Stealing Buddha's Dinner
Bich Minh Nguyen
(Author)
Description
Winner of the PEN/Jerard AwardChicago Tribune Best Book of the Year
Kiriyama Notable Book "[A] perfectly pitched and prodigiously detailed memoir." - Boston Globe 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 grandmother's traditional specialties, the campy, preservative-filled "delicacies" of mainstream America capture her imagination. In Stealing Buddha's Dinner, the glossy branded allure of Pringles, Kit Kats, and Toll House Cookies becomes an ingenious metaphor for Nguyen's 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.
Product Details
Price
$16.00
$14.88
Publisher
Penguin Group
Publish Date
February 01, 2008
Pages
256
Dimensions
5.56 X 7.06 X 0.47 inches | 0.4 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780143113034
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About the Author
Bich Minh Nguyen is the author of three books: the memoir Stealing Buddha's Dinner and the novels Short Girls and Pioneer 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. Nguyen's work has also appeared in numerous anthologies and publications including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The New York Times, and Literary 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.
Reviews
"Relevant not only to anyone who's ever lusted after the perfect snack . . . but anyone who's 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
-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
