text: I am Vietnamese and I grew up in New Orleans during the 80's and 90's when the first waves were settling down there.  I hate to tell this to everyone on this site but this book is the worst piece of fiction ever written.  Like many books written by someone who does not belong to the culture that he writes about, the book takes great liberties with the imagination and presents the stories from the viewpoint of the writer and not the actual people.  The Vietnamese characters in the book are portrayed as backwards, uneducated, and simple.  Further, the stories are depressing and very few of the characters seem to have any success. If you actually grew up in New Orleans during the time that the Vietnamese Americans were setting root during the 80's and 90's, you would know that by and large, the community pulled itself from nothing to become quite successful.  No real Vietnamese American thinks or acts like the characters portrayed in this book.  I repeat - no Vietnamese American thinks or acts like the characters portrayed in this book.  The book repeats many of the fallacies that I have noticed in other books written by predominantly caucasian male authors about East Asian Culture.  There always seems to be 1) an asian prostitute 2) caucasian guy with asian bride 3) asian male in an emasculated role 4) asian people as backwards and simple.  Quite sad.  This book reminds me quite a bit of Memoirs of a Geisha, though that portrayed Japanese culture in a better light.  By the way, the lady on which "Memoirs of a Geisha" is based and written about was quite upset at the author of Memoirs of a Geisha and did not feel that it portrayed her life or her thoughts in any way at all.  Regardless, if you really want to find out about the Vietnamese American experience you should really read a book written by a Vietnamese American
  