help them settle in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
This memoir is all about being separate from the
American culture, but also being different and not fitting in with other
Vietnamese. When Bich visited friends’
houses, she discovered just how different her family’s food, customs and
manners were. Bich lived with her
father, big sister Anh, grandmother Noi, step-mother Rosa, step-sister Crissy,
half-brother Vinh, uncle Chu Cuong and his friend Chu Dai. Her grandmother cooked traditional Vietnamese
dishes such as spring rolls, fried shrimp cakes, pancakes stuffed with meats
herbs and bean sprouts, pho, stewed beef and eggs, and shrimp curry.
With all the variety in her diet, Bich still wanted
American junk and convenience foods.
Images of racks filled with candy and packaged snack cakes filled her
mind, with 80’s music and television shows filling the background. Van
Halen, Sheila E., Michael Jackson, Pat Benetar, Cyndi Lauper were but a few
populating her personal soundtrack. Bich
and sister Anh immersed themselves in American pop culture, including Barbies, Days
of our Lives, MTV, Charlie’s Angels, Laverne and Shirley, Little Women, Little
House on the Prairie, Wonder Woman, Sesame Street and so much more. Seeing commercials of “Hey Kool-Aid!” and the
Pillsbury Dough Boy tied their daily television exposure to the typical
American foods that Bich so craved.
Following her Buddhist tradition, Grandmother Noi
had a shrine to Buddha and placed the best fruits on it, taking the fruit down
days later and cutting it up for the family.
Bich continued to feel the struggles between her family’s religion and
the prevailing Midwestern conservative Christian community surrounding Grand
Rapids.
While the beginning of the book practically ignores
why the family came to the United States without Bich’s mother, eventually this
is revealed. Bich, Anh and their
half-brother Vinh had strong maternal figures in step-mother Rosa and grandmother
Noi. Rosa was portrayed as a force of
nature, melding together her Latina heritage with her husband’s Vietnamese
family. Bich visited Vietnam with her
grandmother and uncle in 1997 and found herself an outsider there as well. This
is not necessarily a book of the typical immigrant experience; it is a
portrayal of a young person struggling to fit into her adopted community.
I waited until after I had read the book to see what other reviewers said. I was a bit surprised to see that there were a number of negative reviews, most saying that the narrator was too whiny. I didn't feel that way, and I certainly enjoyed the book.
The author has also written two novels that are
reflective of her experience as a Vietnamese-American: Short Girls and Pioneer Girl.
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