"A powerful memoir by 25-year-old Ly Tran about her immigrant experience and her recent family history in the aftermath of the war that spans from Vietnam to Brooklyn, and ultimately to the Ivy League"-- - (Baker & Taylor)
This memoir of a young Vietnamese woman follows her journey from war-torn Vietnam to New York City and struggles to reconcile her family’s Buddhist faith and meager lifestyle with her desire to assimilate. 100,000 first printing. Illustrations. - (Baker & Taylor)
New York City Book Awards Hornblower Award Winner
One of Vogue and NPR’s Best Books of the Year
This beautifully written “masterclass in memoir” (Elle) recounts a young girl’s journey from war-torn Vietnam to Queens, New York, “showcas[ing] the tremendous power we have to alter the fates of others, step into their lives and shift the odds in favor of greater opportunity” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis).
Ly Tran is just a toddler in 1993 when she and her family immigrate from a small town along the Mekong river in Vietnam to a two-bedroom railroad apartment in Queens. Ly’s father, a former lieutenant in the South Vietnamese army, spent nearly a decade as a POW, and their resettlement is made possible through a humanitarian program run by the US government. Soon after they arrive, Ly joins her parents and three older brothers sewing ties and cummerbunds piece-meal on their living room floor to make ends meet.
As they navigate this new landscape, Ly finds herself torn between two worlds. She knows she must honor her parents’ Buddhist faith and contribute to the family livelihood, working long hours at home and eventually as a manicurist alongside her mother at a nail salon in Brooklyn that her parents take over. But at school, Ly feels the mounting pressure to blend in.
A growing inability to see the blackboard presents new challenges, especially when her father forbids her from getting glasses, calling her diagnosis of poor vision a government conspiracy. His frightening temper and paranoia leave a mark on Ly’s sense of self. Who is she outside of everything her family expects of her?
An “unsentimental yet deeply moving examination of filial bond, displacement, war trauma, and poverty” (NPR), House of Sticks is a timely and powerful portrait of one girl’s coming-of-age and struggle to find her voice amid clashing cultural expectations. - (Simon and Schuster)
An intimate, beautifully written coming-of-age memoir recounting a young girl's journey from war-torn Vietnam to Ridgewood, Queens, and her struggle to find her voice amid clashing cultural expectations.
Ly Tran is just a toddler in 1993 when she and her family immigrate from a small town along the Mekong river in Vietnam to a two-bedroom railroad apartment in Queens. Ly's father, a former lieutenant in the South Vietnamese army, spent nearly a decade as a POW, and their resettlement is made possible through a humanitarian program run by the US government. Soon after they arrive, Ly joins her parents and three older brothers sewing ties and cummerbunds piece-meal on their living room floor to make ends meet.
As they navigate this new landscape, Ly finds herself torn between two worlds. She knows she must honor her parents' Buddhist faith and contribute to the family livelihood, working long hours at home and eventually as a manicurist alongside her mother at a nail salon in Brownsville, Brooklyn, that her parents take over. But at school, Ly feels the mounting pressure to blend in.
A growing inability to see the blackboard presents new challenges, especially when her father forbids her from getting glasses, calling her diagnosis of poor vision a government conspiracy. His frightening temper and paranoia leave an indelible mark on Ly's sense of self. Who is she outside of everything her family expects of her?
Told in a spare, evocative voice that, with flashes of humor, weaves together her family's immigration experience with her own fraught and courageous coming of age, House of Sticks is a timely and powerful portrait of one girl's struggle to reckon with her heritage and forge her own path. - (Simon and Schuster)
Ly Tran graduated from Columbia University in 2014 with a degree in creative writing and linguistics. She has received fellowships from MacDowell, Art Omi, and Yaddo. House of Sticks is her first book. - (Simon and Schuster)
Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Tracing the paths of immigration and poverty, Tran's moving and exceptionally readable memoir is at once heartbreaking, shocking, and hopeful. Young Ly and her family arrive in Queens in 1993 through a humanitarian resettlement program made possible because her father, a former lieutenant for the South Vietnamese army, spent 10 years as a POW. His PTSD and paranoia manifest as anger and violence, his only way of protecting his family. Their tiny, roach-infested apartment transforms into a family-run sweatshop; when that work dries up, they buy a rundown nail salon where only-daughter Ly works weekends starting at age 12. While education is important in her family, Ly struggles in school because her father thinks her much-needed glasses are a government conspiracy. Left at home when her brothers move away, unable to engage with a world she cannot see, Ly retreats into herself, sliding into depression. It takes nothing short of a village to get Ly back on track, but finding her voice is something she must do on her own. Tran is exceptional at telling her story with honesty and without judgment. Readers who loved Tara Westover's Educated (2018) will find a similarly compelling memoir of resilience in a not-often-seen America. Copyright 2021 Booklist Reviews.
Library Journal Reviews
Host of the popular advice column "¡Hola Papi!" on Substack, Brammer offers a memoir-in-essays, tracking what it's like to grow up as a queer, mixed-race Chicano kid in America's heartlands (75,000-copy first printing). In The Profession, originally scheduled for fall 2020 and written with Turnaround coauthor Knobler, Bratton tracks a career that led to his being police commissioner in New York City. Burns proclaims Where You Are Is Not Who You Are, sharing where she's been and what she's learned as the first Black female CEO of a Fortune 500 company (75,000-copy first printing). Former teen model Diamond (Naked Rome) reveals a childhood both wacky and cliff-hanging in Nowhere Girl; on the run with an outlaw family, she lived in more than a dozen countries, on five continents, under six assumed identities, by age nine (50,000-copy first printing). Twitter-famous Henderson offers The Ugly Cry to tell us about being raised Black in a mostly white community by tough grandparents after her mother abandoned her. Today show news anchor Melvin uses Pops to explore issues of race and fatherhood while recalling his own dad (100,000-copy first printing). Founder of Chicago's Dreamcatcher Foundation, which assists young people in disadvantaged areas, Myers-Powell recalls a childhood fractured by her mother's death and a life of pimps and parties before finally Leaving Breezy Street (75,000-copy first printing). Growing up scary smart if poor and emotionally unsupported, James Edward Plummer renamed himself Hakeem Muata Oluseyi to honor his African heritage and now leads A Quantum Life as a NASA physicist. In House of Sticks, Tran recalls leaving Vietnam as a toddler in 1993 and growing up in Queens, helping her mom as a manicurist and eventually graduating from Columbia (100,000-copy first printing). In As a Woman, Williams, a celebrated speaker on gender equity and LGTBQ+ issues, describes the decision to transition from male to female as a 60-year-old husband, father, and pastor (60,000-copy first printing).
Copyright 2020 Library Journal.
Library Journal Reviews
Tran's debut offers an intimate look at her upbringing and family life, from immigrating to New York City from rural Vietnam as a young child, through her adolescence and early adulthood. Her memoir reads as a therapeutic catharsis, processing the traumas of poverty, a sense of not quite fitting in, the limitations of growing up as a girl, and the unpredictably volatile outbursts of a father dealing with his own trauma as a prisoner of war. The author invites readers to revisit memories of her childhood and reflects on growing up as her family's only daughter and her sometimes-fractured relationships with her three brothers. Tran, a naturally optimistic child, began to experience a low level of depression which cast a shadow over her many accomplishments. This book's engaging prose and tender vulnerability will have readers rooting for Tran and hoping that she'll recognize her worth and potential. New Yorkers will especially enjoy the many references to their city. VERDICT Readers will fall into this memoir by a talented new author. It will appeal to many, as a coming-of-age story and a firsthand look into the psyche of a young immigrant.—Kelly Karst, California Inst. of Integral Studies
Copyright 2021 Library Journal.