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A review by readerrabbit23
Dragonfish by Vu Tran
4.0
When I first started reading, I didn't particularly care for Robert or the writing style. That didn't really change throughout the book, but what did change was me wanting to know what happened next, and feeling sucked in by trying to piece together the parts of Hong's life, and the ways that Hong and Sonny were intertwined. It's why I ultimately gave the book four stars, because the excerpts from Hong's letter really moved me, as did this larger exploration of the past, what it means to be a refugee and to love and long for a home you can't quite return to because it's not particularly welcoming, and the things that haunt you.
I think what I like a lot about this book, and why I think it's good - beyond it being a good thriller that hooks you - is that there's so much to unpack. To unpack, for example, way this white man Robert thinks he knows things about Vietnam because he married a Vietnamese wife who he called by an American name she used with nobody else but him. Or to look at how hard motherhood is and what having a child thrusts upon us. How war and being a refugee constrains people, and how we live with and are influenced by our traumas.
I think what I like a lot about this book, and why I think it's good - beyond it being a good thriller that hooks you - is that there's so much to unpack. To unpack, for example, way this white man Robert thinks he knows things about Vietnam because he married a Vietnamese wife who he called by an American name she used with nobody else but him. Or to look at how hard motherhood is and what having a child thrusts upon us. How war and being a refugee constrains people, and how we live with and are influenced by our traumas.