THE FAMILY RECIPE by Carolyn Huynh, is the author's second book. It's about first-generation Vietnamese American siblings with the same mother but different fathers. The siblings are all grown up in their 20s, spread across America and mostly estranged from each other. They are especially estranged from their mother who left them without a word when most of them were in their teens. Being brought up by the best their father could with help from his best friend, Uncle Huey, the siblings mostly dislike but tolerate him.
Their father, Duc Tran, his best friend Huey, and their mother Evelyn were all war immigrants. After years of struggle, their father found success and money via his sandwich shops. Once he was a success and all four of his shops were running well. Evelyn the children's mother left without a word. The children resented everything their father stood for and as soon as they could, left home to pursue their own interests. Now a decade and some years later the children have been summoned home by their uncle and told of their father's will and terms of inheritance. The children find the conditions of their inheritance ridiculous though they all suck it up and get to work.
While the siblings are planning a revamp of their allocated stores; Father Duc Tran is hiding in Vietnam. Uncle Huey is keeping an eye on the kids. The youngest daughter accidentally finds their mother hiding in New Orleans. As she moves to forge a bond with their mother and try to find answers to questions they all have had growing up, the rest are busy strategizing. Halfway through the year they've all hit a wall and know they've been played by Duc Tran. Soon they realise this and start working together to find answers and hunt down Duc Tran and the truth. The build-up to the finale of their year-long race to inheritance is nothing short of twists, secrets, lies and betrayals.
In a typical dysfunctional family style, the Tran siblings discover the truth behind their parents especially their Uncle Huey and how he's more than their uncle. The book, initially, in its main character's history, weaves a tragic, determined story of Vietnamese immigrants, fresh from a war-torn country. Their start in America is full of struggle, facing racism, and violence while simply keeping their head down and working hard to build a life.
The thing that makes this novel engaging is the chaos of the siblings complete with absent parents, and an Uncle acting as a pseudo-parent. Each of the siblings' individual journeys portrays drama, sadness, strength, loneliness and yearning for love.
If you are in the mood of a sandwich of Vietnamese American siblings fighting for their inheritance and in turn discovering the truth and betrayal about their very existence, pick up a copy now and enjoy the drama.
Duc Tran, the eccentric founder of the Vietnamese sandwich chain Duc’s Sandwiches, has decided to retire. No one has heard from his wife, Evelyn, in two decades. She abandoned the family without a trace, and clearly doesn’t want anything to do with Duc, the business, or their kids. But the money has to go to someone. With the help of the shady family lawyer, Duc informs his five estranged adult children that to receive their inheritance, his four daughters must revitalize run-down shops in old-school Little Saigon locations across America: Houston, San Jose, New Orleans, and Philadelphia—within a year. But if the first-born (and only) son, Jude, gets married first, everything will go to him.
Each daughter is stuck in a new city, battling gentrification, declining ethnic enclaves, and messy love lives, while struggling to modernize their father’s American dream. Jude wonders if he wants to marry for love or for money—or neither. As Duc’s children scramble to win their inheritance, they begin to learn the real intention behind the inheritance scheme—and the secret their mother kept tucked away in the old fishing tackle box, all along.
The Family Recipe is about rediscovering one’s roots, different types of fatherly love, legacy, and finding a place in a divided country where the only commonality among your neighbors is the universal love of sandwiches.
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