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The Gangster We Are All Looking For
The Gangster We Are All Looking For | Thi Diem Thuy Le
4 posts | 7 read | 2 to read
This acclaimed novel reveals the life of a Vietnamese family in America through the knowing eyes of a child finding her place and voice in a new country. In 1978 six refugeesa girl, her father, and four unclesare pulled from the sea to begin a new life in San Diego. In the childs imagination, the world is transmuted into an unearthly realm: she sees everything intensely, hears the distress calls of inanimate objects, and waits for her mother to join her. But life loses none of its strangeness when the family is reunited. As the girl grows, her matter-of-fact innocence eddies increasingly around opaque and ghostly traumas: the cataclysm that engulfed her homeland, the memory of a brother who drowned and, most inescapable, her fathers hopeless rage. From the Trade Paperback edition.
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charl08
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It is hot and dusty where we live. Some people think it's dirty but they don't know much about us. They haven't seen our gardens full of lemongrass, mint, cilantro, and basil. Driving by with their windows rolled up, they've only seen the pigeons pecking at day-old rice and the skinny cats and dogs sitting in the skinny shade of skinny trees. Have they seen the berries that we pick, that turn our lips and fingertips red?

charl08 Didn't realise the cactus were creating 🐰 14mo
44 likes1 comment
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ninergrl6
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Mehso-so

This was recommended as a [Vietnamese female written and narrated] companion to [the misogynistic white American male perspective in] The Things They Carried. I'm not sure if it'll work for that purpose, especially given the choppy nature of the storytelling, but I might be able to extract a few excerpts. #weneeddiversebooks #AmericanLit #Vietnam #teachersoflitsy

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stargazerblue49
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Pickpick

This book was sooo good! It reads very stream-of-consciousness and jumps back and forth through the narrator's childhood both in Vietnam and in the US. It's not billed as a memoir, but I believe that it is at least semi-autobiographical. And the writing is just beautiful. Luna was trying to eat my fingers during a significant portion of my reading time tonight. Proof that she is feeling better after some stomach trouble yesterday.

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stargazerblue49
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Luna is helping me hold pages on my post-call day. #catsoflitsy #littenkittens

Libby1 ❤️Luna❤️ 7y
Captivatedbybooks Awwww soooo precious!!! 7y
rubyslippersreads So helpful and so pretty! 😻 7y
See All 7 Comments
Zelma So adorable and helpful ! 😻 (edited) 7y
stargazerblue49 @rubyslippersreads @Zelma Helpful for a moment. Two seconds after I snapped this pic she decided that she needed to lay on top of the book for pets. 😸 7y
CoverToCoverGirl The perfect bookmark! ❤️ 7y
BookBabe Too cute! 😻💕 7y
50 likes1 stack add7 comments