Short Girls
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A funny, heart-warming take on family unity and cultural identity (Marie Claire )
Loaded with tender charm and wry, lightly observed insights (Daily Mail )
A smoothly pleasurable read (Guardian )
Fans of Amy Tan and Monica Ali will love Short Girls, which has already been dubbed a Vietnamese The Joy Luck Club (Red )
An intelligent, bittersweet debut novel (Sunday Times )
Nguyen is an amusing observer of assimilation angst...this gentle-comedy of inter-generational strife is a polished and poised affair (Independent )
Loaded with tender charm and wry, lightly observed insights (Daily Mail )
A smoothly pleasurable read (Guardian )
Fans of Amy Tan and Monica Ali will love Short Girls, which has already been dubbed a Vietnamese The Joy Luck Club (Red )
An intelligent, bittersweet debut novel (Sunday Times )
Nguyen is an amusing observer of assimilation angst...this gentle-comedy of inter-generational strife is a polished and poised affair (Independent )
Product Description
Sisters Van and Linny - like their father - are short. But they couldn't be more different. Van's the overachiever - a high-flying lawyer with a pristine home and husband, until the husband walks out. Linny is fashionable, flighty, works for a catering firm called You Did It Dinners and has just been told by her married lover that he's sticking with his wife.
So much to talk about. And yet they don't.
However, when their father invents a device to enable short people to reach high objects but needs to become an American citizen to sell it, the sisters are forced to work together to help him. If he's ever to succeed in an American Idol-style reality TV show for desperate inventors, Van and Linny must put aside their differences and admit what it is they have in common . . .
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In her debut novel, Bich Minh Nguyen effectively uses two different Asian voices to tell her story. Van (5ft 1/8") and Lynny (4ft 11")are two second generation immigrant sisters from the American Midwest, each trying in their own way to navigate life in a country full of tall people. The girls, who share little in common, find themselves perpetually isolated from society save for the close knit Vietnamese community surrounding them. When their hard working mother unexpectedly dies, their eccentric, elderly father steps up his inventions for short people in the basement.
When Dinh Luong finally decides to become a US citizen, his daughters, who surprisingly find themselves in similar situations for once, are reunited in their childhood home to support and subsequently care for him. Cautiously they beign to rebuild their neglected sisterhood, to eventually reveal their true selves.
I liked the author's insights into the complexities of duty, culture and ambition. However, although I enjoyed the understated humour in the story, I thought the reason Dinh Luong wanted to take the oath (in order to compete in an American idol-type television show for inventors) was redundant in an otherwise well-structured novel.
For me, 'Short Girls' is a tender dissection of Asian-American family life in which each member lives in his/her own secret bubble. Quite a few serious isssues are covered in this novel, but I didn't find it to be a heavy read, more a gentle comedy based on inter-generational friction from voices I had not heard before.
When Dinh Luong finally decides to become a US citizen, his daughters, who surprisingly find themselves in similar situations for once, are reunited in their childhood home to support and subsequently care for him. Cautiously they beign to rebuild their neglected sisterhood, to eventually reveal their true selves.
I liked the author's insights into the complexities of duty, culture and ambition. However, although I enjoyed the understated humour in the story, I thought the reason Dinh Luong wanted to take the oath (in order to compete in an American idol-type television show for inventors) was redundant in an otherwise well-structured novel.
For me, 'Short Girls' is a tender dissection of Asian-American family life in which each member lives in his/her own secret bubble. Quite a few serious isssues are covered in this novel, but I didn't find it to be a heavy read, more a gentle comedy based on inter-generational friction from voices I had not heard before.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
I have not been able to escape the comment made by one reviewer that nothing happens in this book. It is true in the sense there are no murders or car chases, in fact little action of any kind! It is in essence a portrait of two sisters, second generation Vietnamese growing up in the USA.
So while I don't say this is a great masterpiece of a novel, I do think it works well and is gives a good account of its subject. The two girls have taken different paths and both struggle to meet the expectations of their families and their wider society, and at the same time to find the lives which satisfy themselves and make them happy. They are both free and still tied to their communities by invisible chords which many would find hard to understand.
So while scoring zero for action, I give this book full marks for an accurate and tender portrayal of our modern multi-racial world.
So while I don't say this is a great masterpiece of a novel, I do think it works well and is gives a good account of its subject. The two girls have taken different paths and both struggle to meet the expectations of their families and their wider society, and at the same time to find the lives which satisfy themselves and make them happy. They are both free and still tied to their communities by invisible chords which many would find hard to understand.
So while scoring zero for action, I give this book full marks for an accurate and tender portrayal of our modern multi-racial world.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Van and Linny are two sisters living in the Chicago suburbs. Van, the eldest, has a high flying law career and a seemingly perfect husband - who's just walked out on her for another woman. Linny, on the other hand, is struggling to hold down a job and is having an affair with a married man. But when their father goes for his American citizenship test to try and sell his invention, the Luong Arm (which helps short people reach items in high places), they grow closer than they ever expected to.
I'm sure that anyone with siblings, and particularly two sisters, will be able to relate to not just one, but both of the Luong girls. In a world - and a culture - where strigent expectations are placed on them, their flaws in failing to succeed in these expectations make them instantly more lovable. Most of us know one or the other, perhaps both, or can identify ourselves with them, giving the novel a strong resonance to its target audience. However, the overarching theme of the book to me is distance and escape. Every main character is isolated from the other main characters - the sisters themselves, the sisters and their father, Van and her husband, Linny and her lover, their father from his home in Vietnam, it goes on. For that reason, the most touching relationship for me in the novel is that between Linny and her father, culminating in an argument with Van where she bursts forth into marking herself out as one of the only characters to lower her defences and make us truly warm to her. That said though there are also some funny (if unintentionally so) moments, such as the sisters' stakeout of Van's husband's new home which ends in a dramatic twist.
In short: There are dark undercurrents bubbling away in the background, but overall this is a charming, heartwarming tale of two sisters learning to become friends as well as family.
I'm sure that anyone with siblings, and particularly two sisters, will be able to relate to not just one, but both of the Luong girls. In a world - and a culture - where strigent expectations are placed on them, their flaws in failing to succeed in these expectations make them instantly more lovable. Most of us know one or the other, perhaps both, or can identify ourselves with them, giving the novel a strong resonance to its target audience. However, the overarching theme of the book to me is distance and escape. Every main character is isolated from the other main characters - the sisters themselves, the sisters and their father, Van and her husband, Linny and her lover, their father from his home in Vietnam, it goes on. For that reason, the most touching relationship for me in the novel is that between Linny and her father, culminating in an argument with Van where she bursts forth into marking herself out as one of the only characters to lower her defences and make us truly warm to her. That said though there are also some funny (if unintentionally so) moments, such as the sisters' stakeout of Van's husband's new home which ends in a dramatic twist.
In short: There are dark undercurrents bubbling away in the background, but overall this is a charming, heartwarming tale of two sisters learning to become friends as well as family.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.5 stars
Bich Minh Nguyen's debut novel "Short Girls," tells the story of two second-generation Vietnamese sisters who lead very different lives. Read more
Published 18 months ago by K. Wright
A few new twists
The Immigrant Family In America Novel has been done to death, and one wonders why Bich Minh Nguyen thought she might be able to come up with any new twists, especially as she's... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Alan Hansen
Family relationships and integration
I am always drawn to books that highlight the problems encountered by immigrants trying to fit into a new homeland and this book was no exception. Read more
Published 22 months ago by DubaiReader
A nice story but ultimately forgettable
A good while back, I reviewed "Free Food for Millionaires" by Min Jin Lee, a book which explored the experiences of a first generation Korean American. Read more
Published on 25 Jan 2010 by J. Cronin
Brilliant
I really loved this book, the characterisation of the two sisters Linny and Van is so real; Linny, the youngest, is spoilt and wild, whilst Van, is quiet and bookish. Read more
Published on 6 Nov 2009 by Princess Mononoke
Nice enough, but bland and slightly dull
It's fair to say that if I hadn't needed to review this novel for Amazon Vine, I probably wouldn't have bothered to finish it. Read more
Published on 29 Oct 2009 by purplepadma
CONSUMMATE READER BRINGS SISTERS' STORY TO LIFE
Alice H. Kennedy who read Nguyen's acclaimed memoir Stealing Buddha's Dinner gives equally appealing voice to Short Girls, the author's first foray into fiction. Read more
Published on 26 July 2009 by Gail Cooke
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