Author: Ocean Voung
The novel is set in the USA from the perspective of a son born to Vietnamese immigrants. Written in the form of a letter, addressed from a son to his mother who can’t read English. It delves into the grief, hurt and the complicated relationship with his mother. The letter signifies a life lived that will remain unsaid and the cumulation of emotions he is forced to carry with never feeling understood.
“Because freedom, I am told, is nothing but the distance between the hunter and its prey. ”
“I was unmoored by this act, its precarious yet bold refusal of common sense. “
“Shifts in the narrative would occur—the past never a fixed and dormant landscape but one that is re-seen. Whether we want to or not, we are traveling in a spiral, we are creating something new from what is gone.”