Reviews

• Book arrived promptly. Condition as described.

• I like to read in bed for a while before falling asleep and this book was a perfect choice. Each story was short enough to not be tiring. So much for the practical level. On every other level, this book excels beyond my most optimistic expectations. Such artistry to have crammed so much story in so little space without crowding. What a huge challenge it must be for anyone having to leave their country to live in another country, another language, another culture, which couldn't be more different than their own. At least the climate in Louisiana must be familiar to Vietnamese people. I feel like these people I've met in this book over the last month or more of bedtime reading could be any of my neighbors. But I also know that if they were my actual neighbors, how difficult it would be to get to know them well, much as I would like to. The barriers imposed by language and custom make it difficult to trust and open up to one another and share our stories. I would like to thank the author, Robert Olen Butler, for introducing me to a people I know nothing about and whom I've only known in a very shallow way through eating at Vietnamese restaurants. I am deeply moved by these stories. This book is very special. I'm glad I bought it (instead of borrowing it from the library) so I can re-read it after a while.

• Loved these stories; beautifully written and lots of food for thought.

• I love books that delineate the complexities of human emotions and motivations, and this book is absolutely superb in that regard. The first story in the collection describes a man, recently widowed, who is forced to watch pornography. The desire he feels leads to carnal memories of his wife, which leads to horrific recollections of her violent murder. I'm also always impressed by men who can write lucidly from a female perspective. My favorite story in the collection describes a woman taking care of her grandfather's parrot, and it fits love, resentment, obligation and death together so perfectly that I can't describe the plot without recounting the entire story all over again. I read a few reviews here that complained that the author doesn't really "get" what it's like to be Vietnamese. This is my closest experience of the culture, so I can't judge either way. However, I didn't strictly see these stories as Vietnamese, so much as they were a study in internal monologue (I believe every story is told in the first person). More than anything, I identified with the author's sense of the human condition. I was born after the Vietnam war, so I learned a lot from this book. It hadn't occurred to me that the South has a very similar climate to Vietnam, and I didn't know that many Vietnamese settled there (and I am left with the question: where is Vietnamese / Southern fusion cooking??). All in all, this is a fascinating, beautiful read. So why only four stars? Because while I felt like I knew everything about the inside of these characters, I didn't get much of a sense of the outside. I didn't feel the horror of war, or the lush, clingy warmth of quasi-tropical weather. I have to admit I liked "Interpreter of Maladies", the Indian version of this book, better. That may not be fair, because "Interpreter of Maladies" was written after this one was, and may very well have drawn from it. In sum: this book is an incredible look into the life of the mind. If you like that kind of thing, this is a must-read.

• Dieses ist eines der besten Buecher ueber die vietnamesische Diaspora in Amerika,u dies aus dem Blickpunkt von Frauen der meisten Erzaehlungen u ,geschrieben von diesem Mann.! Empfehlenswert,fuer Leser,welche sich vorher schon mit diesem Thema beschaeftigt haben. Aehnlich,u ebenso gut ist das Buch von Viet Than Nguyen ;; The Refugees,, Sehr aktuelles Thema zu dieser Zeit Beide Buecher hab ich in Englisch gelesen....

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