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Paper Sons: A Memoir
Winner of the Autumn House Nonfiction Prize, selected by Alison Hawthorne Deming (2017)
Set in a public housing project in San Francisco, Paper Sons explores Lam’s transformation from a teenage graffiti writer to a high school teacher working with troubled youth while navigating the secret violence in his immigrant family’s past.
Set in a public housing project in San Francisco, Paper Sons explores Lam’s transformation from a teenage graffiti writer to a high school teacher working with troubled youth while navigating the secret violence in his immigrant family’s past.
248 pages, Paperback
Published March 6, 2018
10 people are currently reading
253 people want to read
About the author
Dickson Lam
3 books7 followersDickson Lam is the author of Paper Sons: A Memoir, winner of the 2017 Autumn House Press Nonfiction Prize.
Lam’s work has appeared in StoryQuarterly, The Kenyon Review Online, Hyphen Magazine, The Normal School, PANK, The Good Men Project, The Rumpus, and Kartika Review. He is a VONA alum and has been a resident fellow at the Millay Colony for the Arts and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. He holds MFA degrees in creative writing from the University of Houston and Rutgers-Newark.
Lam is an Assistant Professor of English at Contra Costa College and lives in Oakland with his wife and daughter.
Lam’s work has appeared in StoryQuarterly, The Kenyon Review Online, Hyphen Magazine, The Normal School, PANK, The Good Men Project, The Rumpus, and Kartika Review. He is a VONA alum and has been a resident fellow at the Millay Colony for the Arts and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. He holds MFA degrees in creative writing from the University of Houston and Rutgers-Newark.
Lam is an Assistant Professor of English at Contra Costa College and lives in Oakland with his wife and daughter.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 11, 2019
Update: Reread for t4sj book club. Some noticings from discussion. How Dickson treats women in the book. When does he become "woke"? Not explained. Fascinated by family; structure does not work for some. Question we had: How do we forgive family for the unforgivable? Why do we? Here, why divorce so late? Why the charade of marriage? Still, engrossed and glad that this book is out there.
A fascinating read for an educator by an educator. I fell for Lam's humanity, as a teacher dealing with the loss of one of his students overworking himself, as a youth growing up much like his students do, as an adult dealing with the great harms of his father's past. I believe Lam makes a great teacher, one who has street cred with some of his students and one who is constantly reflecting on his steps and missteps. What a beautiful book.
A fascinating read for an educator by an educator. I fell for Lam's humanity, as a teacher dealing with the loss of one of his students overworking himself, as a youth growing up much like his students do, as an adult dealing with the great harms of his father's past. I believe Lam makes a great teacher, one who has street cred with some of his students and one who is constantly reflecting on his steps and missteps. What a beautiful book.
April 25, 2018
5 Stars: Dropping Raw Science
Oh, how I like memoirs to be raw... Some people have nothing to say or share something relatable to your life, you close those books and forget about it I won't forget the realness of 'Paper Sons: A Memoir by Dickson Lam". Pages upon pages smacking me with the struggles of someone I don't know but want to know because I share that want of writing what is real without filters to protect the lies and memories that may hurt those involved. We can wallow in our pain and past, but perspective is far more therapeutic, meaning take a look at someone else's American experience compare and contrast to your own life. After reading ask yourself did that person successfully overcome or succumb to their past, either way, you can walk away with valuable lessons.
Dickson Lam opens up with the death of his student Javon King he writes with such earnest, and I felt the loss as I turned the page Dickson begins to share things that I feel I haven't heard too many Asian Americans share their thoughts or family history of the ugly side of the American experience. We don't learn about the lynching of Asian Americans during the gold rush, but we know that every group that has ever immigrated to America ended up being exploited with the bonus of good ol' American violence. Dickson drops the science on living in the projects, Mao, Malcolm X and the culture of exclusion. The fully developed characters that Lam writes paints a picture of love-hate within his family it's all a struggle to be someone when you start out with a bad hand, but memoirs have to show the ugly, the darkness, the abuse because we get exposed to knowledge of self and how to get past the past.
I feel that Dickson's book reads like a journal rich with thoughts and mazes of dysfunction and realism that inspires for truth and understanding that we share in life more than we think.
Oh, how I like memoirs to be raw... Some people have nothing to say or share something relatable to your life, you close those books and forget about it I won't forget the realness of 'Paper Sons: A Memoir by Dickson Lam". Pages upon pages smacking me with the struggles of someone I don't know but want to know because I share that want of writing what is real without filters to protect the lies and memories that may hurt those involved. We can wallow in our pain and past, but perspective is far more therapeutic, meaning take a look at someone else's American experience compare and contrast to your own life. After reading ask yourself did that person successfully overcome or succumb to their past, either way, you can walk away with valuable lessons.
Dickson Lam opens up with the death of his student Javon King he writes with such earnest, and I felt the loss as I turned the page Dickson begins to share things that I feel I haven't heard too many Asian Americans share their thoughts or family history of the ugly side of the American experience. We don't learn about the lynching of Asian Americans during the gold rush, but we know that every group that has ever immigrated to America ended up being exploited with the bonus of good ol' American violence. Dickson drops the science on living in the projects, Mao, Malcolm X and the culture of exclusion. The fully developed characters that Lam writes paints a picture of love-hate within his family it's all a struggle to be someone when you start out with a bad hand, but memoirs have to show the ugly, the darkness, the abuse because we get exposed to knowledge of self and how to get past the past.
I feel that Dickson's book reads like a journal rich with thoughts and mazes of dysfunction and realism that inspires for truth and understanding that we share in life more than we think.
April 28, 2018
This memoir traces the coming of age of the youngest son of a first generation Chinese American family whose lives are torn up by alcoholism, sexual abuse, betrayal, and lack of resources. It offers a fresh, rarely seen view of San Francisco. At the same time, the book sheds light on tagging culture and what it is like to be a teacher for kids whose struggles mirror too closely one's own.
Its fragmentary, achronological structure allows readers to make their own connections between all of these topics and doesn't allow for wallowing. The book is brave and brutally honest, not only when it comes to Lam's direct, yet fair portrayal of family members, but also in revealing his sadness and guilt around his own challenges and failures as an emerging teacher. In this way it is a book well worth reading, especially for educators.
If this all seems too heavy, the fact that Lam could see through these experiences to write this profound book is the happy ending.
Its fragmentary, achronological structure allows readers to make their own connections between all of these topics and doesn't allow for wallowing. The book is brave and brutally honest, not only when it comes to Lam's direct, yet fair portrayal of family members, but also in revealing his sadness and guilt around his own challenges and failures as an emerging teacher. In this way it is a book well worth reading, especially for educators.
If this all seems too heavy, the fact that Lam could see through these experiences to write this profound book is the happy ending.
January 22, 2019
The Chinese Culture is way more fun than I actually thought, the non fiction memoir Paper Sons by Dickson Lam, is a book that tells a story about a chinese boy and his family living in the United States, and how was the process of them changing into a new life. The name of the book makes a reference to the chinese people immigrated illegally to United States.
Paper Sons starts with the chinese boy in adult life, and it gets on him telling the story of himself when he was little. At the beginning, he starts explaining about his childhood, how he got through living in an another completely different country, how did he managed to “survive” in high school, the language difference, and even the environment differences. Him and his four member family, his dad, mom and sister decided to live in United States for a better place to live, and from that starts the whole story.
One of the best aspects that I liked from this book is the switch between cultures shown in the book. One of best examples is his father, that mostly of his life lived in China and served in the military, when he get to eat something, him make rice and other stuff, instead of a traditional american food, like fries. The way he socialized with people there was different too
The narrative of the book is also really impressive, the narrator throughout the whole story, keeps coming back and forth, telling how he is now being a teacher and living in adult life, and the majority of the story he tells about himself as a kid. One of the best examples is when he remembers that people in his school would make fun of him, because, he wore all the same clothes everyday, and with that also was a dumb kid, but seeing him now is completely different, being a teacher in a university.
I liked the book, because shows the differences between both countries, and how immigrants tends to be more confused than the others. I would recommend this book for people that like to read non fiction stories, who likes cultural difference countries and also for the people that likes a good narrative.
Paper Sons starts with the chinese boy in adult life, and it gets on him telling the story of himself when he was little. At the beginning, he starts explaining about his childhood, how he got through living in an another completely different country, how did he managed to “survive” in high school, the language difference, and even the environment differences. Him and his four member family, his dad, mom and sister decided to live in United States for a better place to live, and from that starts the whole story.
One of the best aspects that I liked from this book is the switch between cultures shown in the book. One of best examples is his father, that mostly of his life lived in China and served in the military, when he get to eat something, him make rice and other stuff, instead of a traditional american food, like fries. The way he socialized with people there was different too
The narrative of the book is also really impressive, the narrator throughout the whole story, keeps coming back and forth, telling how he is now being a teacher and living in adult life, and the majority of the story he tells about himself as a kid. One of the best examples is when he remembers that people in his school would make fun of him, because, he wore all the same clothes everyday, and with that also was a dumb kid, but seeing him now is completely different, being a teacher in a university.
I liked the book, because shows the differences between both countries, and how immigrants tends to be more confused than the others. I would recommend this book for people that like to read non fiction stories, who likes cultural difference countries and also for the people that likes a good narrative.
December 30, 2018
Such a mix of emotions about this one—tellingly abrasive, true to memoir. It took me a while to pace into the patchwork style but the reveal was worth the wait. I can’t tell who this is for, which audience exactly, but that’s probably because I didn’t grow up as a Chinese-American boy and don’t know any readers with that background. It feels like a mix of Toni Morrison, Andrew Lam, and Harper Lee? I’m hoping to read his other pieces. Great insights into his cultural heritage growing up the child of immigrants in SF but dark and not for the feint of heart.
December 5, 2020
An interesting memoir, which was particularly interesting because the author is around my age and grew up in the Bay Area. I identified with a lot of the local details he describes. There is an element of "wokeness" that seems somewhat obligatory and perhaps is meant to signal virtue, but still worth the read.
July 7, 2018
Great stories but a lot of jumping back and forth on time references. Sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking but all very real. I also learned a lot about the Chinese culture...
February 20, 2023
This wasn't my favorite book. It felt disjointed and repetitive.
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September 14, 2018Biog L213L 2018
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews