The Frangipani Hotel: Stories by Violet Kupersmith (+Giveaway!)

Ghosts explore immigration, tradition and self-identity.

Synopsis of The Frangipani Hotel: Stories by Violet Kupersmith: A self-assured and stunning collection by an astonishingly gifted new writer, these stories—based on traditional Vietnamese tales—are sure to appeal to fans of Karen Russell, Jennifer Egan, Colson Whitehead, George Saunders, and Téa Obrecht. The Frangipani Hotel blends the old world and the new with fantastical, chilling, and original explorations of the ghosts that continue to haunt us: those of the Vietnam War.

My two cents

I have a soft spot for immigrant stories! Short stories, yes, I love those, too. Ghost stories, yes, yes! And then the genesis of this collection, intriguing: I loved that the author, who is of mixed heritage, found inspiration for these stories from her Vietnamese grandmother's traditional ghost stories and her own life experiences. Read Violet Kupersmith's guest post about her chats with here grandmother here.

This collection of nine creepy ghost stories, all with a Vietnamese element to them, make a wonderfully macabre and uncomfortable read.

What I liked

Creepy but not cheesy scary. I grew up in an Asian culture where superstition, the supernatural and folklore are so much a part of everyday life. I think because of that, these Vietnamese scary tales naturally resonated with me: they seemed eerily familiar, as if they were Vietnamese versions of folk tales or urban legends I've known and heard since from childhood.

These are not scary in a typical "boo" way. As Asian ghost stories go, they are subtle in their scariness. They have a magical realism to them, with a slight chill factor, a menacing undertone, and unexpected twist at the end. Think Twilight Zone.

The "ghosts" aren't always scary but they make their appearance often as real life people or in tangible forms, to impart some chilling life lesson or be a harbinger of some great realization.

The themes. What I found quite profound about this collection was the exploration of the themes of immigration, cultural identity, and ultimately of self-identity.

Vietnamese culture is interwoven in the fabric of these stories, providing us with a glimpse into its traditions and history. The Vietnamese War is pivotal moment as it impels the characters to migrate from Vietnam to the US, allowing the characters to explore the pain and loss brought about by war, and the ensuring tug-of-war involved in forcibly melding two cultures both in mind an in body.

I offer you these quick summaries without giving too much away:

Boat Story opens this collection, with a young girl needling her grandmother to tell her about their family history for a school assignment but instead gets a stomach full of papaya and a ghost story that her grandmother and grandfather lived through.

Reception is one of the longer stories and is about a beautiful ghost who haunts the Frangipani Hotel.

Skin and Bones is among my favourites because it uses the lure of food to explore rootlessness, cultural affinity and family relationships. Young US-based sisters are sent to visit with grandma in Vietnam to reconnect ... but there is something wrong. Do you like bánh mì? Read on.

Little Brother is a truck driver's close encounter with a ghost.

The Red Veil is a ghost story told by a nun to a nun-in-training while making egg rolls.

Guests, the only non-ghost story, explores how Mia struggles to make sense of straddling two cultures.

Turning Back is how a young Vietnamese girl who works the night shift at the corner convenience store has an encounter with a man cursed as a shape-shifter, and how his life and future impacts on the girl.

One-Finger seems to be a folk tale which brings together a band of old geezers who are haunted by their past.

Descending Dragon closes the collection, highlighting how one learns to make amends with one's past.

The prose. The language is atmospheric and lyrical yet straightforward. There is unexpected humour in some places, which I found oddly appropriate!

Verdict: I enjoyed this collection thoroughly. I look forward to more from this debut author, as this collection promises that she has some great stories begging to be told.

A chilling collection of ghost stories which is an unusual treatment to drive home the themes of immigration, grappling with the past and tradition, and discovering one's identity. This is an unsettling read that I recommend this to those who enjoy immigrant stories, short stories, and those who'd like to experience a different type of scary.

About Violet Kupersmith

Violet Kupersmith was born in rural Pennsylvania in 1989 and grew up outside of Philadelphia. Her father is American and her mother is a former boat refugee from Vietnam. After graduating from Mount Holyoke College she received a yearlong Fulbright Fellowship to teach and research in the Mekong Delta. She is currently at work on her first novel.

GIVEAWAY!

Thanks to the publishers, I have
1 paperback of The Frangipani Hotel up for grabs! (US only)
Please use Promosimple form below.

Check out the rest of the tour here.

I received copy of this book from the publisher via TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.

Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Spiegel and Grau (April 1, 2014)

Ru by Kim Thúy

Stripped, stark, unapologetic.

Synopsis of Ru by Kim Thuy: Ru. In Vietnamese it means lullaby; in French it is a small stream, but also signifies a flow--of tears, blood, money. Kim Thúy's Ru is literature at its most crystalline: the flow of a life on the tides of unrest and on to more peaceful water.

In vignettes of exquisite clarity, sharp observation and sly wit, we are carried along on an unforgettable journey from a palatial residence in Saigon to a crowded and muddy Malaysian refugee camp, and onward to a new life in Quebec. There, the young girl feels the embrace of a new community, and revels in the chance to be part of the American Dream. As an adult, the waters become rough again: now a mother of two sons, she must learn to shape her love around the younger boy's autism.

Moving seamlessly from past to present, from history to memory and back again, Ru is a book that celebrates life in all its wonder: its moments of beauty and sensuality, brutality and sorrow, comfort and comedy.

My two cents

In short snapshots, we piece together the life of Ru: living a wealthy life in Saigon, struggling to survive in an overcrowded and squalid Malaysian refugee camp, transplanted in the strange world of Quebec. It is a story of hope and possibility, of remaking and rebuilding oneself . An immigrant story that is short, non-verbose, honest and hard hitting.

***

I am guilty of letting this review languish in my drafts as I don't quite know how to verbalize how this resonated with my own immigrant experience. While I never faced the extreme conditions that Ru did, I can definitely relate to the feelings of displacement, alienation, and the need to be "can do" in a new culture and environment. How else can one rebuild their life? How else can one move on? She her retrospective so succinctly:

"...after only thirty years I already recognize our old selves only through fragments, through scars, through glimmers of light."

In very stark stripped, even poetic writing, Thúy shares a fictionalized version of her true-to-life story through the character of Ru. Much of what is recounted is quite horrific -- the horrors of war and what one must do to survive, the squalid conditions that had to be endured, the life left behind, and the uncertainty of a new life in a foreign county. But it is surprisingly unsentimental, a recounting of what is, without passing judgement on what can be labelled as unethical or immoral.

Uh-oh
I was at times struggling to make sense of the series of events in Ru's life -- she jumps around from present to past and back again, from country to country, that it constantly left me confused. However, I think while this is an uh-oh for a time, the fluid structure of these streams of consciousness grew on me. That's how memories are -- there doesn't need to a structure to it, they strike at the most innocuous times. However I can see this being a problem are for those who are more inclined to a structured reading experience.

I wonder why Thúy decided to make this a fictional version of her life as I would've welcomed a memoir in this format too. I guess she has taken some artistic liberties or maybe wanted to protect the identities of certain people. Your guess is as good as mine.

Verdict: AVietnamese immigrant's life story told in poetic snapshots. A story that I will keep close to me to remind myself that I too had a different life and have a world of possibility in this new life I've chosen. This makes my favourites list for this year!

I recommend it to those who like immigrant stories, experimental books, and minimalist writing.

 

 

A Cook's Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal by Anthony Bourdain

About A Cook’s Tour: In Search of a Perfect Meal by Anthony Bourdain: The only thing "gonzo gastronome" and internationally bestselling author Anthony Bourdain loves as much as cooking is traveling. Inspired by the question, "What would be the perfect meal?," Tony sets out on a quest for his culinary holy grail, and in the process turns the notion of "perfection" inside out. From California to Cambodia, A Cooks' Tour chronicles the unpredictable adventures of America's boldest and bravest chef.

My two cents

Despite the strict weight restrictions on Air Canada, this didn’t stop me from scouring bookstores while in Winnipeg. I would haunt for hours on end the sale sections at each bookstore run in. So imagine my surprise (shock?) when I stumbled upon a C$6.99 hardbound copy of Anthony Bourdain’s A Cook’s Tour: In Search of a Perfect Meal. I snapped it up and went home, sneaking peeks into it during the bus ride with, what I am sure was a silly smirk on my face.

(For those who cannot imagine why I would go gaga over a silly outdated book, here’s the context. I wanted to give the same book as a gift to Y one Christmas and flitted from bookstore to bookstore in the Philippines to get a copy. To no avail. Eventually my request to order in the book came in. Way past Christmas. And way past my limits of my patience. And Y and I had moved on to Jamie Oliver. Oh, at the time, I was willing to buy the book at a crazy close to 2000+ peso tag price.)

Have been reading it (Y has again moved on to another author) and marvel at how much better Tony Bourdain writes so much better than he speaks on TV. He’s not much a looker (he IS middle-aged and is a 28-year-old veteran of New York kitchens) but his book transforms him in my eyes. He is alternately hilarious, irreverent, insightful, silly … but compelling, strikingly honest, and in-your-face in his quest around the globe for a “perfect” meal.

I especially enjoy “Reasons why you don’t want to be on television” where he lambasts his network on his dilemma of how to make good TV and talking in sound bites and forced conversations at the loss of spontaneity. There is no worse thing than saying something scripted for the sake of TV while digging into a piously painstakingly prepared meal (thank goodness his network didn’t sue him for breach of contract, though I guess they realized this makes for even better TV).

You know the “joys” of eating – like indigestion and sometimes inevitable vomiting, and worries about food poisoning and hygiene issues? Tony tells it like it is, and his graphic descriptions are surely not for snotty gourmet eaters.

I’ve also seen his softer side to his oft-times irreverent humor. He become sentimental about his father, his brother, and his childhood in France.

Then in another section he comments about Jamie Oliver ("a boy"), Nigella Lawson’s breasts, and his utter respect for Gordon Ramsey.

Excerpted from the book jacket:

… the adventurous chef crisscrosses the world sampling local delicacies from the sublime to the bizarre.

Throughout his travels, Bourdain discovers again and again the importance of community, of kinship, and the power of food to bring people together.

So did he find what he set out to look for – over Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Morocco, UK, France? His conclusion is surprisingly simple. And so much closer to home.

(I also lugged home Michel Roux’s Le Gavroche Cookbook and Antonio Carluccio’s Italia. I couldn’t very well leave them to languish in an about-to-close bookstore, could I?)

{Originally posted 16 September 2006 on my foodie blog.}