Review 570: Boat Baby: A Memoir

Boat Baby: A Memoir by Vicky Nguyen
My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars

Although Vicky Nguyen is on a popular broadcast news network, I have never heard of her. I’m not one to watch broadcast news actually. In any case, her story of being an immigrant from Vietnam was one I wanted to read. There are some similarities to my sister-in-law and her family, to some degree. Although, I think my in laws had a more harrowing experience with the pirates on their boat.

The first half of this book describes her parents background, their leaving Vietnam, and her early years; these were great reading. I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author and loved hearing the Vietnamese pronunciation, even though it may be an Americanized version as she states.

Somewhere along the way the story seemed to lose some focus, or maybe it was my interest. There were some things discussed, talked about in the book that wasn’t full explored, left me as a reader wondering why was that included. Other times, a situation felt important to her and her family, but not to me as a reader. Maybe I just don’t get memoirs sometimes.

For myself the ending was abrupt, or overall there was a missing part of the book, what exactly I’m not entirely sure. Maybe it is emotion, although that is not fully absent. In any case, I’m glad I read this book, learned about another person’s lived experience which is different than mine. There definitely needs to be more books like this.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I listened to a published audiobook copy of the book.

Review 149: The Refugees

The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars



The more books I read the less I enjoy short stories, so perhaps my rating is reflected in that aspect. And I would rate it closer to 3.5 stars. I never felt fully immersed in the stories, perhaps that is due to the format. The writing was decent, straight forward. Most of the stories had the theme of children and parents not getting each other, certainly common with immigrants and the next generation.

I listed to the audio book of this collection of short stories. I wasn't a fan of the narrator. Perhaps that did sway my overall rating for this book, but doubtful. Generally I can pay attention to the words, what is being said and not have the narration effect the book itself. Although a good narrator does enhance!  That said, I do not books that start out with ghosts.

Review 138: Sigh, Gone: A Misfit's Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In

Sigh, Gone: A Misfit's Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In by Phuc Tran
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book took me much longer to read than it should. I kept putting it aside. Was it the book or me? I tend to think it was the book. While it was written well, there didn’t seem to be a strong thread pulling the story forward that made me want to keep going. Once a chapter finished, it could have been the end of the story, for each chapter.

The frame of the chapters was a great choice, starts out with a classic literature book, then relates how that fit into his life at that time. For example: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is compared to his teenage transformation, he cannot control and his body does something different and his family treats him differently, much like Gregor Samsa when he turned into a bug with his family reaction.

I particularly enjoyed one of the later chapters “The Autobiography of Malcom X” and Tran’s look at racism. For me that was his most powerful chapter. I wanted to call it essay, since that is what this felt like, a group of essays, that also happen to follow Tran as he ages, starting young when the family left Vietnam to when he graduates high school. Oddly enough, I wanted more post-high school, how was college for him, how did he change?

The book is very readable and relatable.
Overall rating 3.5 stars, and rounded up.


Thanks to Flatiron Books/Macmillan and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.