Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen (English) Paperback Book

Description: Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen In this viscerally powerful memoir, Nguyen pens a nostalgic, candid account of growing up as a Vietnamese girl in the Midwest in the 1980s, and using popular American food--from Pringles potato chips to Toll House cookies--as a way to fit in and become a real American. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description Winner of the PEN/Jerard AwardChicago Tribune Best Book of the YearKiriyama Notable Book" A perfectly pitched and prodigiously detailed memoir." - Boston GlobeAs a Vietnamese girl coming of age in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Nguyen is filled with a rapacious hunger for American identity, and in the pre-PC-era Midwest (where the Jennifers and Tiffanys reign supreme), the desire to belong transmutes into a passion for American food. More exotic- seeming than her Buddhist grandmothers traditional specialties, the campy, preservative-filled "delicacies" of mainstream America capture her imagination.In Stealing Buddhas Dinner, the glossy branded allure of Pringles, Kit Kats, and Toll House Cookies becomes an ingenious metaphor for Nguyens struggle to become a "real" American, a distinction that brings with it the dream of the perfect school lunch, burgers and Jell- O for dinner, and a visit from the Kool-Aid man. Vivid and viscerally powerful, this remarkable memoir about growing up in the 1980s introduces an original new literary voice and an entirely new spin on the classic assimilation story. Author Biography Bich Minh Nguyenis the author of three books- the memoirStealing Buddhas Dinnerand the novelsShort GirlsandPioneer Girl. Her awards and honors include an American Book Award, a PEN/Jerard Award from the PEN American Center, a Bread Loaf fellowship, and best book of the year honors from the Chicago Tribune and Library Journal. Nguyens work has also appeared in numerous anthologies and publications includingThe New Yorker,The Paris Review,The New York Times,andLiterary Hub. Nguyen received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan, where she won Hopwood Awards in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. She has taught at Purdue University and the University of San Francisco and is currently a professor in the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Review "[A] perfectly pitched and prodigiously detailed memoir." -- Boston Globe "Relevant not only to anyone whos ever lusted after the perfect snack . . . but anyone whos ever felt like an outsider." - San Francisco Chronicle "A charming memoir . . . Her prose is engaging, precise, compact." -The New York Times Book Review "Her typical and not-so-typical childhood experiences give her story a universal flavor." -USA Today"[D]eftly crafted . . . Far from being a memoir of what could be described as fitting into the kitschy ethnic-lit genre, her story is at once personal and broad, about one Vietnamese refugee navigating U.S. culture as well as an exploration of identity. . . . [S]he pays equal attention to the rhythm and poignancy of language to build her story as she does the circumstances into which she was born." -- Michael Standaert, Los Angeles Times"The authors prose is lovely and her imagery fresh. And in her recreation of a world populated by Family Ties [and] Ritz crackers . . . she has captured the 1980s with perfection. . . . This debut suggests shes a writer to watch." -- Kirkus Reviews "Nguyen brings back moments and sensations with such vivid clarity that readers will find themselves similarly jolted back in time. Shes a sensuous writer--colors and textures weave together in her work to create a living fabric. This book should be bought and read anytime your soul hungers for bright language and close observation." - Emily Carter Roiphe, Minneapolis Star Tribune Long Description As a Vietnamese girl coming of age in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Nguyen is filled with a rapacious hunger for American identity, and in the pre-PC-era Midwest (where the Jennifers and Tiffanys reign supreme), the desire to belong transmutes into a passion for American food. More exotic- seeming than her Buddhist grandmothers traditional specialties, the campy, preservative-filled delicacies of mainstream America capture her imagination. In "Stealing Buddhas Dinner," the glossy branded allure of Pringles, Kit Kats, and Toll House Cookies becomes an ingenious metaphor for Nguyens struggle to become a real American, a distinction that brings with it the dream of the perfect school lunch, burgers and Jell- O for dinner, and a visit from the Kool-Aid man. Vivid and viscerally powerful, this remarkable memoir about growing up in the 1980s introduces an original new literary voice and an entirely new spin on the classic assimilation story. Review Quote Relevant not only to anyone whos ever lusted after the perfect snack . . . but anyone whos ever felt like an outsider. "San Francisco Chronicle" A charming memoir . . . Her prose is engaging, precise, compact. "The New York Times Book Review" Her typical and not-so-typical childhood experiences give her story a universal flavor. "USA Today" Discussion Question for Reading Group Guide INTRODUCTION I came of age in the 1980s, before diversity and multicultural awareness trickled into western Michigan. Before ethnic was cool. Before Thai restaurants became staples in every town. When I think of Grand Rapids I remember city signs covered in images of rippling flags, proclaiming "An All-American City." Throughout the eighties a giant billboard looming over the downtown freeway boasted the slogan to all who drove the three-lane S-curve. As a kid, I couldnt figure out what "All-American" was supposed to mean. Was it a promise, a threat, a warning? --from Stealing Buddhas Dinner (p. 10) When does the immigrant make the transition from alien to citizen? Is identity a gift bestowed or a stake to be claimed? Bich Minh Nguyens evocative, intimate, coming-of-age memoir explores the notion of identity through one motherless childs personal quest for acceptance. Her story begins in a culturally homogenous Midwestern town where, at the tender age of one, she begins her new life as an outsider in the only country she knows. In April 1975, her charming, unshakable father manages to put his fractured family on one of the last boats out of Saigon in hopes of a better, safer life in America. In their escape they leave behind Bichs mother, a situation that her family later covers in silence. Despite the generosity of their sponsor family, the Nguyens immediately feel the sting of xenophobia in their adopted country. Though their grandmother Noi tries to maintain Vietnamese traditions, Bich and her sister, Anh, find their connection with their homeland tenuous and yearn to fit in with their often callous white neighbors and classmates. Shortly after arriving in America Bichs father woos Rosa, a strong-willed Mexican American single mother who plays maternal stand-in for the mother inexplicably missing from Bich and Anhs life. In addition to bringing Crissy, a daughter Anhs age, into the family, Rosa gives birth to Bichs half brother, Vinh, an American-born, mixed-race child. Together they build an unusual family life steeped in two separate ethnic traditions, three languages, and the continual din of American popular culture. Bich, a sensitive, introspective girl, cant slip into the social stream as easily as her pretty, outgoing sisters do. Desperate to feel, look, and be American, she latches onto the idealistic family imagery projected by brand-name packaged foods. Shake n Bake, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese in a blue box, and Hamburger Helper, while bland and insipid compared to the traditional Vietnamese foods Noi makes, nevertheless come to represent the social acceptance and insider invisibility Bich wants. Through an insatiable hunger for commercial treats full of empty calories, she tries to eat her way toward an American identity, to become an American from the inside out. Though Bich feels like an outsider among her white peers, she also finds acceptance difficult in the Vietnamese community. Despite a deep longing to shed the mantle of "otherness," she and her sister alternate between pride and shame regarding their heritage. They go out of their way to avoid attending Vietnamese parties, where, despite superficial similarities, they feel no cultural connection to their Vietnamese peers. But Bich still defends her familys religion from her condescending, devoutly Christian neighbors, and despite her classmates lack of appreciation champions the green sticky rice cakes lovingly prepared by Noi. To the young Bich, food becomes a physical manifestation of the intangible qualities that forge a self, one defined by her fanciful longings as much as by the facts of her life. Her story reflects the complexity of the immigrants struggle with identity, which is never a simple dualistic tug-of-war. Stealing Buddhas Dinner is ultimately a very American story, a touching treatise on the thorny gift of rebirth given to all who cross the threshold of Americas golden door. ABOUT BICH MINH NGUYEN Bich Minh Nguyen teaches literature and creative writing at Purdue University. She lives with her husband, the novelist Porter Shreve, in West Lafayette, Indiana and Chicago. A CONVERSATION WITH BICH MINH NGUYEN How did you choose the title Stealing Buddhas Dinner ? One of the most enduring symbols of my childhood is my grandmothers bronze statue of Buddha. He sat on a high shelf in her room, surrounded by candles, incense, and offerings of fruit and food, and he seemed such a powerful yet calming figure. I liked the idea of being Buddhist, but at the same time I recognized that it was considered--during the early to mid-1980s in Grand Rapids--not just anomalous but wayward and weird. It was such a strange contrast to play outside with girls who cheerfully asked me if I knew I was going to hell, then return home to the sanctuary of my grandmothers room. Buddha played a role in the decision I felt I had to make between maintaining Vietnamese identity and assimilating into white identity. I felt stuck in between, so the effort to claim a culture, whether American or Vietnamese, felt to me like a theft, like a taking of something that didnt or never really would belong to me. The title chapter of Stealing Buddhas Dinner illustrates the origin of the tit≤ there came a day when, troubled by ideas of spirituality, I attempted the unthinkable: taking some of Buddhas offerings for myself. You spent a lot of time at the library as a child, but did you always want to be a writer? Which writers have most influenced your writing? What occupations did you dream of having as a child? Like most writers, I dreamed of writing because I loved reading. I loved falling into someone elses imagined world and getting carried forward within his or her language and narrative. At first wanting to write stemmed from wanting to emulate the writers I admired, such as Louise Fitzhugh ( Harriet the Spy ) and Beverly Cleary (the Ramona Quimby books), and later, Dickens and Austen and Hardy. Writing also felt like an enormous kind of freedom. In real life I was so shy I sometimes couldnt answer when someone asked me a question; in the imagined life I could speak through writing. I could be as close to fearless as I dared. I was also intensely interested in language. While I didnt know it consciously at the time, Im sure that part of my obsession with reading, writing, spelling, and language was connected to my need to learn English--to master it. I probably felt that I had to prove that I could be as good at English as anyone else. It was my way of dealing with my self-consciousness as a "foreigner." I vowed I would "deforeignize" myself through English. When I was in second or third grade someone gave me a scrapbook called "School Days." It had pockets to keep report cards and drawings, pages to record the highlights of ones grade-school years, and fill-in-the blanks: "My favorite subject is _____"; "My best friend is _____." Then: "When I grow I want to be _____," followed by different options for boys and girls. For boys: doctor, fireman, astronaut. For girls: nurse, teacher, secretary. I would choose secretary because it involved a typewriter, and because it seemed, laid out so, a logical career choice. What I really wanted--to be a writer--seemed so ambitious as to invite ridicule. So I kept it a secret. There was also a big part of me that wondered why anyone would care what I had to say. For years I wrote stories, poems, and "novels" that basically mimicked whatever I was reading--often, British literature. I didnt discover books by Asian American writers (and it never occurred to me to write about being Vietnamese) until I got to college and read Maxine Hong Kingstons The Woman Warrior . Then, slowly, possibilities unfolded in my mind. I started writing first-person stories not from the point of view of a white girl--my usual protagonist up to that point--but of a Vietnamese girl. It felt scary and audacious but also somehow right. Stealing Buddhas Dinner is your first book. Why did you start with a memoir? What was it like to have your first book win the 2005 PEN/Jerard Award? I found I could write in the nonfiction form what I could never seem to articulate fully in fiction or poetry: how my family fled Vietnam on April 29, 1975, and how we left my mother behind in our flight; how we settled in, slowly, to life among tall people in Grand Rapids; how my father came home with feathers in his hair after shifts at the feather factory where he worked; how my new Latina stepmother and stepsister changed all of our lives. I didnt want, after all, to hide this story in fiction or poetry. In order to write it I had to acknowledge it as the truth--or my truth, the truth as I knew and had experienced it. Im also interested in the shape a memoir can take. It doesnt have to be confessional and full of trauma (a persistent misconception, I think). Rather, it can be a collusion of ideas and personal history, a meditation on memory and metaphor. Thats what I was aiming for in Stealing Buddhas Dinner . Winning the PEN/Jerard was flat-out one of the best things that ever happened to me. It gave me the encouragement I needed to keep writing, and it allowed me to think about creating not just manuscript pages but an actual book. I am extremely grateful to the PEN American Center for their support. Do you think its easier for Asian immigrants to be free to be themselves now that there are Asian restaurants everywhere and Asian characters are featured on many prime-time TV shows? How do you think your experience might have been different if you had grown up in Boston or Los Angeles? As an Asian Excerpt from Book Table of Contents About the Author Title Page Copyright Page Dedication 1 - Pringles 2 - Forbidden Fruit 3 - Dairy Cone 4 - Fast Food Asian 5 - Toll House Cookies 6 - School Lunch 7 - American Meat 8 - Green Sticky Rice Cakes 9 - Down with Grapes 10 - Bread and Honey 11 - Salt Pork 12 - Holiday Tamales 13 - Stealing Buddhas Dinner 14 - Ponderosa 15 - Mooncakes 16 - Cha Gio Authors Note Acknowledgements PENGUIN BOOKS STEALING BUDDHAS DINNER Bich Minh Nguyen (first name pronounced Bit) teaches literature and creative writing at Purdue University. She lives with her husband, the novelist Porter Shreve, in Chicago and West Lafayette, Indiana. Stealing Buddhas Dinner , her first book, was the recipient of the PEN/Jerard Fund Award. She is currently at work on a novel, Short Girls . Praise for Stealing Buddhas Dinner "A charming memoir . . . Her prose is engaging, precise, compact." -- The New York Times Book Review "[D]eftly crafted . . . Far from being a memoir or what could be described as fitting into the kitschy ethnic-lit genre, her story is at once personal and broad, about one Vietnamese refugee navigating U.S. culture as well as an exploration of identity. . . . [S]he pays equal attention to the rhythm and poignancy of language to build her story as she does the circumstances into which she was born." -- Los Angeles Times "Nguyen . . . succeeds as an author on many levels. She is a brave writer who is willing to share intimate family memories many of us would choose to keep secret. Her prose effortlessly pulls readers into her worlds. Her typical and not-so-typical childhood experiences give her story a universal flavor." -- USA Today "Hilarious and poignant, her words will go straight to your heart." -- Daily Candy "Nguyen brings back moments and sensations with such vivid clarity that readers will find themselves similarly jolted back in time. Shes a sensuous writer--colors and textures weave together in her work to create a living fabric. This book should be bought and read anytime your soul hungers for bright language and close observation." -- Star Tribune (Minneapolis) "Its the premise that makes the book relevant not only to anyone whos ever lusted after the perfect snack, but anyone whos ever felt different. Clever turns of phrase make Nguyens book read quickly, and children of the 80s will be able to reminisce about pop culture along with her. The story resonates with anyone whos ever felt like an outsider." -- San Francisco Chronicle " Stealing Buddhas Dinner is beautifully written. Nguyen . . . surely knows how to craft and shape sentences. She understands the evocative possibilities of language, is fearless in asserting the specificities of memories culled from early childhood and is, herself, an appealing character on the page. I believe Nguyen is a writer to watch, a tremendous talent with a gift for gorgeous sentences." -- Chicago Tribune "The story of how one young girl could absorb all these cultural influences and assimilate drives Stealing Buddhas Dinner and Nguyen makes the journey both fiercely individual and universal." -- Detroit Free Press "Nguyen is a gifted storyteller who doles out humor and hurt in equal portions. Stealing Buddhas Dinner [is] a tasty read. This memoir, which is also a tribute to all the bad [American] food, fashion, music, and hair of the deep 1980s, feels vivid, true, and even nostalgic." -- The Christian Science Monitor "[A] pungent, precisely captured memoir." -- Elle "[Nguyen] makes the inability to fit in the springboard for a gracefully told remembrance that mixes the amusing and the touching to wonderful effect. She writes with Zen-like wisdom." -- The Hartford Courant "The authors prose is lovely and her imagery fresh. And in her re-creation of a world populated by Family Ties [and] Ritz crackers . . . she has captured the 1980s with perfection. . . . This debut suggests shes a writer to watch." -- Kirkus Reviews "I came of age before ethnic was cool, the author writes in her carefully crafted memoir of growing up in western Michigan as a Vietnamese refugee in the early 1980s....What seems most to have caught her eye and fired her imagination, then as now, was food, which not only provides the title for each chapter of the memoir but also serves as a convenient shorthand for the cultural (and metaphorical) differences between Toll House cookies and green sticky rice cakes, between Pringles and chao gio , between American and Vietnamese. Its a clever device and--like the book itself--leaves the reader hungry for more." -- Booklist "Only a truly gifted writer could make me long for the Kool-Aid, Rice-a-Roni, and Kit Kats celebrated in Stealing Buddhas Dinner . In this charming, funny, original memoir about growing up as an outsider in America, Bich Nguyen takes you on a journey you wont forget. I can hardly wait for what comes next." --Judy Blume "At once sad and funny, full of brass, energy, and startling insights, Stealing Buddhas Dinner is a charmer of a memoir. Bich Nguyens story ranges from the pleasures of popular culture to the richness of personal history, from American fast foods to traditional Vietnamese fare. It is an irresistible tale." --Diana Abu-Jaber, author of Origin and The Language of Baklava "Bich Nguyens Stealing Buddhas Dinner is an irresistible memoir of assimilation, compassion, family, and food. Who would have thought that SpaghettiOs, Nestl Details ISBN0143113038 Author Bich Minh Nguyen Short Title STEALING BUDDHAS DINNER Language English ISBN-10 0143113038 ISBN-13 9780143113034 Media Book Format Paperback DEWEY B Illustrations Yes Year 2008 Affiliation Purdue University Place of Publication Hawthorn Country of Publication Australia DOI 10.1604/9780143113034 Imprint Penguin Random House Australia Narrator Jonathan Glover Birth 1908 Death 1988 Position Associate Professor of Psychiatry Qualifications Ph.D. UK Release Date 2008-01-29 Pages 272 Publisher Penguin Random House Australia Publication Date 2008-01-29 Audience General NZ Release Date 2008-01-28 AU Release Date 2008-01-28 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:137923493;

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