Home › Books › House of Sticks
House of Sticks
by
71/99
Critics
86/99
Readers
n/a
Scholars
90/99
Rating
52/99
Volume
91/99
Rating
80/99
Volume
—
Sign in to add to your shelf, rate, or review this book.
About This Book
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.
Preview
Reviews
"Tran's memoir is unique among Vietnamese American narratives in the sense that her identity crisis was not about liberating herself from her parents' past but her unwillingness to remove herself from their suffering ..."
"It showcases the tremendous power we have to alter the fates of others, step into their lives and shift the odds in favor of greater opportunity for our poor and weary."
"At its core, House of Sticks is a tribute to her parents, an exercise in mercy, powerfully wrought."
"Readers who loved Tara Westover's Educated (2018) will find a similarly compelling memoir of resilience in a not-often-seen America."
"Particularly difficult to read are the sections in which Tran outlines her mental fragility and the failure of the educational system to sustain her ..."
Reader Reviews
0 reviewsSign in to write a review.
No reader reviews yet. Be the first!