What do you think?
Rate this book
Short Girls
Two estranged Vietnamese sisters, each wrestling with their own lives, careers, and romances, are reunited at their father's American citizenship party, and forge a new relationship in this novel from the PEN/Jerard Fund Award-winning author. 30,000 first printing.
292 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
24 people are currently reading
962 people want to read
About the author
Bich Minh Nguyen
13 books102 followersBich Minh Nguyen received the PEN/Jerard Award for her memoir Stealing Buddha's Dinner, which was a Chicago Tribune Best Book of 2007 and a BookSense pick. It was also selected as The Great Michigan Read for 2009-2010. Bich has appeared on programs such as The Newshour with Jim Lehrer. She lives in Chicago and Indiana, where she teaches literature and creative writing at Purdue University.
Also writes as Beth Nguyen.
Also writes as Beth Nguyen.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 177 reviews
January 26, 2010
I wanted to read this book even though I've read other Asian immigrant stories, just to hear a Vietnamese-American voice. The story is of 2 sisters, quite different in nature, who come together to help their dad celebrate his citizenship. The typical themes found in immigrant literature are here, but there isn't anything particularly remarkable about the way they are presented.
Especially at the beginning, the story is mired in an excess of minute details. Even if you happen to be Vietnamese and to have grown up in a suburban setting in the same time period, the constant drumbeat of details that (I suppose) are meant to resonate with you become tiresome. If you don't share those same cultural reference points, my guess is that the details quickly get tedious.
Many points are forced. For example, there is a scene in which Linny, the younger sister, is mistaken for a manicurist when she meets her friend at a salon. To me, that scene works well and already says a lot. But then, the author felt the need to immediately explain what the scene meant and then invokes the nail salon stereotype repeatedly. All right already! We get it.
The character development also left something to be desired. We gain some insight into the sisters, Van and Linny, but their father and Van's husband--both important figures--remain caricatures. There is also not enough to help suggest why the girls are not only ungrateful to, but somewhat hostile towards, the family who sponsored their parents. I did care enough about the characters to want to see what happened to them, and the story did pick up as it went along, but I found myself restless while reading and anxious just to be done with it.
Especially at the beginning, the story is mired in an excess of minute details. Even if you happen to be Vietnamese and to have grown up in a suburban setting in the same time period, the constant drumbeat of details that (I suppose) are meant to resonate with you become tiresome. If you don't share those same cultural reference points, my guess is that the details quickly get tedious.
Many points are forced. For example, there is a scene in which Linny, the younger sister, is mistaken for a manicurist when she meets her friend at a salon. To me, that scene works well and already says a lot. But then, the author felt the need to immediately explain what the scene meant and then invokes the nail salon stereotype repeatedly. All right already! We get it.
The character development also left something to be desired. We gain some insight into the sisters, Van and Linny, but their father and Van's husband--both important figures--remain caricatures. There is also not enough to help suggest why the girls are not only ungrateful to, but somewhat hostile towards, the family who sponsored their parents. I did care enough about the characters to want to see what happened to them, and the story did pick up as it went along, but I found myself restless while reading and anxious just to be done with it.
April 3, 2017
When reading the book, I sometimes had the urge to scream at the submission of some character: "This is so stupid. Why did she tolerate that?", but then I realized that that character is Vietnamese and I've been so familiar that that kind of submission in Vietnam. This book is helpful for me to understand what's it like to be a first-generation Vietnamese in the US.
October 12, 2023
The total rating is 3.31, and I think this book deserves more than that. It's a story of how two sisters make their own choices in life, trying to create a life while dealing with race, family, career and partners. The book doesn't judge, it's up to the reader to decide which choices you support. In the end, we are all human and we just try to get by.
April 7, 2013
I know those of you, my Goodreads friends, who have actually met me are now laughing and thinking, "Okay, not only does she choose books because the author happens to share her name, but she also must choose books because the title describes her stature -- or rather, her lack thereof." And you are so right -- that is exactly why I picked this book up! However, it didn't disappoint me.
This is a story of sisters (I have none, so the dynamic always interests me) and of the immigrant experience. Van and Linny are American-born daughters of Vietnamese parents who fled their country during the chaotic end of the Vietnam war. Now grown, and struggling to blend their Asian heritage into Midwestern American culture, their aging father calls them home to celebrate his (long overdue) citizenship oath. As the two sisters return home to witness this event, issues of identity, family loyalty, and the power of shared history arise, ultimately leading the girls into a renewed and more satisfying connection.
Particularly interesting for me in this novel was the sisters' views of the American family that "sponsored" their parents arrival in America. I clearly remember my parents' church sponsoring a Vietnamese refugee family in just this way during the 1970's, and seeing the cultural disconnect from the opposite side of the equation was enlightening.
This is a story of sisters (I have none, so the dynamic always interests me) and of the immigrant experience. Van and Linny are American-born daughters of Vietnamese parents who fled their country during the chaotic end of the Vietnam war. Now grown, and struggling to blend their Asian heritage into Midwestern American culture, their aging father calls them home to celebrate his (long overdue) citizenship oath. As the two sisters return home to witness this event, issues of identity, family loyalty, and the power of shared history arise, ultimately leading the girls into a renewed and more satisfying connection.
Particularly interesting for me in this novel was the sisters' views of the American family that "sponsored" their parents arrival in America. I clearly remember my parents' church sponsoring a Vietnamese refugee family in just this way during the 1970's, and seeing the cultural disconnect from the opposite side of the equation was enlightening.
May 9, 2016
It's always a nice experience as someone in the Asian diaspora to read books by (and about) other members of the Asian diaspora, but this particular story was so relatable. Not just for the diaspora aspect, but also the who-the-crap-have-I-turned-into perspective as well.
It was a rather surreal experience, seeing my relationship with my parents echoed in this story: my parents also rarely talked about their time in their home countries. My parents also belonged to a tightly-knit community of people who took care of each other. My parents also had high expectations of performance in me, and came down hard if I fell short. And my parents also had their quiet, understated ways of expressing their feelings toward each other and me.
This book may not be for everyone, and for many it may be a retelling of what they already know, or possibly not anything they're familiar with, but for me it felt communal and cathartic.
It was a rather surreal experience, seeing my relationship with my parents echoed in this story: my parents also rarely talked about their time in their home countries. My parents also belonged to a tightly-knit community of people who took care of each other. My parents also had high expectations of performance in me, and came down hard if I fell short. And my parents also had their quiet, understated ways of expressing their feelings toward each other and me.
This book may not be for everyone, and for many it may be a retelling of what they already know, or possibly not anything they're familiar with, but for me it felt communal and cathartic.
November 24, 2022
I’m bumping this to a 3.5/3.75 ~
There are a lot of novels that have been published 10+ years ago and I was either too young or unaware that they existed. Short Girls is one of those novels that caught my eye because well… I’m petite and a woman lol. We follow the lives of Van and Linny Luong, first generation American sisters whose mom & dad immigrated from Vietnam in 1975 all the way to California then settled into a small Michigan mid sized city.
We are given glimpses of their lives (during their younger years and adult.) The story is set roughly two-four years ish after 2001 but the way in which Nguyen portrayed her characters didn’t feel outdated. I wasn’t fully aware of the supposed submissive tendencies that are stereotypes into certain Asian personas but I somewhat got a feel of that in Van’s persona. I hated how Miles (her husband) treated her and I wished she had been more assertive / defend herself more when it came to his gaslighting and just general ick. Linny I could understand, wanted to escape to a city where she could escape the scrutiny of the neighbors aka Chicago. I also was on the fence about her behavior but tried to give her the benefit of the doubt.
I think the reason why I gave this 3.5/3.75 stars is because I wasn’t sure where the story was going in terms of plot. It’s definitely a slice of life type of story and we need more Asian writers and Asian rep but I just wanted a more concrete idea of what was going to happen. The dual POV’s were essential and I’m glad this wasn’t one sided.
There are a lot of novels that have been published 10+ years ago and I was either too young or unaware that they existed. Short Girls is one of those novels that caught my eye because well… I’m petite and a woman lol. We follow the lives of Van and Linny Luong, first generation American sisters whose mom & dad immigrated from Vietnam in 1975 all the way to California then settled into a small Michigan mid sized city.
We are given glimpses of their lives (during their younger years and adult.) The story is set roughly two-four years ish after 2001 but the way in which Nguyen portrayed her characters didn’t feel outdated. I wasn’t fully aware of the supposed submissive tendencies that are stereotypes into certain Asian personas but I somewhat got a feel of that in Van’s persona. I hated how Miles (her husband) treated her and I wished she had been more assertive / defend herself more when it came to his gaslighting and just general ick. Linny I could understand, wanted to escape to a city where she could escape the scrutiny of the neighbors aka Chicago. I also was on the fence about her behavior but tried to give her the benefit of the doubt.
I think the reason why I gave this 3.5/3.75 stars is because I wasn’t sure where the story was going in terms of plot. It’s definitely a slice of life type of story and we need more Asian writers and Asian rep but I just wanted a more concrete idea of what was going to happen. The dual POV’s were essential and I’m glad this wasn’t one sided.
June 19, 2023
this is the first time i’ve given such a low rating to a book written by a vietnamese-american author and i feel bad, but i have the same issue here as i did with ‘one true loves’ by taylor jenkins reid. the writing style was hard to understand and made it difficult for me to really feel anything or root for the characters. the first few pages had an insane amount of details that i’d probably forget later in the story, and the boredom-inducing pacing wasn’t going to work with me. it was nice to see the familiar names and concepts within the pages, but otherwise, there was too many sparse and unneeded material to really invest me.
May 6, 2024
This was a fast read and a slice of life for first gen Vietnamese sisters. I appreciated the flashbacks for helping tell the story and I really liked the characters including the secondary ones.
March 26, 2022
An interesting story of a Vietnamese family dynamic in America with the focus on the sisters.
December 6, 2023
A good first novel by a writer perhaps better known for her immigration memoir. This book picks up some of the themes, but makes an even stronger story of them. Here's a thing I wrote back in the day:
A few years ago Bich Nguyen had a remarkable debut as a writer. Her memoir, Stealing Buddha’s Dinner–which was, among other things, her story about growing up as a Vietnamese immigrant in Grand Rapids–won some big national awards and was chosen as one of the first state-wide “Michigan Reads” books. In that book, the author’s childhood attraction to the worst of American fast food, and her rejection of her grandmother’s traditional Vietnamese cooking, became the metaphor for Nguyen’s childhood effort to make an American identity, to fit in.
In her debut novel, Short Girls, published a few years later, the height of the two protagonists, two sisters separated by temperament and ambition, is the ethnic marker that was their distinguishing characteristic, if race and racism were ignored. Van and Linh (Americanized to “Linny”) grow up in Grand Rapids. Their mother works hard to keep the family together financially, until her early death leaves the daughters almost on their own. Their immigrant father withdraws into wild schemes of invention; he tries to patent devices that will make the world more accessible for people less than five feet tall. He mishears the Randy Newman song without any sense of irony: “short people are no reason to live.” In portraying him, Nguyen masterfully navigates between the comic and the utterly poignant. He is fond of making “his pronouncements at the dinner table–about how short people were discriminated against, and how short people had to work extra hard to get good salaries and respect.” As Van begins to understand some of the difficulties she has had navigating the world, she realizes that “she had been standing on her tiptoes for most of her life.”
Van is the dutiful Asian daughter–smart, hardworking, who finishes at the top of her class, comes to Ann Arbor, becomes a lawyer who practices idealistically in immigration law, marries another Asian lawyer, and lives in a tasteful McMansion. Linny, the beautiful daughter, is the rebel. She drops out of school, heads for Chicago where she has a series of unsuccessful and unwise relationships, then stumbles into a trade she knows nothing about.
By the end of the book, the roles have been reversed: Van is divorced and troubled; Linny has found useful work and a relationship that is healthy and is even with a good Vietnamese man. Along the way the daughters have found a way to value the experience of their father and of his Grand Rapids Vietnamese community, to understand something of what these recent immigrants have suffered to remake their lives here. Nguyen has no false heroics in Short Girls, no easy flourishes or obvious appeals. She tells her story with a straightforward clarity that becomes more moving because of its subdued tone. She writes a story about people her readers come to care about deeply even as they are looking into an American subculture they know little about.
https://annarborobserver.com/articles...
A few years ago Bich Nguyen had a remarkable debut as a writer. Her memoir, Stealing Buddha’s Dinner–which was, among other things, her story about growing up as a Vietnamese immigrant in Grand Rapids–won some big national awards and was chosen as one of the first state-wide “Michigan Reads” books. In that book, the author’s childhood attraction to the worst of American fast food, and her rejection of her grandmother’s traditional Vietnamese cooking, became the metaphor for Nguyen’s childhood effort to make an American identity, to fit in.
In her debut novel, Short Girls, published a few years later, the height of the two protagonists, two sisters separated by temperament and ambition, is the ethnic marker that was their distinguishing characteristic, if race and racism were ignored. Van and Linh (Americanized to “Linny”) grow up in Grand Rapids. Their mother works hard to keep the family together financially, until her early death leaves the daughters almost on their own. Their immigrant father withdraws into wild schemes of invention; he tries to patent devices that will make the world more accessible for people less than five feet tall. He mishears the Randy Newman song without any sense of irony: “short people are no reason to live.” In portraying him, Nguyen masterfully navigates between the comic and the utterly poignant. He is fond of making “his pronouncements at the dinner table–about how short people were discriminated against, and how short people had to work extra hard to get good salaries and respect.” As Van begins to understand some of the difficulties she has had navigating the world, she realizes that “she had been standing on her tiptoes for most of her life.”
Van is the dutiful Asian daughter–smart, hardworking, who finishes at the top of her class, comes to Ann Arbor, becomes a lawyer who practices idealistically in immigration law, marries another Asian lawyer, and lives in a tasteful McMansion. Linny, the beautiful daughter, is the rebel. She drops out of school, heads for Chicago where she has a series of unsuccessful and unwise relationships, then stumbles into a trade she knows nothing about.
By the end of the book, the roles have been reversed: Van is divorced and troubled; Linny has found useful work and a relationship that is healthy and is even with a good Vietnamese man. Along the way the daughters have found a way to value the experience of their father and of his Grand Rapids Vietnamese community, to understand something of what these recent immigrants have suffered to remake their lives here. Nguyen has no false heroics in Short Girls, no easy flourishes or obvious appeals. She tells her story with a straightforward clarity that becomes more moving because of its subdued tone. She writes a story about people her readers come to care about deeply even as they are looking into an American subculture they know little about.
https://annarborobserver.com/articles...
March 22, 2019
Utterly optimistic, compassionate and authentic.
May 21, 2012
Well boys and girls, girls and boys, a Sherlock Holmes moment overcomes me, and I'll share.
Bich Minh Nguyen is 5.0, Just. I believe. She also write Stealing Buddha's Dinner.
2 sisters - temperamental opposites, eccentric, invention-obsessed father, and a mother who died. Did I mention "this is a view of a time warp of a childhood home unaltered since their mother's death and insulated by the same Vietnamese American commuinty they grew up with." (blurb on inside cover) So it's about pitfalls, funny and sad, absolutely guaranteed to give you many a crook grin, and it centers around the 2 sisters relationships (complicated) and the eccentric father who has invented - get this - the Luong Arm, a device which will traverse many dimensions as it becomes an invention created for short people to reach higher levels.
Fun, innovative, and dear.
Bich Minh Nguyen is 5.0, Just. I believe. She also write Stealing Buddha's Dinner.
2 sisters - temperamental opposites, eccentric, invention-obsessed father, and a mother who died. Did I mention "this is a view of a time warp of a childhood home unaltered since their mother's death and insulated by the same Vietnamese American commuinty they grew up with." (blurb on inside cover) So it's about pitfalls, funny and sad, absolutely guaranteed to give you many a crook grin, and it centers around the 2 sisters relationships (complicated) and the eccentric father who has invented - get this - the Luong Arm, a device which will traverse many dimensions as it becomes an invention created for short people to reach higher levels.
Fun, innovative, and dear.
August 24, 2016
"Short Girls" is a journey through the eyes of second-generation Vietnamese girls born in the US and struggling with their identity. Van and Linny could not be so different - the former in a failed marriage, the second engaged in a dead-end affair with a married man - yet they are going through the same travel and insecurities. If you happen to be Vietnamese and being grown in an American suburb you will find many of the details and references familiar, yet they are a bit confusing for the profane.
If you find yourself being a Vietnamese immigrant or have any ties with the community the book will certainly show you a story that is not new in literature. The story and the character development have their own charm.
If you find yourself being a Vietnamese immigrant or have any ties with the community the book will certainly show you a story that is not new in literature. The story and the character development have their own charm.
December 29, 2018
One of those "painful-because-it's-so-real-but-so-good" kind of reads.
Nguyen's strength here is the exploration of Vietnamese-American identity (How Vietnamese are you? How American? How much of each do you need to be to make you a good Vietnamese, a good American?) as well as a portrayal of a Viet refugee/immigration experience (the adjustment, the finding of community, the lines within that community, and the changes & relationship between and among generations) that resonated strongly with me. Her writing is also lovely - strong, direct prose with lyrical moments here and there. The characters are both very relatable, and drawn pretty fully.
I thought the metaphor of shortness as a stand-in for the obstacles faced by immigrants to be a bit overdone, except that the father's obsession with said metaphor is actually very authentic to my experience of my parents' generation, and very Vietnamese. They obsess over certain markers of success/failure as perpetual foreigners in their adopted country, and bring these pet topics up again and again with their children and family and friends, anyone who will (or is obliged to) listen to them.
Looking forward to checking out this author's other works.
Nguyen's strength here is the exploration of Vietnamese-American identity (How Vietnamese are you? How American? How much of each do you need to be to make you a good Vietnamese, a good American?) as well as a portrayal of a Viet refugee/immigration experience (the adjustment, the finding of community, the lines within that community, and the changes & relationship between and among generations) that resonated strongly with me. Her writing is also lovely - strong, direct prose with lyrical moments here and there. The characters are both very relatable, and drawn pretty fully.
I thought the metaphor of shortness as a stand-in for the obstacles faced by immigrants to be a bit overdone, except that the father's obsession with said metaphor is actually very authentic to my experience of my parents' generation, and very Vietnamese. They obsess over certain markers of success/failure as perpetual foreigners in their adopted country, and bring these pet topics up again and again with their children and family and friends, anyone who will (or is obliged to) listen to them.
Looking forward to checking out this author's other works.
February 19, 2020
I picked this novel up from the library on a whim - I was there for an event early, and browsed the fiction section. I'm glad that I ended up with it!
This novel explores family, friendship between two sisters and their complicated relationship with their parents (in particular their father, as their mother dies surprisingly young), and their shortness by way of being born to Vietnamese parents - its in their genetics. And that physical inheritance plays a big role in how they interact with their world -- their father goes so far as to make inventions that seek to ease the experience of being short! These girls end up in very different places from where they begin at the start of the novel, in their relationships and loves, and I found it really relatable, as the daughter of German immigrants. Their experience of trying to fit in and not, being other and having little choice in it, was something I could really connect to, and it made me reflect on my experience of growing up in Canada anew.
This novel explores family, friendship between two sisters and their complicated relationship with their parents (in particular their father, as their mother dies surprisingly young), and their shortness by way of being born to Vietnamese parents - its in their genetics. And that physical inheritance plays a big role in how they interact with their world -- their father goes so far as to make inventions that seek to ease the experience of being short! These girls end up in very different places from where they begin at the start of the novel, in their relationships and loves, and I found it really relatable, as the daughter of German immigrants. Their experience of trying to fit in and not, being other and having little choice in it, was something I could really connect to, and it made me reflect on my experience of growing up in Canada anew.
January 23, 2020
This book was so incredibly negative. The characters never saw anything good or hopeful or positive, instead taking the most insignificant thing and relating it back to some random negative memory. The whole story was told with the word “had...” I felt like every time the story started to get interesting, the narrative would take ten steps back with yet another memory and endless explaining. “She had... it had... they had...” And when dialogue was present, only a sentence or two was spoken and then right back to more backstory and explaining, pages and pages and pages of why this character thought that thought. So much of this left me waiting the length of the entire book for the story to actually start. I wanted so badly to like this and I feel bad for reacting so negatively to a story with so much promise, but it was just such a letdown and a disappointment.
March 4, 2022
Clean, clear writing and I can tell Nguyen cares and feels for her characters. Their personalities come through and the story is told at a changing point in the two sisters' lives, where they eventually find what they want to do in the end. This book is about family, sister relationships, culture, and society, how immigrants make way in America. The father of the girls and his friends reveal the hardships of becoming a citizen, that it's not always something one wants to do, but a necessity. The ending wraps up a little too cleanly, where all the characters have deamy endings, but it also leaves the reader feeling happy for the characters, that they're on thier way to better tomorrows.
December 4, 2022
What I enjoyed most about this novel was its portrayal of two Vietnamese American sisters and how they related to their Midwestern hometown/Vietnamese immigrant community and family. The story is told in alternating sister’s perspectives and I was most invested in how each sister would become more compassionate towards each other. Nguyen highlights some of the complexities of identifying as first-generation (vs. fifth-generation) Asian American and growing up on the West or East Coasts vs. Midwest through Linny, Van, and their communities. There seemed to be a theme regarding marriage and fidelity, and the ending felt abrupt; I was hoping for more growth from the characters.
June 10, 2024
“Whenever Lenny complained about wanting to be taller he would reprimand her ‘Not about being tall.’ he said. ‘ it’s about being just as equal as tall people.’ “
“There, Lenny first understood the wondrous, addictive rush of having power over a boy. She remembered looking down at - was it Alex Phan? - her shirt half unbuttoned, and feeling certain that he would agree to do almost anything if she let him undo the rest.”
“Mr. Luong had always claimed independence, saying no one could boss him or tell him what to do, but in truth, people were always helping him……Even now Van was still sending him checks, and they both still traveled back home to clean up the house and look in on him. For all his independence, Mr. Luong needed many people in his life.”
“ ‘I think he’s open to it now. A lot of his friends are starting to email each other and he’s feeling left out.’ But it amazed Lenny to consider that her father might, after all, be able to step out of the cast of the too old, too first-generation immigrant.”
“There, Lenny first understood the wondrous, addictive rush of having power over a boy. She remembered looking down at - was it Alex Phan? - her shirt half unbuttoned, and feeling certain that he would agree to do almost anything if she let him undo the rest.”
“Mr. Luong had always claimed independence, saying no one could boss him or tell him what to do, but in truth, people were always helping him……Even now Van was still sending him checks, and they both still traveled back home to clean up the house and look in on him. For all his independence, Mr. Luong needed many people in his life.”
“ ‘I think he’s open to it now. A lot of his friends are starting to email each other and he’s feeling left out.’ But it amazed Lenny to consider that her father might, after all, be able to step out of the cast of the too old, too first-generation immigrant.”
February 21, 2018
I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated this book. Beautiful metaphors and deep, not-held-back feelings, experiences, and reactions. Maybe I felt more attached to this book because it is a sliver of the Asian American experience, but I found myself relating beyond race and with the relationship of two sisters having a sister myself. I liked that every other chapter was focusing on every other sister, although some cliff hangers made me want to speed read through just to get to the next one. Overall, a satisfying read.
March 26, 2017
This is the story of the daughters of Vietnamese immigrants. They struggle with their relationship as sisters, with their parents, and their connection to their Vietnamese roots.
The storyline is similar to a simple soap opera, but that being said I found the writing to be good and the story sort of mesmerizing. I couldn't say why, and while I'm glad I read the book, it's not one that was so memorable that I would recommend it.
The storyline is similar to a simple soap opera, but that being said I found the writing to be good and the story sort of mesmerizing. I couldn't say why, and while I'm glad I read the book, it's not one that was so memorable that I would recommend it.
March 27, 2019
Well-written and smart, but I don't know if this works that well as a novel. I sometimes felt like I was reading an essay (learned a lot about the Midwest, refugee resettlement, post-9/11 politics of immigration) and didn't get that invested in the characters--they felt somewhat blank and inauthentic. None of the plot lines led anywhere that lived up to their promise. I think this would've benefited from more showing, less telling.
February 2, 2025
I loved reading Stealing Buddha’s Dinner. When I found this book in the library I wanted to read it!
I found the pacing to be awkward and I ended up liking Linny more, which is a bit funny. I found parts of it relatable but other parts confusing, I was just wondering why some details were included. I loved her descriptions, I just thought the story was a bit off.
I thought shortness being a metaphor was clever though.
I found the pacing to be awkward and I ended up liking Linny more, which is a bit funny. I found parts of it relatable but other parts confusing, I was just wondering why some details were included. I loved her descriptions, I just thought the story was a bit off.
I thought shortness being a metaphor was clever though.
July 22, 2017
I wanted to like this book more, but I was just too frustrated with the characters. I wanted to scream at the horrible passive behavior of the women in this book toward the men in their lives. I guess it was a story about 2 sisters, but even in the end it just didn't feel like they really truly related to each other. I was disappointed in the unresolved feeling the ending had in general.
November 14, 2018
I liked it - the first half is pretty depressing. Both sisters are so sad and their lives so shallow. The end is very cookie cutter with everyone ending up where you want them to be but that is nice after their initial unhappiness, there also some cliff hangers she never explains like the Dad and nancy and that seems true that not everything is resolved. The author is generous towards the father and not so much towards Van’s husband who is so narrowly written you just have to dislike him but it was convincing enough that I don’t care because I didn’t like him!
August 12, 2021
The plot may not be terrifically exciting and the ending, although hopeful, may feel a bit flat, I still love this book. The story flows nicely, the sisters are endearing, and the writing is quite lovely in an understated way.
All in all, Short Girls is not exactly a stellar read, but the story has a kind of warmth to it that makes for a lovely read.
All in all, Short Girls is not exactly a stellar read, but the story has a kind of warmth to it that makes for a lovely read.
February 2, 2022
Family drama, mostly between two Vietnamese sisters who have grown apart but come together for their Dad as they deal with own life issues. I enjoyed this, I thought the pacing was a bit off for me. It skipped around in time sometimes and not in order. But I am excited to discuss with my book club soon.
February 26, 2023
This book cracked open for me when Linny made a joke about risotto and osso bucco. Up until then the guardedness of both their stories was hard to wade through. Van’s story in particular was hard to stomach and I really disliked her ex-husband miles’ narcissistic and sociopathic personality. That said, it was a peek into life as an immigrant in the Midwest, which I could appreciate.
October 6, 2017
A story of a Vietnamese immigrant family in modern day. I like the look into the immigrant parents' lives as well as the american raised daughters' different styles of coping with difference and assimilation.
January 29, 2018
This was North Park University's "One Book, One School" selection when Laura was a freshman. I'm so glad I finally got around to reading it!
Powerful story that gets inside the immigrant experience...some beautiful insights.
Powerful story that gets inside the immigrant experience...some beautiful insights.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 177 reviews