Book of The Month discussion

A stunning debut novel about an immigrant Vietnamese family who settles in New Orleans and struggles to remain connected to one another as their lives are inextricably reshaped.

When Huong arrives in New Orleans with her two young sons, she is jobless, homeless, and worried about her husband, Cong, who remains in Vietnam. As she and her boys begin to settle in to life in America, she continues to send letters and tapes back to Cong, hopeful that they will be reunited and her children will grow up with a father.

But with time, Huong realizes she will never see her husband again. While she copes with this loss, her sons, Tuan and Binh grow up in their absent father's shadow, haunted by a man and a country trapped in their memory and imagination. As they push forward, the three adapt to life in America in different ways: Huong takes up with a Vietnamese car salesman who is also new in town; Tuan tries to connect with his heritage by joining a local Vietnamese gang; and Binh, now going by Ben, embraces his adopted homeland and his burgeoning sexuality. Their search for identity--as individuals and as a family--threatens to tear them apart. But then disaster strikes the city they now call home, and they must find a new way to come together and honor the ties that bind them.

through Tua'n 1984 / 30 %

(view spoiler)[
wow, their voyage there sounds so awful and tough. sharing all the food she brought and the lack of water.
that her husband didn't come too. ugh

and her oldest son struggling - it breaks my heart how much prejudice he's having to put up with. kids and people have just bene cruel

the youngest picking his own name is interesting - he didn't know their dad or their home in Vietnam so I wonder how that will change how these 2 grow up and their beliefs

loved the mention of Bodhi beads. they are so pretty! I didn't know they were tied to any religion (hide spoiler)]

Hu'o'ng: 1999 / 79%

(view spoiler)[
I'm so sad to discover what happened to her husband. and that her son found out so long after that his dad wasn't dead. and that they even had to imagine him dead instead of not coming with them (hide spoiler)]

Tua'n: 1999 / 84%
(view spoiler)[ it was nice to have a chapter for the two brothers but it makes me sad that it seems there is still so much between them - because they grew up different and that Ben had so many secrets and struggles that Tua'n didn't seem to try to help him with, like a big brother. (hide spoiler)]

Ben : 2000 / 90%

(view spoiler)[
I love that he learned another language - and it ended up being the one his father had also known, even though he'd never known him

I'm sad how he just walked away with Tua'n and left an envelope of money.

Ben's struggle to define a dad broke my heart. and how mad he still seems at his mom (hide spoiler)]

Part V - end

(view spoiler)[ Wow, I don't know why I didn't think about it
but I thought the water had already taken so much from this family

I didn't even think of Louisiana waters taken even more from there (hide spoiler)]