Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora [Paperback]

Andrew Lam (Author), Richard Rodriguez (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2005

Winner of the 2006 PEN/Beyond Margins Award

A Book Sense Notable Book December 2005

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Lam writes with the honesty of a true journalist and the feeling of a born storyteller." --Maxine Hong Kingston, author

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 award-winning syndicated writer, an editor with the Pacific News Service, and a regular commentator on National Public RadioÂ’s "All Things Considered." He co-founded New California Media, and his essays have appeared in dozens of newspapers and magazines across the country, including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Baltimore Sun, the Atlanta Journal, the Chicago Tribune, Mother Jones, The Nation, and Earth Island Journal.

Product Details

• Paperback: 140 pages
• Publisher: Heyday Books; Original edition (October 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597140201
• ISBN-13: 978-1597140201
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #69,838 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

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

By 

Mr. Wynn (State of Confusion) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora (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.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

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

By 

Quang Pham "Quang Pham" (Orange County, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora (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.

14 of 15 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 (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora (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.