Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora [Paperback]

Andrew Lam (Author), Richard Rodriguez (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2005

''When Americans say Vietnam, they don't mean Vietnam.''

In his long-overdue first collection of essays, noted journalist and NPR commentator Andrew Lam explores his lifelong struggle for identity as a Viet Kieu, or a Vietnamese national living abroad. At age eleven, Lam, the son of a South Vietnamese general, came to California on the eve of the fall of Saigon to communist forces. He traded his Vietnamese name for a more American one and immersed himself in the allure of the American dream: something not clearly defined for him or his family.

Reflecting on the meanings of the Vietnam War to the Vietnamese people themselves--particularly to those in exile--Lam picks with searing honesty at the roots of his doubleness and his parents' longing for a homeland that no longer exists.

Winner of the 2006 PEN/Beyond Margins Award
A Book Sense Notable Book December 2005

Editorial Reviews

Review

''Lam shatters the assumptions of readers who have encountered the Vietnam experience only through American pop culture....He writes with the delicacy and intensity of a poet.''--Los Angeles Times Book Review

''Andrew Lam writes with the honesty of a true journalist and the feeling of a born storyteller. On his many journeys between Vietnam and the U.S., he sees first-hand the global consequences of war. Perfume Dreams is a meaningful book for our times.''--Maxine Hong Kingston, author of The Fifth Book of Peace and Woman Warrior

''Much will be made--and rightly so--of the eloquent commentary Andrew Lam's essays provide on Vietnam and the Vietnamese. But his collected essays have a far deeper reach. Lam brilliantly illuminates the universal issues of self and home and human striving. Andrew Lam speaks to each of us quite individually and personally, with wit and compassion, about the things that connect us all at the deepest level. Perfume Dreams is a fascinating and important book by a truly gifted writer.''--Robert Olen Butler, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

''Lam paints unforgettable portraits of the horror of refugee camps, a father who was once a three-star general, and a rebellious son who finally finds his own home, not in Vietnam or United States, but in the country of story.''--Maria Hummel, author of Wilderness Run

''As a first-generation Vietnamese American, Lam is able to write about the full spectrum of the Vietnamese immigrant experience, ranging from memories of idyllic childhood in Saigon to his family's painful post-war exile in America. Lam's insights into Asian American life are reflected in candid, witty anecdotes that reveal much about the difficulties of living in two cultures.'' --Audrey Magazine

In this powerful collection of essays, Lam, a syndicated columnist and National Public Radio commentator, explores his identity as a Viet Kieu (a Vietnamese national living abroad) residing in the United States. On April 28, 1975, 11-year-old Lam and his family fled Saigon aboard a crowded C130 cargo plane just two days before the fall of Saigon to Communist forces (a day Lam would come to know as an "American rebirth"). His father, a respected South Vietnamese general, followed soon after, reuniting with the family in California, where they would begin at the bottom rung as they struggled to fulfill the American Dream. Looking deep within himself and his fellow Viet Kieu, Lam seeks to "marry two otherwise dissimilar and often conflicting narratives." He cites cultural critic Edward Said as he shows that to transcend one's national limits one must not reject attachments to the past but work through them. Lam, who grows to realize that home is "portable if one is in commune with one's soul," embraces the journey of self-discovery and concludes that one's identity is not fixed but "open-ended." What results is a cohesive presentation with broad appeal, allowing non-Viet Kieu to understand Lam's experiences. --Library Journal

About the Author

Andrew Lam is an editor and cofounder of New America Media, an association of over two thousand ethnic media outlets in America. His essays have appeared in dozens of newspapers and magazines across the country, and his short stories are anthologized widely. Followed by a film crew back to his homeland, Vietnam, he was featured in the documentary My Journey Home, which aired nationwide on PBS in 2004. His book Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora won a PEN American Beyond Margins award in 2006. Lam currently lives in San Francisco.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Heyday; Original edition (October 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597140201
• ISBN-13: 978-1597140201
• Product Dimensions: 0.5 x 5.7 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #365,401 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Andrew Lam is the author of "Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora" and "East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres." He is also a senior editor and writer at New America Media and for a period of 8 years, a commentator on NPR's All Things Considered. His next book, "Birds of Paradise" - a collection of short stories - will be published in 2013. He lives in San Francisco, California.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars STRIKINGLY HONEST AND TRUE November 13, 2005

By Mr. Wynn

Format:Paperback

As I read this collection of essays, I almost felt as if it were my own memoir. Lam's feelings of growing up in two different cultures struck a cord in me and made me realize that someone else out there felt the same way I did growing up in America.

This is an important piece of literature because it truly captures the sentiment of the Vietnamese-American torn between two cultures, betweeen the contemporary and the traditional, between two separate generations, between war and peace.

For anyone who grew up feeling not really accepted by either your heritage culture or the current one, this is the book for you. Lam truly captures the Vietnamese-American experience and I highly recommend this book.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Andrew is a gifted writer and a gate keeper / historian for Vietnamese Americans December 14, 2006

By Tony T. Tran

Format:Paperback

Perfume Dreams is a must read book for all Vietnamese Americans. Andrew is a gifted writer, a gate keeper / history teller for Vietnamese American who are living in America. He has never lost his touch with his root.

The Perfum Dreams touches all sides of experiences the Vietnamese refugees and immigrants. The "haves and not haves, the fortunate and unfortunate" lives of Vietnamese-Americans.

I am looking forward for more of his future books. We should all feel proud to have someone like Andrew to keep us in touch with ourselves and remind us of the challenges in living in America.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Important, poignant essays May 28, 2006

By Quang Pham VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Andrew Lam has been writing about the Vietnamese diaspora longer than anyone I know. Since the early 1990s his works have appeared in national publications. "Perfume Dreams" is the amalgamation of his perspectives, ones that many of us former refugees can relate in our own lives. I had the pleasure of taking part in book events in NYC and LA with Andrew. In a way we've come full circle since our last elementary school day in Saigon when a defecting South Vietnamese jet bombed the Presidential Palace a few hundred meters across the street. Pick up this must-have book to better understand the Vietnamese identity in America.