Short Girls

By Bich Minh Nguyen

Book Overview

Winner of an American Book Award
Named one of the Best Books of the Year by Library Journal

A novel about two Vietnamese-American sisters, longtime rivals, growing closer as they "grapplewith their upbringing, their present circumstances and their shortcomings" (Kirkus Reviews)

Called "A writer to watch, a tremendous talent" by the Chicago Tribune, Bich Minh Nguyen makes her fiction debut with the deeply moving and entertaining story of two Vietnamese sisters. Aside from their petite stature, Van and Linny Luong couldn't be more different. Diligent, unassuming Van works as an immigration lawyer in the Michigan suburbs where she resides with her handsome, Chinese-American lawyer husband. Beautiful, fashionable Linny lives in Chicago and has drifted into an affair with a married man. When Van's picture-perfect marriage collapses and Linny finds herself grappling to escape her dead-end life, the long-estranged sisters are unable to confide in one another- until their eccentric inventor father calls them back home to the Vietnamese American community they fled long ago.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143117505
• ISBN13: 9780143117506
• Release Date: June 2010
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.1" x 7.7"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Wonderful Study of Family Relations

Bich Minh Nguyen's second book, Short Girls, is a superbly written story of family relations and obligation that explores the dichotomy between two sisters, Linny and Van, who are polar opposites, yet disarmingly similar at the same time. Both sisters struggle with the various relationships in their lives and both maintain a certain level of insecurity rooted in their shared childhood experiences. The author does an excellent job of letting the reader into the lives of her characters: I feel as if I know exactly how the sisters look, what their homes and workplaces look like, and even how they might behave in certain situations, all due to Nguyen's expertly rendered (but never overwrought or over-done) prose. The underlying current of the story centers on the sister's helpless father, Dinh Luong, and his ongoing struggle to assimilate into the culture of the country he emigrated to almost 30 years earlier from Viet Nam. The story is enveloping as it explores situations many of us have experienced - marital problems, family discord, cultural assimilation and identity, the search for one's place in life - through the eyes of pretty, ne'er do well Linny and studious, conscientious Van. Both Linny and Van grow as the story progresses and each are able to achieve a measure of security and purpose as they learn to use the relationships and live experiences to help them live fuller, happier lives.

Dual viewpoint elevates this book to something special

This is a very well-written story about families, the immigrant experience, and the process of coming to terms with our most authentic selves in the crucible of the life we find ourselves leading. What makes the book especially powerful is the use of two clear viewpoints, casting light on one another in an endless dance of perception. Just as two-point perspective in a drawing really makes the objects in the image pop out at the viewer, so the two perspectives from voices so similar and yet so individual, intensify the images and the story. Highly recommended.

Awesome book!

My brother volunteers as a Vietnamese translator. I've been fortunately enough to meet some of the amazing strong and compassionate people he works with. As I read this book, I saw a lot of their faces and thought about their stories. Being a first generation anything can be tough. Trying to span one foot in two worlds. I thought that Nguyen's novel did an amazing job of showing how the line between family, friends and cultures is sometimes a hard line to walk.