213 pages

French language

Published Nov. 10, 2012 by Librairie générale française.

ISBN:
978-2-253-15803-5
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OCLC Number:
819110185

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4 stars (4 reviews)

At ten years old, Kim Thúy fled Vietnam on a boat with her family, leaving behind a grand house and the many less tangible riches of their home country: the ponds of lotus blossoms, the songs of soup-vendors. The family arrived in Quebec, where they found clothes at the flea market, and mattresses with actual fleas. Kim learned French and English, and as she grew older, seized what opportunities an immigrant could; she put herself through school picking vegetables and sewing clothes, worked as a lawyer and interpreter, and later as a restaurateur. She was married and a mother when the urge to write struck her, and she found herself scribbling words at every opportunity - pulling out her notebook at stoplights and missing the change to green. The story emerging was one of a Vietnamese émigré on a boat to an unknown future: her own story fictionalized and crafted …

12 editions

Review of 'RU' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This is a difficult book to review. The book was described to me as less of a complete story than a series of flashes, like rays of glimmering light. The writing style made it impossible for me to generate any kind of emotional connection, since it would move so quickly from one thing to another. This is appropriate, though, as the book spends quite some time talking about the author's/character's inability to feel emotional attachments.

It is definitely something more than an average book, but not one of my favorites, so 4 stars seems about right to me.

Subjects

  • Fiction
  • Refugees
  • Vietnamese

Places

  • Vietnam
  • Québec (Province)
  • Québec