A somewhat distracted book review of Vicky Nguyen's memoir; reflecting on the difference between memoir and autobiography, and my experiences and thoughts around Vietnamese representation
I really appreciated your review, not only in how it's written but even researching memoir vs autobiography. I myself have never even considered this before and what distinguishes the two. Thanks for sharing your experiences too about the college interview and how you didnt' know how to articulate at that time, what it means to have grown up with a refugee mom who was just tryin'g to survive. That is my experience too. Also I am not sure if you read this yet, but Owner of a Lonely Heart by Beth Nguyen is a memoir I read last year, as I too try to read a lot of Southeast Asian authored books. It really resonated with me.
Thank you for reading 💕. I find myself often trying to understand or defend creative decisions that may have resulted in something that I initially didn't think of as "good" (subjective) or what I would expect, so I actually had never thought about the difference between memoir and autobiography until I was thinking about who might readily read Boat Baby. It reminded me of autobiographies I've read. And thank you for reading of my experiences, I was surprised to find myself there. After reading Monkey Bridge, it's making me wonder a lot about being the child of a southeast asian refugee parent. I haven't read Owner of a Lonely Heart, but I'm looking it up now... Definitely seems right up my alley as I make sense of motherhood myself. Thank you for the rec 🥹
I really appreciated your review, not only in how it's written but even researching memoir vs autobiography. I myself have never even considered this before and what distinguishes the two. Thanks for sharing your experiences too about the college interview and how you didnt' know how to articulate at that time, what it means to have grown up with a refugee mom who was just tryin'g to survive. That is my experience too. Also I am not sure if you read this yet, but Owner of a Lonely Heart by Beth Nguyen is a memoir I read last year, as I too try to read a lot of Southeast Asian authored books. It really resonated with me.
Thank you for reading 💕. I find myself often trying to understand or defend creative decisions that may have resulted in something that I initially didn't think of as "good" (subjective) or what I would expect, so I actually had never thought about the difference between memoir and autobiography until I was thinking about who might readily read Boat Baby. It reminded me of autobiographies I've read. And thank you for reading of my experiences, I was surprised to find myself there. After reading Monkey Bridge, it's making me wonder a lot about being the child of a southeast asian refugee parent. I haven't read Owner of a Lonely Heart, but I'm looking it up now... Definitely seems right up my alley as I make sense of motherhood myself. Thank you for the rec 🥹