Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora

In his long-overdue first collection of essays, noted journalist and NPR commentator Andrew Lam explores his lifelong struggle for identity as a Viet Kieu, or a Vietnamese national living abroad. At age eleven, Lam, the son of a South Vietnamese general, came to California on the eve of the fall of Saigon to communist forces. He traded his Vietnamese name for a more American one and immersed himself in the allure of the American dream: something not clearly defined for him or his family. Reflecting on the meanings of the Vietnam War to the Vietnamese people themselves--particularly to those in exile--Lam picks with searing honesty at the roots of his doubleness and his parents' longing for a homeland that no longer exists.

• | Author: Andrew Lam
• | Publisher: Heyday Books
• | Publication Date: Jul 01, 2012
• | Number of Pages: 160 pages
• | Binding: Paperback or Softback
• | ISBN-10: 1597140201
• | ISBN-13: 9781597140201