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Short Girls (2009)

by Bich Minh Nguyen(Favorite Author)

3.24 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0670020818 (ISBN13: 9780670020812)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Viking Adult

review 1: I enjoyed this glimpse into the workings of a Vietnamese family. This is a story of two sisters, Linny and Van, and how they coped with transitioning form their family into the world as young adults. I was surprised at the stereotypical, rigid role played by the father in the book. It was touching to see Van try to please this father who never would be happy with anything she did. It was a good read.
review 2: I picked this up because I was interested in how Nguyen would make the transition from a memoir to a novel. Unfortunately, this book was just as unimpressive as "Stealing Buddha's Dinner." The book did start to pick up near the end, where I actually started caring about the characters, even if they were flat and two-dimensional, but there's very littl... moree action in this book. I was hoping for more, instead of long, drawn out explanations for things that the average reader would understand. It suffers from First Novel Syndrome, where the author is so nervous or afraid of not being understood that they write down to their readers, feeling the need to explain the subtle nuances of their writing. I admit, I was hoping for a return trip to Vietnam with the sisters, or at least to have the idea seriously cross their minds, but that didn't happen. As disappointed as I was, I still would probably pick up more of Nguyen's books, to see how she improves. less

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