![]() The story unfolds non-chronologically, so we grow to understand the family and its history in fits and starts that make the tough emotional terrain easier to navigate. And finally - perhaps most movingly - it tracks the way trauma can move like a wave through a family. Second, it illuminates the immigrant experience, the singular combination of hope and challenges inherent in settling in the US. ![]() First, it vividly evokes what it was like to be a Vietnamese person trapped in the ravages of the seemingly endless conflicts of the 20th century. Their emigration to the US, the country that recently - brutally - bombed their homeland.ĭuring their dangerous, heart-rending adventures, this book does three things exceedingly well. Their arrival in Malaysia with almost nothing. We see their nighttime escape from Vietnam on a boat. And this book sets out to answer questions raised by this setup: Why is the grandmother the way she is? What effect does that have on the rest of the family? ![]() Instead, it’s marked by complicated emotions. The story begins in a maternity ward: a woman is giving birth to her son while her mother waits in the next room, reflecting on the impending birth of her grandson. With elegant, watercolor-washed ink illustrations and poignantly honest emotional beats, this memoir tells the story of one family’s journey from war-torn Vietnam to the United States. ![]()
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