Nguyen offers her memoir about a Vietnamese girl's childhood, assimilation, and coming of age in 1980s Grand Rapids, Michigan after her migration from Saigon in 1975.
Critic Reviews
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Outstanding
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Boston Globe Barbara Fisher
[A] perfectly pitched and prodigiously detailed memoir.
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Favorable
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Booklist Michael Cart
Food-crazy teens will enjoy Nguyen's central literary conceit and her vividly evoked observations of adolescent life in the 1980s. [1 Jan 2007, p.46]
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Favorable
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Kirkus Reviews
This gastronomic theme sometimes feels forced, but some of the author's prose is lovely and her imagery fresh. And in her recreation of a world populated by Family Ties', Ritz crackers and Judy Blume books, she has captured the 1980s with perfection. [15 Nov 2006, p.1164]
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Favorable
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San Francisco Chronicle Michael Rose
Although her struggle has a lot to do with her role as an immigrant in a white-bread world, the story resonates with anyone who's ever felt like an outsider.
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Favorable
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The New York Times Book Review Ben Fong-Torres
Her prose is engaging, precise, compact.
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Favorable
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Los Angeles Times Michael Standaert
[A] deftly crafted memoir.
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Favorable
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USA Today Carol Memmott
Her prose effortlessly pulls readers into her worlds. Her typical and not-so-typical childhood experiences give her story a universal flavor.
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Mixed
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Chicago Tribune Beth Kephart
Nguyen is a writer to watch, a tremendous talent with a gift for gorgeous sentences. I believe as well that, had she loosened her grip on food as her pull-through theme, she might have ultimately delivered an even more-compelling memoir.
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Mixed
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Christian Science Monitor Marjorie Kehe
Eventually Nguyen's twin themes of rejection and insecurity wear a bit thin. By the third or fourth time young Bich rhapsodizes over yet another nutrient-free American snack food or is snubbed for a theological lapse ("Aren't you glad the Lord is always with us?" a little girl in pleated shorts, pink socks, and flowered barrettes queries as a test) her story feels repetitive. Even so, Stealing Buddha's Dinner remains a tasty read.
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Unfavorable
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Publishers Weekly
The passages that most intensely describe Nguyen's childhood desire to assimilate compensate somewhat for such gaps, but the overall impression is muted. [4 Dec 2006, p.45]
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