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alisonburnis's review
funny
hopeful
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This was pure delight for the kid who obsessively read the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder (like me). Lee Lien is back at her mother’s home, working in the cafe her mother and grandfather own, feeling sorry for herself after finishing her PhD in American literature and failing to make headway on the academic job market. Her brother Sam is estranged, and she feels very unhopeful about anything. Casting around for something, anything, to do, she remembers the pin from a story her grandfather told, about a white woman journalist named Rose who came to his case in Saigon in 1965. Lee, a dedicated Wilder fan, wonders if this could be Rose Wilder Lane - the name and time fits, and the pin she left behind, which the family has kept all these years, matches the description in These Happy Golden Years of a pin Almanzo gave Laura for Christmas. After a blowup with Sam who enters their lives briefly, Lee decides she’s going to find out if this is really the same pin. And her research leads her down a stranger, more helpful path than she expects.
If you haven’t read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books, you probably won’t enjoy Pioneer Girl that much. I really did enjoy this, because it played on my nostalgia for this problematic series - Nguyen is lovingly critical, pointing out the issues while acknowledging it as a representation of how the West likes to portray itself. I really enjoyed the research Lee gets up to, and the delight of finding someone who loved these books as much as I did as a kid is wonderful. This is as much a love letter to childhood as it is to growing up and finding your place. A delight.
If you haven’t read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books, you probably won’t enjoy Pioneer Girl that much. I really did enjoy this, because it played on my nostalgia for this problematic series - Nguyen is lovingly critical, pointing out the issues while acknowledging it as a representation of how the West likes to portray itself. I really enjoyed the research Lee gets up to, and the delight of finding someone who loved these books as much as I did as a kid is wonderful. This is as much a love letter to childhood as it is to growing up and finding your place. A delight.
just_me_gi's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars.
I think I would have loved this more had I not known/read Prairie Fires and how horrible Laura and Rose are/were. Would have been easier to fall into the fun main character had discovering and imagining the relationship.
Though the metaphor at the end of academia as pioneer life, when you link it with the ridiculousness and sham that was advertising homesteading etc that was part of Prairie Fires, that if you just work hard you can make it there too, when in reality, what is required is impossible and a combo of luck and privilege, that was a great metaphor that really hit home for me--but I doubt or don't know if the author meant it this way.
I think I would have loved this more had I not known/read Prairie Fires and how horrible Laura and Rose are/were. Would have been easier to fall into the fun main character had discovering and imagining the relationship.
Though the metaphor at the end of academia as pioneer life, when you link it with the ridiculousness and sham that was advertising homesteading etc that was part of Prairie Fires, that if you just work hard you can make it there too, when in reality, what is required is impossible and a combo of luck and privilege, that was a great metaphor that really hit home for me--but I doubt or don't know if the author meant it this way.
lbrowne13's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
michelleful's review against another edition
3.0
A novel that reads more like a memoir, to the extent that I forgot this was fiction and was super cross with the author when she started stealing from libraries and museums, I mean seriously?! In other respects I identified a fair amount with the Vietnamese-American protagonist, especially in how grad school worked out for her (though she does wind up on academic 1-year contracts while I decided to bail for industry), how she finds a research project that really engrosses her only post-grad school (I had a very similar experience) and some aspects of her mother, though mine is a LOT nicer (thank goodness).
Overall it was a decent read paralleling the immigrant experience with the pioneer experience of the 1800s, and what happens to the generation after that. There were just a couple of things that weren't super pleasing in the book, one of which was why didn't she show her grandfather a picture of Rose, which would have been the most straightforward way of getting an answer on a crucial question of the novel (I see above that others have asked themselves the same question), plus the ending was just a bit muted for my tastes. 3* overall.
Overall it was a decent read paralleling the immigrant experience with the pioneer experience of the 1800s, and what happens to the generation after that. There were just a couple of things that weren't super pleasing in the book, one of which was why didn't she show her grandfather a picture of Rose, which would have been the most straightforward way of getting an answer on a crucial question of the novel (I see above that others have asked themselves the same question), plus the ending was just a bit muted for my tastes. 3* overall.
carricatures's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
Interesting premise (tying together 'modern' immigrants with the 'traditional' pioneers) but not exactly exciting or having much character development.
amyho's review against another edition
3.0
Unfortunately I have zero interest in Little House on the Prairie, so I wish that the story had been anchored by something else. I get that it's symbolic and it represents Lee's view of the American Dream, but I did not need a book about an Asian American family to be centered around a white family from the pioneer days. Really.
I will say though that gosh this has confirmed that I am truly Chinese-Vietnamese-American even though I have 0% Viet blood in me. I saw my family in Lee's family, which was unsettling but also interesting. Although my mom is not as awful as Lee's mom. I would probably have left ages ago if my mom was like that.
I will say though that gosh this has confirmed that I am truly Chinese-Vietnamese-American even though I have 0% Viet blood in me. I saw my family in Lee's family, which was unsettling but also interesting. Although my mom is not as awful as Lee's mom. I would probably have left ages ago if my mom was like that.
onecraftchick's review against another edition
4.0
I am not a fan of the ending. I understand why the writer ended it that way...but I needed something to be resolved.
rhythmvick's review against another edition
3.0
I had wanted to read this for a long time, as I loved the cover art, loved the Prairie books as a child, and find immigration stories so engaging. But I struggled with this. I think the pace was a little slow for me, with nothing much happening. Like the main character wondering how to use her PhD, I wondered whether this was the author's PhD, repurposed as a novel. The facts about the Ingalls were interesting, and so was the set up of Lee's family and their relationships. But I wanted to focus on one or the other or, if this was really a loosely autobiographical read, that it had been presented as a more traditional memoir. Even as I've come to the end of the book, I can't quite place it's intention and I think that's why I feel a bit unsatisfied.
caitlin21521's review against another edition
4.0
This is great, and I wish I had read it sooner. I loved the parallels that Lee draws between her own family's journey and Laura's. There is a lingering question about what the American dream actually is and how many people have achieved that modicum of success.
It is also very clear that Nguyen is a Little House fan, and anyone who has grown up with the series will likely enjoy this novel. I'm already contemplating a reread of the series as well as visiting Laura's original autobiography.
It is also very clear that Nguyen is a Little House fan, and anyone who has grown up with the series will likely enjoy this novel. I'm already contemplating a reread of the series as well as visiting Laura's original autobiography.
glabeson's review against another edition
4.0
I really loved the parallels/contrasts of the Vietnamese-American narrator's life and those of the Ingalls-Wilders, around which the plot centers. I don't know how much of the [b:The Little House Collection|114345|The Little House Collection (Little House, #1-9)|Laura Ingalls Wilder|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1266475076s/114345.jpg|2852640] information is true, but loving those books as a kid, I found this novel engaging.