The Best We Could Do

 The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui (2017) 329 pages

The graphic memoir is bookended with Thi Bui's pregnancy and pondering the challenges of motherhood. Her family, Vietnamese Americans, oral history makes up the bulk of the book. Digging into her father's boyhood and her mother's girlhood is fascinating. They had very different upbringing. Chapter six through to the end, dealing with the Vietnam war and the author's family becoming refugees, is highly thrilling and heartfelt. Once they've been living in America, Thi's concept of inheriting a Refugee Reflex is vividly conveyed. The art of this memoir is impressively dramatic.

Enlighten Me

 

Enlighten Me by Minh Lê  140 pp.

Binh fights back against a bully who made fun of his Vietnamese heritage but then is punished for his actions. His parents decide to take the whole family on a silent Buddhist retreat for a week. Binh finds it all very frustrating until one of the monks shares stories of the Buddha with the children at the retreat. Those stories invade Binh's dreams and he discovers a new way to approach life. This short graphic novel is enlightening and entertaning.

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, 256 pages.

Stunningly beautiful writing from the award-winning author of Night Sky with Exit Wound.
Told in a series of letters to his mother, Little Dog recounts their shared history as immigrants to Hartford, Connecticut, from Vietnam. The trauma of the war haunts Little Dog, his mother, and his grandmother. It shapes all of the movements they make during the protagonist's youth. His fraught relationship with his mother gives way to his telling of his self-discovery, of who he is and who is becoming.
Really, one of the best books of the year (2019).