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What are readers saying about Stealing Buddha's Dinner?
| Reviews of Stealing Buddha's Dinner - Page 1 of 2 |
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-10-23 09:23:50.
(Language: English)
  
Interesting read - broadened my perspective on growing up in America. Pretty slow at times, though...
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-06-15 04:11:54.
(Language: English)
Multicultural story set in the 1980s, complete with lots of references to food I grew up with: Ding Dongs, Kit Kats and more.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-10-27 04:33:33.
(Language: English)
I really enjoyed this book. Nguyen does a great job building using food as that thing that both connects and separates our cultures. Poignant book about family and feeling like an outsider.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-12-09 02:37:41.
(Language: English)
I could relate to a lot of Bich's trials and tribulations; she grew up in the 80s as well. It was worth the read.
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A Reader posted a review at 2011-07-06 09:56:28.
(Language: English)
I really enjoyed reading this book, but I'm biased because I grew up as an Vietnamese-American and a lot of it resonated with me. I think it was a really accurate portrayal of the conflicts that growing up in different cultures.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-07-02 04:06:53.
(Language: English)
Nguyen's first book is auto-biographical, taking place in a time Nguyen wrote of a time
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-01-19 05:55:43.
(Language: English)
Especially for those who grew up in MI in the 80's...
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-07-17 01:15:17.
(Language: English)
I really loved this book. I wondered if someone was writing my life story or something. Unfortunately, I thought the ending was pretty weak compared to the rest of the book - only disappointment.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-16 09:42:36.
(Language: English)
Interesting enough subject, but hard to follow, jumped around.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-07-10 09:21:32.
(Language: English)
Interesting if you're from the GR area and an interesting look at Buddhism from one author. Definitely not a 'must read' though.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-09-05 09:04:49.
(Language: English)
Loved It! Especially since I'm Dutch, live in that area, and have a Korean child in Dutchville!
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-09-15 06:55:25.
(Language: English)
i don't know how to pronounce the author's name, but she is a superb author! so interesting!
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-03-19 08:51:15.
(Language: English)
A wonderful book that will make the reader look at their own life and their own culture. I had the honor of meeting Bich Minh Nguyen earlier this week. She is so supportive of literacy and in promoting reading by young people. Loved the book. Do yourself a favor and read it.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-20 03:35:24.
(Language: English)
Stealing Buddha's Dinner is a promise of what is to come from Bich Nguyen. Her memoir does a fine job of describing the 'lack of fit' for immigrants, both in their new homes and in their country of origin upon return. This is done with poignancy and provides the best part of the book. Nguyen uses her relationships with food as metaphor; a generally fitting metaphor though at times the food lists and obsessive detailing feel forced and lose their lustre as tool and technique. The story recounts so much of what was not good in the pop culture of the 1980's, the note of recognition will bring a smile to your face.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-09-22 07:51:32.
(Language: English)
A nice little memoir by a Vietnamese woman who came to the US as a refugee child with her father, grandmother, uncles, and sister in 1975. Unfortunately they were relocated in Grand Rapids Michigan - a conservative, religious town that was not a particularly good place for refugees. Her father subsequently married a Latina and that complicated life even more. I enjoyed much of the story but got tired of all the food allegory and really did not enjoy the recapitulation of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, although I could appreciate her love for these books. I think what I liked best was reminiscing about all the Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, and other children in my daughter Katherine's grade school. One Vietnamese girl named Mifwa was a good friend and Katherine went home with her maybe once a week and played at the Asian cultural center and ate dinner with the family. We would go and pick her up in this huge wooden hotel like apartment. Mifwa seemed to be well adjusted and enjoying her family and life in general. But, I suspect that Seattle was a more welcoming place in 1975 than Grand Rapids. The issues that author Bich has with religion and her neighbors certainly would not have been an issue with Mifwa and Katherine. I think it is a book well worth reading. I am quite drawn to memoirs of the immigrant experience and would like to find others by Vietnamese refugees from the war.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-11-02 04:28:14.
(Language: English)
This was a very fun book.
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A Reader posted a review at 2011-07-14 07:32:15.
(Language: English)
Excellent so far I like that every chapter is named after food and along with the food there is an association to American culture that the writer was getting accustomed to :)
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-12-24 08:22:41.
(Language: English)
Not bad but not great. She focuses a great deal on American food, which gets kind of annoying after a while. I can understand it's her path to assimilation, but I found the writing on Vietnamese food much more interesting than her reflections on Burger King, Toll House Cookies, etc. KT's critique that it "has no plot" is also valid because it is a memoir, so if you don't like the characters after a few pages, you probably shouldn't keep reading as very little actually happens over the course of the narrative.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-02-15 11:59:29.
(Language: English)
I really enjoyed this book. Anyone who grew up in Mid-Michigan in the 80's will be able to relate. Especially if they grew up in a middle-class family. I know it was written from the perspective of an imigrant, but anyone who has ever felt "left out" will relate easily to this story. I enjoyed it very much!
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Jodi posted a review at 2010-02-21 09:30:40.
(Language: English)
This book transcends culture, gender, age...and exploits universal truths about the human experience. I loved this book. I found it both humorous and deeply touching.
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Elizabeth posted a review at 2008-03-07 07:33:41.
(Language: English)
This was really enjoyable to me on so many levels. I found all the scenes to do with the fall of Saigon and her visits to find relatives there incredibly emotional and moving. As a westerner who has lived in Saigon it is always very interesting to me to read different perspectives on the city and to remember what difficult times those people suffered, and still do as a result of the war. Nguyen's perspective as an immigrant growing up in America was great too, really gives you something to think about and reminds you of how difficult it sometimes is for people "just trying to make it". One tip, don't read this book if you are hungry! Her descriptions of food are great and I was salivating the whole time I was reading.
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Jocelyn posted a review at 2008-06-26 07:07:48.
(Language: English)
Interesting story of Bich's growing up in Grand Rapids Michigan as one of the only minorities in an otherwise white neighborhood. Her family had escaped Vietnam when she was an infant. She relates the difficulties of growing up in a community that was used to everyone having the same background.
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A Reader posted a review at 2011-01-11 12:02:46.
(Language: English)
This book reads true to the author's childhood. It gives an account to growing up in a diverse household trying to "Keep up with the Jones'" Food-loving people will certainly enjoy this book as the author frames the chapters around favorite foods of The East Asian culture as well as the American culture. The book reads well and reads quickly and is certainly worth your time, especially if you happened to grow up in the 1980's. I picked this book up thinking it was more about Buddhism and soon discovered that this is not the case...but it was interesting enough to plow through until the end.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-03-24 07:08:34.
(Language: English)
Nguyen's descriptions of being an outsider in the 80's, those pre-PC times when in her own words "ethnic had not become cool", are luminously written. Her reflections on how her own struggles with identity as a Vietnamese kid with a a Mexican-American mother in the midwest are often structured by her fascination and obsession with American commodity culture (most especially snack foods). Along with the _Peddler's Grandson_ and Obama's _Dreams of my Father_ this is one of the most important books I have read about the conflicted nature of American identity.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-01 05:10:13.
(Language: English)
This book annoyed me beyond belief. The author only remembers the bad in her childhood. I don't believe any child can be so miserable as to not have any positive events to record from childhood.
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| Reviews of Stealing Buddha's Dinner - Page 1 of 2 |
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