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tittypete's review against another edition
1.0
I got this book because I googled “good books about Minnesota.” I was familiar with Hmong folks from growing up so this seemed interesting. This book touches on the history of these people but is mostly a glossing-over of the interesting stuff and then ends on a protracted description of the family matriarch’s death and funeral. Didn’t love it.
amyinthewind's review against another edition
5.0
Waiting until after the book club meeting to write a review...
laurenrdsteis's review against another edition
4.0
I read this for a book group and thoroughly appreciated it. I doubt that I would have picked this book to read on my own, because I tend to prefer fiction to nonfiction, but I am glad I read it because it forced me to step out of my comfort zone and broaden my book horizons. Not only was it well written and thought provoking but it did genuinely make me see things through another persons point of view. Eye opening and emotional from start to finish.
caseyulrich555's review against another edition
5.0
Beautifully written story that speaks to the Hmong experience but also pulls at the heart strings and reminds us of our common humanity. Love and struggle, nature and change are all beautifully woven throughout the story in a way that helps the reader feel connected with the story. Humbling and worth the read!
tordoffgrace's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
5.0
bookherd's review against another edition
5.0
I'm bowled over by the beauty of this memoir. Kao Kalia Yang writes the history of her family with such simplicity, but it's a story of hardship and endurance at least as much as a story of family love. These two sentences, from near the end of the book, bring to bear much of the emotional weight of the story: "My grandmother's death (in 2003) was the first natural death in our family since 1975. It was the outcome we had been struggling so long for: a chance to die naturally, of old age, after a full life." Tales of genocide in Laos and overcrowding in the refugee camp in Thailand to grinding poverty in the United States are stark, but they are told with such love for the people in them, even people the author knew only through the stories heard from others, that they shine.
mrswythe89's review against another edition
4.0
Strikingly beautiful memoir by Kao Kalia Yang, whom I heard of through the Radiolab controversy last year -- lovely, sad and loving.
Though perhaps it's not for me to say, not being As-Am, I think it's a very valuable representation of an Asian-American experience not often described -- one that's on the opposite end of the spectrum from your Tiger Mothers. The things Yang talks about -- the vulnerability of her parents and grandmother, the role reversal when kids have the skills to navigate a new country and the elders don't, how hard it is to maintain dignity when people look down on you -- they feel familiar, though of course I've had a much more privileged upbringing and background.
The bit about her grandmother's death is AGONY -- it goes on for pages and pages and you feel so sad, but not in a bad way because her grandmother is obviously so loved, and it's so lovely that there is this tribute written for her.
I thought it was a very brave book -- less because of the awful hard things she and her family have survived, including war and racism and having to live on welfare and learn how to live in a totally different country, though of course they were brave for surviving that, and more because Yang is willing to be vulnerable. And the book is founded in love. I admire it tremendously.
Though perhaps it's not for me to say, not being As-Am, I think it's a very valuable representation of an Asian-American experience not often described -- one that's on the opposite end of the spectrum from your Tiger Mothers. The things Yang talks about -- the vulnerability of her parents and grandmother, the role reversal when kids have the skills to navigate a new country and the elders don't, how hard it is to maintain dignity when people look down on you -- they feel familiar, though of course I've had a much more privileged upbringing and background.
The bit about her grandmother's death is AGONY -- it goes on for pages and pages and you feel so sad, but not in a bad way because her grandmother is obviously so loved, and it's so lovely that there is this tribute written for her.
I thought it was a very brave book -- less because of the awful hard things she and her family have survived, including war and racism and having to live on welfare and learn how to live in a totally different country, though of course they were brave for surviving that, and more because Yang is willing to be vulnerable. And the book is founded in love. I admire it tremendously.
lunabbly's review against another edition
5.0
A matter-of-factly poignant memoir on family.
Kao Kalia Yang delivers justice to Hmong Americans in telling her refugee story and bringing Hmong families and Hmong culture to light.
I'm teaching a course on AAPI Cultures and this is one of the reading materials -- a lot of my students didn't know that there was a Secret War during the Vietnam War and that many Hmong people, in particular men, were recruited by the U.S. CIA to fight against North Vietnam. So this helped them frame a better understanding of Hmong culture and the people.
I loved the relationship that Kao Kalia Yang and her grandmother had, it was very precious to read about. There were so many parts that I related to too -- the embarrassment of speaking up in class in English (I grew up in a multi-language household), parents struggling to pay the bills, and the community of family that was always surrounding us. It was lovely and I wouldn't have had it any other way so reading this memoir just helped me remember how sweet and nostalgic that time was even if we were financially struggling.
I'd recommend!
Kao Kalia Yang delivers justice to Hmong Americans in telling her refugee story and bringing Hmong families and Hmong culture to light.
I'm teaching a course on AAPI Cultures and this is one of the reading materials -- a lot of my students didn't know that there was a Secret War during the Vietnam War and that many Hmong people, in particular men, were recruited by the U.S. CIA to fight against North Vietnam. So this helped them frame a better understanding of Hmong culture and the people.
I loved the relationship that Kao Kalia Yang and her grandmother had, it was very precious to read about. There were so many parts that I related to too -- the embarrassment of speaking up in class in English (I grew up in a multi-language household), parents struggling to pay the bills, and the community of family that was always surrounding us. It was lovely and I wouldn't have had it any other way so reading this memoir just helped me remember how sweet and nostalgic that time was even if we were financially struggling.
I'd recommend!