A review by robertrivasplata
Vietnamerica: A Family's Journey by Gb Tran

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

I love hearing the family lore, but often when I'm thinking about, or talking about, or even talking to a relative, I'll realize that I can't remember just how they're related to me, or to anyone else in my family. I'll often confuse which ancestor a story in the old country (or countries) is about. Of course this goes doubly for other people's families (who I also like to hear about). If only there was a book featuring a family tree which collected it all. That's the sort of book Vietnamerica is. As it was, I often had to turn back to different chapters & to the cast of family characters on the endpages. I really like the art, especially the stern depiction of GB Tran's father, Tri Huu, & also GB's measured use of spiral eyes. Tran's depiction of himself as initially disinterested in his family history kind of reminded me of the Art Spiegelman character in Maus, who similarly starts off less interested in his father's old stories.