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Stealing Buddha's Dinner

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Stealing Buddha's Dinner Cover

ISBN13: 9780670038329
ISBN10: 0670038326
Condition: Standard
Dustjacket: Standard
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

A vivid, funny, and viscerally powerful memoir about childhood, assimilation, food, and growing up in the 1980s

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, Nguye‛s barely conscious desire to belong transmutes into a passion for American food. More exotic seeming than her Buddhist grandmothe‛s traditional specialties—spring rolls, delicate pancakes stuffed with meats, fried shrimp cakes—the campy, preservative-filled“delicacie” 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“rea” American.

Beginning with Nguye‛s famil‛s harrowing migration from Saigon in 1975, Stealing Buddh‛s 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.

Review:

"Nguyen was just eight months old when her father brought her and her sister out of Vietnam in 1975. The family relocated in Michigan, where young Bich (pronounced 'bic') wrestled with conflicting desires for her grandmother's native cooking and the American junk food the 'real people' around her ate. The fascination with Pringles and Happy Meals is one symptom of the memoir's frequent reliance on the surface details of pop culture to generate verisimilitude instead of digging deeper into the emotional realities of her family drama, which plays out as her father drinks and broods and her stepmother, Rosa, tries to maintain a tight discipline. Readers are inundated with the songs Nguyen heard on the radio and the TV shows she watched — even her childhood thoughts about Little House on the Prairie — but tantalizing questions about her family remain unresolved, like why her father and stepmother continued to live together after their divorce. The mother left behind in Saigon is a shadowy presence who only comes into view briefly toward the end, another line of inquiry Nguyen chooses not to pursue too deeply. The passages that most intensely describe Nguyen's childhood desire to assimilate compensate somewhat for such gaps, but the overall impression is muted." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

“Only a truly gifted writer could make me long for the Kool Aid, Rice a Roni, and Kit Kats celebrated in Stealing Buddha's Dinner. In this charming, funny, original memoir about growing up as an outsider in America, Bich Nguyen takes you on a journey you won't forget. I can hardly wait for what comes next.” --Judy Blume

Synopsis:

As a Vietnamese girl coming of age in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Nguyen is filled with a rapacious hunger for American identity, and in the pre-PC-era Midwest (where the Jennifers and Tiffanys reign supreme), the desire to belong transmutes into a passion for American food. More exotic- seeming than her Buddhist grandmother's traditional specialties, the campy, preservative-filled "delicacies" of mainstream America capture her imagination.

In Stealing Buddha's Dinner, the glossy branded allure of Pringles, Kit Kats, and Toll House Cookies becomes an ingenious metaphor for Nguyen's struggle to become a "real" American, a distinction that brings with it the dream of the perfect school lunch, burgers and Jell- O for dinner, and a visit from the Kool-Aid man. Vivid and viscerally powerful, this remarkable memoir about growing up in the 1980s introduces an original new literary voice and an entirely new spin on the classic assimilation story.

Synopsis:

In this viscerally powerful memoir, Nguyen pens a nostalgic, candid account of growing up as a Vietnamese girl in the Midwest in the 1980s, and using popular American food--from Pringles potato chips to Toll House cookies--as a way to fit in and become a RrealS American.
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About the Author

Bich Minh Nguyen (pronounced /Bit Min New-win/) teaches creative writing at Purdue University. Stealing Buddh‛s Dinner is her first book.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Shoshana, February 24, 2008 (view all comments by Shoshana)
Nguyen's memoir of growing up Vietnamese in Michigan after fleeing Saigon in 1975 is somewhat different from similar memoirs, and perhaps shouldn't be understood as an example of the same genre. Many accounts that begin with a similar premise are about not fitting in, about traumatization, about striving for the immigrant's version of the American Dream. While Nguyen certainly enacts and recounts all of these themes, the story in the forefront of this memoir is the allure of a particular form of consumption. Literally, this is a paean to the junk foods of Nguyen's Michigan childhood. Symbolically, it is a tale of incorporation, of gobbling up, of becoming American by ingesting American products. Yes, there are some Amy Tan-like moments of admiring the previous generation's culture, but most of the time Nguyen reminds me of the Vietnamese baby Kim from Trudeau's Doonesbury strips of the 1970's. Old people like me remember that long before she married Mike Doonesbury, Kim learned to speak English from television commercials, and her first words were "Big Mac."

Nguyen's America - through - oral - incorporation rings true, and is merely a different spin on the narrative of acculturation. At the same time, it has trouble finding its emotional center, and feels like a small book in some ways. Nguyen's relentless comparisons of herself to others wore me down. I can only assume that she found it exhausting as well. It's a story that's about as far from a Buddhist sensibility as you can get, and might have been more complex had this cultural tension been better articulated and woven into the story over time.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780670038329
Author:
Nguyen, Bich Minh
Publisher:
Penguin Books
Subject:
Women
Subject:
Personal Memoirs
Subject:
Ethnic Cultures - General
Copyright:
2007
Edition Description:
Paperback / softback
Publication Date:
20080129
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
from 12
Language:
English
Illustrations:
b/w photo in front matter
Pages:
272
Dimensions:
8.62x5.74x.97 in. .82 lbs.
Age Level:
from 18
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Related Subjects

Cooking and Food » Food Writing » General
History and Social Science » American Studies » General

Stealing Buddha's Dinner Used Hardcover
0 stars - 0 reviews
$9.95 In Stock
Product details 272 pages PENGUIN PUTNAM TRADE - English 9780670038329 Reviews:
"Publishers Weekly Review" by , "Nguyen was just eight months old when her father brought her and her sister out of Vietnam in 1975. The family relocated in Michigan, where young Bich (pronounced 'bic') wrestled with conflicting desires for her grandmother's native cooking and the American junk food the 'real people' around her ate. The fascination with Pringles and Happy Meals is one symptom of the memoir's frequent reliance on the surface details of pop culture to generate verisimilitude instead of digging deeper into the emotional realities of her family drama, which plays out as her father drinks and broods and her stepmother, Rosa, tries to maintain a tight discipline. Readers are inundated with the songs Nguyen heard on the radio and the TV shows she watched — even her childhood thoughts about Little House on the Prairie — but tantalizing questions about her family remain unresolved, like why her father and stepmother continued to live together after their divorce. The mother left behind in Saigon is a shadowy presence who only comes into view briefly toward the end, another line of inquiry Nguyen chooses not to pursue too deeply. The passages that most intensely describe Nguyen's childhood desire to assimilate compensate somewhat for such gaps, but the overall impression is muted." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
"Review" by , “Only a truly gifted writer could make me long for the Kool Aid, Rice a Roni, and Kit Kats celebrated in Stealing Buddha's Dinner. In this charming, funny, original memoir about growing up as an outsider in America, Bich Nguyen takes you on a journey you won't forget. I can hardly wait for what comes next.” --Judy Blume
"Synopsis" by ,
As a Vietnamese girl coming of age in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Nguyen is filled with a rapacious hunger for American identity, and in the pre-PC-era Midwest (where the Jennifers and Tiffanys reign supreme), the desire to belong transmutes into a passion for American food. More exotic- seeming than her Buddhist grandmother's traditional specialties, the campy, preservative-filled "delicacies" of mainstream America capture her imagination.

In Stealing Buddha's Dinner, the glossy branded allure of Pringles, Kit Kats, and Toll House Cookies becomes an ingenious metaphor for Nguyen's struggle to become a "real" American, a distinction that brings with it the dream of the perfect school lunch, burgers and Jell- O for dinner, and a visit from the Kool-Aid man. Vivid and viscerally powerful, this remarkable memoir about growing up in the 1980s introduces an original new literary voice and an entirely new spin on the classic assimilation story.
"Synopsis" by , In this viscerally powerful memoir, Nguyen pens a nostalgic, candid account of growing up as a Vietnamese girl in the Midwest in the 1980s, and using popular American food--from Pringles potato chips to Toll House cookies--as a way to fit in and become a RrealS American.
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