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tneiman 's review for:
House of Sticks
by Ly Tran
In stunning, mesmerizing prose, the author narrates her incredible story of resilience, determination, and grit as the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants in America.
**spoilers below**
The author recounts the many challenges she faced as she came of age in NYC—from having to work from the age of three assembling ties and cummerbunds in her family’s small, railroad apartment to dealing with the constant and lasting impact of her POW father’s PTSD. In particular, her father’s mistrust of the government led him to disallow Ly from getting glasses when her eyesight started to diminish, as he believed corrective lenses were a government conspiracy. Over the course of the memoir, as Ly’s eyesight worsens, this has a devastating impact on her educational trajectory, causing her to struggle in school despite being academically gifted. Even after Ly graduates from high school and secretly gets contact lenses, so much damage has been done to her self-confidence that she continues to struggle, and ultimately drops out of college. Fortunately, the story does not end there. I was moved to tears when Ly gets her acceptance letter to Columbia University, going from a college dropout to an Ivy League student.
But it wasn’t just big moments like this that made Ly’s memoir so special. It was all the small moments. The images of Ly and her family seeing snow for the first time. Ly lying in bed at night trying to build domes in her head to keep everyone she loves safe. Ly’s family laughing together as they take in a video of a chimp passing out from its own smell (one of the very first viral videos).
It’s already been a few weeks since I read this beautiful memoir, and I’m still thinking about it. I am certain it will stick with me for years to come.
**spoilers below**
The author recounts the many challenges she faced as she came of age in NYC—from having to work from the age of three assembling ties and cummerbunds in her family’s small, railroad apartment to dealing with the constant and lasting impact of her POW father’s PTSD. In particular, her father’s mistrust of the government led him to disallow Ly from getting glasses when her eyesight started to diminish, as he believed corrective lenses were a government conspiracy. Over the course of the memoir, as Ly’s eyesight worsens, this has a devastating impact on her educational trajectory, causing her to struggle in school despite being academically gifted. Even after Ly graduates from high school and secretly gets contact lenses, so much damage has been done to her self-confidence that she continues to struggle, and ultimately drops out of college. Fortunately, the story does not end there. I was moved to tears when Ly gets her acceptance letter to Columbia University, going from a college dropout to an Ivy League student.
But it wasn’t just big moments like this that made Ly’s memoir so special. It was all the small moments. The images of Ly and her family seeing snow for the first time. Ly lying in bed at night trying to build domes in her head to keep everyone she loves safe. Ly’s family laughing together as they take in a video of a chimp passing out from its own smell (one of the very first viral videos).
It’s already been a few weeks since I read this beautiful memoir, and I’m still thinking about it. I am certain it will stick with me for years to come.