As a Vietnamese girl coming of age in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Bich Nguyen is filled with a rapacious hunger for American identity. In the pre-PC era Midwest, where the devoutly Christian blond-haired, blue-eyed Jennifers and Tiffanys reign supreme, Nguyenβs barely conscious desire to belong transmutes into a passion for American food. More exotic seeming than her Buddhist grandmotherβs traditional specialtiesβspring rolls, delicate pancakes stuffed with meats, fried shrimp cakesβthe campy, preservative-filled βdelicaciesβ of mainstream America capture her imagination. And in this remarkable book, the glossy branded allure of such American foods as Pringles, Kit Kats, and Toll House cookies become an ingenious metaphor for her struggle to fit in, to become a βrealβ American.
Beginning with Nguyenβs familyβs harrowing migration from Saigon in 1975, Stealing Buddhaβs Dinner is nostalgic and candid, deeply satisfying and minutely observed, and stands as a unique vision of the immigrant experience and a lyrical ode to how identity is often shaped by the things we long for.
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Today - February 18, 2007 All Things Considered - February 6, 2007
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