9 December 2014 LISTEN, SLOWLY by Thanhha Lai, Harper, February 2015, 272p., ISBN: 978-0-06--222918-2

“And it’s one, two, three, what are we fighting for?

Don’t ask me I don’t give a damn

Next stop is Vietnam.

And it’s five, six, seven, open up the pearly gates.

Well there ain’t no time to wonder why.

Whoopie! We’re all gonna die.”

-- Country Joe McDonald, “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag”

The Vietnam War drastically and irreversibly changed America. The debate over America waging war in Vietnam played a significant role in the development of my identity and that of so many of my generation.  

LISTEN, SLOWLY is a profound and extraordinary coming-of-age tale about Mia, a California tween of Vietnamese descent. Mia is required to forgo her summer on the beach with her girlfriend Montana. Instead, she reluctantly embarks upon a journey to current-day Vietnam with her Vietnamese-born father and grandmother.

LISTEN, SLOWLY is written by Thanhha Lai, who was born in Vietnam during the war. Through Mia’s eyes, we learn much about what has become of this place halfway ‘round the world, thus making for a first-rate multicultural read.

Mia’s father is a successful surgeon who left Vietnam as a two-year-old. He returns there summers to provide free surgical services in a one-man clinic. After all these years, Mia’s grandmother is also returning to Vietnam this summer to seek finality in the mystery of her husband’s disappearance during the war. So it is that Mia is traveling there, too, accompanying her grandmother.

When Mia gets together with her distant relatives in Vietnam, we get great insights into American culture by seeing it through their eyes. For example, Mia tells them about the importance in America of being unique.

“Út’s sister, Chi Lan, speaks. Her voice, which I’m hearing for the first time, is as clear and pretty as she is. Anh Minh stands taller while translating for her. ‘If everyone is unique, how can one stand out?’

“‘I guess then you’d have to be superunique, like beyond the beyond. If everyone is dying their shoelaces to represent their true selves, pink for romantic, baby blue for innocent, fuchsia for independent, raspberry for countercultural, then maybe you’d paint your shoes or attach buttons or glue on beads to stand out.’

“Út just has to butt in. ‘Who decides that pink is for stomach-coiling feelings and fuchsia for self-freedom? If everyone agrees on the meanings of those colors, how is that unique?’”

Through the journey, there is significant transformation in Mia’s sensibilities about what is really important. I particularly enjoyed the relationship that develops between Mia and Út, a girl Mia’s age who is so different from Mia’s buddy Montana, but who shares many similarities with Mia.

There are a number of scenes in LISTEN, SLOWLY that are exceptionally comedic, thanks to descriptions of American culture as explained by Mia, a relatively-innocent tween. This provides a great balance to the more emotional parts of the story about Mia’s grandmother who is coming to terms with the loss of her husband all those decades ago.

Thanhha Lai is a great storyteller. That, combined with the personal transformation, historic, and cultural aspects of LISTEN, SLOWLY makes this one not to miss.

Richie Partington, MLIS

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