I recently wrote a memoir titled, I Love Yous Are For White People (HarperCollins, 2009). It recounts my struggle, as a first generation Vietnamese refugee, to reconcile the traditions and identity of my family with the need for acceptance and assimilation into the cultural fabric of Southern  California. The memoir explores my relationship with my father, who is an exacting and hard man. My father was not only orphaned at a young age, but was twice uprooted from his homeland and forced to live the life of a refugee. The psychological turmoil under which my father raised me ensured my young life was a constant struggle and often a comedy of errors. The sense of humor I've been able to cultivate despite my childhood trauma has done more than heal me; it has also bridged the chasm between a son and his father, who rejects the very culture that his son has fought so hard to be accepted into.

The book opens with my family’s harrowing escape by sea from the Communists in Vietnam, chronicles my formative years spent roaming and hustling on the worst streets of Los Angeles, reveals how I eventually abandoned the thug life for college and a Ph.D., and even recounts my first return back to my beloved Vietnam where I decided to find out for myself what dog tastes like.

While my book certainly conveys one aspect of the universal experience of Vietnamese refugees living in America, it is not the only component of my life and my writing. My writing style employs a tongue-in-cheek look at the insanity of my upbringing; some of the experiences have less to do with our identity as Vietnamese-Americans than as simply a poor family in chaos living in a difficult neighborhood. Many readers grew up in homes with their own version of the chaos I experienced, and many people have suffered the consequences of the poor choices I’ve made in life. Hopefully, they find my sense of humor about my life amusing and they will be motivated by my understanding of how good choices and the right commitments have enabled me to rise above the confines of circumstance. In such a way, I hope that my memoir also serves to inspire readers.

I Love Yous Are For White People (HarperCollins, 2009) is an often humorous, always revealing, and occasionally irreverent look at the journey by which I've transcended the confines of circumstance.

I wish i-can-Report an inspiring paragraph or two about the Vietnamese Boat People experience in America here. But things were/are much more complicated. Therefore, I chose to write a book instead. Our story had to be documented--this is my contribution.

Love,

-Lac