What a jewel of a book! It's deceptive in how straightforward the narrative is: a young girl flees Vietnam at the end of the war, grows up in Montreal, and returns to her home country as an adult. I think initially, I felt it was a little too "this happened, then this happened," but as the story built, it created a delicate oil painting of influence and desire, and what makes Vi who she is. Each character is drawn with such clarity that they feel vivid even if they're only in a scene or two, and the settings overflow with detail and sensation, layering into an understanding of the main character and her choices.

I'm having trouble describing why I liked this so much; I think maybe it was asking the reader to do a lot of work and make the connections themself, rather than explaining everything: Here is this thing that is beautiful and profound, and you have to figure out its significance. Maybe it was just a really nice brain reset after my last novel. I should go back and read Thúy's other work. I know her first novel, Ru, got a lot of buzz at the time.