Stealing Buddha's Dinner : A Memoir

Nguyen, Bich Minh

ISBN 10: 0143113038 / ISBN 13: 9780143113034

Published by Penguin, 2007

About this Item

256 pp. Few small scuff marks front wrap. Signed and inscribed by author on title page.

Seller Inventory # 036426

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Stealing Buddha's Dinner : A Memoir
• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0143113038
• ISBN 13: 9780143113034
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Very Good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Americana
  • Literature

About this title

Synopsis

Winner of the PEN/Jerard Award
Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year
Kiriyama Notable Book

"[A] perfectly pitched and prodigiously detailed memoir." - Boston Globe

As a Vietnamese girl coming of age in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Nguyen is filled with a rapacious hunger for American identity, and in the pre-PC-era Midwest (where the Jennifers and Tiffanys reign supreme), the desire to belong transmutes into a passion for American food. More exotic- seeming than her Buddhist grandmother's traditional specialties, the campy, preservative-filled "delicacies" of mainstream America capture her imagination.

In Stealing Buddha's Dinner, the glossy branded allure of Pringles, Kit Kats, and Toll House Cookies becomes an ingenious metaphor for Nguyen's struggle to become a "real" American, a distinction that brings with it the dream of the perfect school lunch, burgers and Jell- O for dinner, and a visit from the Kool-Aid man. Vivid and viscerally powerful, this remarkable memoir about growing up in the 1980s introduces an original new literary voice and an entirely new spin on the classic assimilation story.

About the Author

Bich Minh Nguyen is the author of three books: the memoir Stealing Buddha's Dinner and the novels Short Girls and Pioneer Girl. Her awards and honors include an American Book Award, a PEN/Jerard Award from the PEN American Center, a Bread Loaf fellowship, and best book of the year honors from the Chicago Tribune and Library Journal. Nguyen's work has also appeared in numerous anthologies and publications including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The New York Times, and Literary Hub. Nguyen received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan, where she won Hopwood Awards in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. She has taught at Purdue University and the University of San Francisco and is currently a professor in the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.