num_pages: 160
description: Cultural Writing. Asian American Studies. In his long-overdue first collection of essays, noted journalist and NPR commentator Andrew Lam explores his life-long struggle for identity as a Viet Kieu, or a Vietnamese national living abroad. At age eleven, Lam, the son of a South Vietnamese general, came to California on the eve of the fall of Saigon to communist forces. He traded his Vietnamese name for a more American one and immersed himself in the allure of the American Dream: something not clearly defined for him or his family. Reflecting on the meanings of the Vietnam War to the Vietnamese people themselves--particularly to those in exile--Lam picks with searing honesty at the roots of his doubleness and his parents' longing for a homeland that no longer exists.
language: English
title: Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora
titlecomplete: Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora
genres: Asia, Essays, Cultural Studies, Biography, Asian Literature, Autobiography, Nonfiction, History, Memoir, Biography Memoir
ratings_count: 258
awards: awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: PEN Open Book Award
publisher: Heyday