Wednesday, Jul 15, 2009

Book Review: Short Girls by Bich Minh Nguyen

Author:       Bich Minh Nguyen

Publisher:    Viking/Penguin

ISBN:          978-0-670-02081-2

Website:      http://www.bichminhnguyen.com

Type:         Fiction:General

Pages:        304 Hardcover

Release:      July 23, 2009

Purchase:    $17.13 @ Amazon.com (HERE)

The Story

“Van and Linny Luong are temperamental opposites. Diligent, unassuming Van has found her calling as an immigration lawyer in the Midwestern suburbs, but no one knows that her picture-perfect marriage has suddenly evaporated. Her younger sister, Linny, fashion-forward and socially adept, lives in Chicago where she has drifted into a dead-end affair with a married man. Though both women feel untethered and burdened by a secret, they’ve never been able to confide in each other.

But then, after nearly thirty years in the U.S., their eccentric, invention-obsessed father decides to take the citizenship oath–a rite of passage he hopes will improve the prospects of his most prized creation, the “Luong Arm,” an instrument to help short people grasp objects that are out of reach. When Van and Linny reluctantly heed the summons home they end up having to plan a celebration for him, replete with cha gio egg rolls, encounters with old friends from years past, and their father’s announcement that he will be trying out for a reality television show called “Tomorrow’s Great Inventor.” In the time warp of a childhood home unaltered since their mother’s death and insulated by the same Vietnamese American community they grew up with, Van and Linny find they are bound by much more than the duties of culture and family history, or their aging father’s demands and whims. As they chart the uncertainty that has defined them, as well as the bitter irony of their romantic straits, Van and Linny discover in their common cause a new, enduring connection that sees them through the host of surprises to come.”

(Excert is from www.bichminhnguyen.com)

The Review

From the author of Stealing Buddha’s Dinner, comes a novel about two Vietnamese sisters who are U.S. Citizens born of immigrant parents.  The girls, have gone in completely different directions with their lives.  Their relationship is strained and it is seemingly difficult, at best, for them to connect in a loving and real way.  The girls have lost their mother, however their father is an inventor who eventually gains his U.S. citizenship.  Van, the older sister, struggles to express herself when it comes to her personal life and interpersonal relationships.  Despite this, she has found success as an attorney.  Linny is experiencing the opposite scenario in a floundering career and incomplete education.  She never married and is involved in a relationship with a married man.  Their father lives alone in their family home working on his inventions targeted to aid short people. 

In reading this overall story, I compliment Nguyen on her clean, concise writing ability  She is most certainly a talented and promising writer.  She provides a well described story of an immigrant’s family life in the United States.  This includes the influence of American culture on their genetic/historic one… how they blend together and yet contradict one another.  She also provides insight into the prejudices that naturalized citizens and the children they have given birth to in the United States.  

I tended to gravitate towards Van’s story within the novel.  I felt most compelled by her disintegrating marriage and the way that her estranged husband treated her.  The story lines of her sister and father held little, if any interest for me.  I felt contempt for Linny as she continued her affair with a married man and living aimlessly.  I held compassion and pity for their father who was trapped within his own little world. 

Despite this writer’s obvious talent and penchant for writing, this story just didn’t hold my attention to the degree that I would have liked it to.  This novel hosts a solid story of one family’s legacy in America.  However, it just didn’t grab me and hold my attention the entire way through.  With that being said, Nguyen shall get my rating, genre: Fiction:General, of  7 OUT OF 10.   This book may maintain more of an impact for those who can better relate to the influence of their family’s immigration to the United States.

My heartfelt thanks to Yen at Viking/Penguin for providing me this promising read. 

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