Stealing Buddha’s Dinner
Stealing Buddha’s Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen is a reprint edition published by Penguin on January 29, 2008. This memoir spans 272 pages and is presented in English. It chronicles the experiences of a Vietnamese girl growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as she navigates her desire for American identity amidst the cultural contrasts of her upbringing.
In Stealing Buddha’s Dinner, Nguyen explores her fascination with American food as a symbol of belonging, contrasting it with her grandmother’s traditional Vietnamese dishes. The narrative delves into her childhood in the 1980s, highlighting her longing for acceptance in a society dominated by mainstream American culture. Through vivid imagery and personal anecdotes, the memoir offers insights into themes of cultural identity and the complexities of assimilation, making it a significant contribution to the genres of biography and personal memoir.
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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.
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