Description
Book SynopsisLike Viet Thanh Nguyen’s acclaimed The Sympathizer, VietnamEazy captures with startling honesty and detail the dizzying dislocation that so many Vietnamese arrivals in the United States have experienced and, like Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, explores the age-old mysteries of the mother-daughter relationship. It tells the story of Kieu, a Vietnamese-American woman, and her quest for success on a TV cooking show, introducing the intoxicating allure of Vietnamese food to a general audience, interwoven with the haunting, sorrowful tale of her family and upbringing. This is a universal tale of redemption that mothers and daughters can read together and discuss, preferably over a steaming bowl of pho.
Trade Review"Part immigrant story, part reality-TV sendup, and part cookbook, this remarkable novel hooks the reader with a string of unforgettable images: a grandmother complaining about her sagging breasts; a Zumba instructor shouting at her class in Vietnamese; a mother arriving late in clicking heels to her daughter's emergency surgery. Author Trami Nguyen Cron reminds us that good writing reaches our hearts only through our senses." --Novelist Nick Taylor, author of Father Junipero's Confessor "This book captures the true essence of Vietnamese cooking. It is a must-have for all Vietnamese cuisine lovers." --Chef Khai Vu, owner of District One Vietnamese restaurant, Las Vegas "Trami Nguyen Cron's lively and appealing debut novel draws in the reader and keeps her hooked. Charming, amusing and moving." --Novelist Emily Mitchell, author of The Last Summer of the World "Each of the novel's chapters begins with a recipe -- among them, Feminine Salad, Sour Fish Soup and Hades Rice. Food is not only a central theme in the storytelling, it's the connective tissue between Kieu, her mother and her mother's mother, each of whom have different ideas of what it means to be a woman in the modern world. What follows is a Joy Luck Club-style cross-generational interplay between Asian women, each shaped by different psychological and emotional circumstances." --Wallace Baine, San Jose Mercury News
