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Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora Paperback – October 31, 2005

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Andrew Lam (Author)
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Andrew Lam (Author), Richard Rodriguez (Foreword)
4.7 out of 5 stars 15 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Heyday; Original edition (October 31, 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1597140201
  • ISBN-13: 978-1597140201
  • Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #687,709 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsSTRIKINGLY HONEST AND TRUE
By Mr. Wynn on November 13, 2005
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.
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5.0 out of 5 starsAndrew is a gifted writer and a gate keeper / historian for Vietnamese Americans
By Tony T. Tran on December 14, 2006
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.
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5.0 out of 5 starsImportant, poignant essays
By Quang Pham on May 28, 2006
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.
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4.0 out of 5 starsA great look into lives dramatically changed by history
By Califwriting on April 4, 2013
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
This attracted me because we recently visited Vietnam and appreciated the people so much. The book gives you a feel for how lives changed as the result of the war. The various family members and acquaintances that Andrew Lam describes have very different experiences and perspectives on emigrating to the US. He also covers the perspectives of people in Vietnam now. Reading this is a very rich way to "live" a unique immigration experience that we helped create.
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5.0 out of 5 starsA Look at Life through The Eyes of a Vietnamese-American
By W.H. McDonald Jr. on October 7, 2007
Format: Paperback
Andrew Lam writes with such great passion and sensitivity that one becomes totally absorbed in his essays that are in his award winning book "Perfume Dreams". Truly a gifted effort that delivers a literary image of what it feels like to be a Vietnamese-American immigrant. His essays are like a coming of age story with so much more depth than most you read today. This book is amazing and inspiring--it will leave you in an emotional state long after you put the book down.

The author writes about his culture and his struggles for identity. He has roots in two countries not only physically but also spiritually and emotionally as well. His observations, along with his reactions, thoughts and his musings about life and other people are both insightful and entertaining; his essays are important chronicles. The book can be read in an afternoon but it may take a lifetime to fully appreciate what the author has lived and written about.

The book is worthy of your time to its read. I give this book my fullest personal recommendation. This book is a FIVE STAR BOOK!
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4.0 out of 5 starsDown river
By Kev Minh Allen on November 15, 2014
Format: Paperback
Reading Lam's essays/stories gave me an important and incredible glimpse into another war refugee's experiences and thoughts on life and death. Being adopted from Vietnam as an infant, on paper, I'm part of the diaspora that came forth from the end of the Vietnam/American War. However, due to my age and circumstances, I have no recollection of my few months living in South Vietnam and no blood relations to tell me stories about the old country. The essays presented in Perfume Dreams made me reflect on what it might have, or could have, been like if I had left the country at an older age and with blood relatives.

I think the book is mainly a testament to the author's transformation from a rigid upbringing and deeply embedded cultural expectations into a world traveler and respected journalist. Each essay in the collection attempts to bring about a balance of subjective and objective points of view, and deftly comes to terms with ever-present nostalgia and modern reality.

In the future, I'm sure it'll be a pleasure to read his other two books that have been published since Perfume Dreams.
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5.0 out of 5 starsA telling recounting of one person's Diaspora
By Joseph Fabel on July 28, 2007
Format: Paperback
The telling of this most personal journey avoids any and all hyperbole or belittling. Boldly Andrew Lam presents the opportunities found by the exile who chooses to leave his homeland as well as the demanding adjustments he must undergo if he is to succeed in his adopted country.

Back in Vietnam he is viewed as one who is exceptional, a person who has achieved the highest level of sucess. Those opportunites, he finds, do not exist in fact or spirit in his native land.
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5.0 out of 5 starsHeartfelt
By RYCJ VINE VOICE on May 22, 2009
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Lam's writing is deeply moving. Going beneath an often impenetrable silence Lam reincarnates with passion, not only for himself and his family, but for many others as well, what it `feels' like to be an immigrant in America from Vietnam.

The stories are touching and genuine; the burning of the family memoirs and photos... painful. Trying to assimilate in American culture by telling wartime stories to assume popularity with classmates...tear-jerking, along with his first act of betrayal asking his brother, "Are you sure that's what you want me to say?" ...I had to laugh here however... reminded me so much of something I would have done/asked. And then the others; the Nguyen brothers, the long tearful flux of stories pouring from the detention center in Hong Kong, and his grandmother in the convalescent home... loved her however.

Tremendous & heartfelt writing. And indebted to the passage,' "Home is portable if one is in commune with one's soul. ...For mine is a landscape where Saigon, New York, and Paris intersect, where the Perfume River of Hue flows under the Golden Gate Bridge." Astonishing. Outstanding!
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