Hoàng's account of her and her family's experience as Vietnamese immigrants to America offers a wonderful look at how American culture appears to an outsider. The book weaves in elements of history, politics, and philosophy, making it a very thought-provoking read. I did sometimes find the prose to be a bit dense which meant it took me quite a long time to read.

Anvi Hoang has penned down her family’s and her own experiences growing up in Vietnam through this simple memoir. This book is quite insightful when it comes to pointing out some of the characteristic behaviors and ideologies of people who hail from countries which were prior colonies of the European colonists. I particularly liked how she described the extreme admiration and how such countries look up to the way of living and thinking of their colonisers, despite the atrocious past that they share. It’s almost as if people temporarily forget the everlasting heinous effects that these colonists have left behind in the economic, political and mental well-being of countries like Vietnam.
I also enjoyed the portrayal of how the Vietnamese society downplays the efforts taken by women in Vietnam’s struggle for independence and restoration of peace. The interesting anecdotes of how her grandmother laboured throughout her youth so that she can make ends meet for her family were very touching. Her take on how men are conveniently portrayed as the heroes that survived the war or the political turmoil of Vietnam’s past reminded me a bit of Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste and Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.
She has covered many topics like feelings of displacement in a new country, racism, the constant reminder of the Vietnam war by her peers in America and what it feels like to be someone who has different places and memories that they call “home”. The manner in which she concluded all her thoughts in the last third of the memoir was intriguing and kept me glued to the book.
Overall this is a 3 star read for me, which I enjoyed except for certain parts where I thought that the narration and the story was being repeated, which was slightly exhausting. But overall I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading a personal account of how it feels to be an immigrant, carrying the weight of their country’s past and trying to build their own name and place in a new country like the United States.