Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

from suesbooks

His character descriptions were so vivid I felt as if I really knew the people. I am assuming that these are accurate portrayals of Vietnamese who have relocated to the United States, lbut I don't really know that. I thought most of the stories were quite interesting, but the final and title stor...

from Crazymamie

"I'd lost a whole country and I didn't give it a thought. Vûng Táu was a beautiful city, and if I put my face into the wind, I could see nothing of it clearly, not its shaded streets or its white-sand beaches, not the South China Sea lying there beside it. I can speak these words and perhaps you ...

from CarolynSchroeder

This book is a bit hard to review as it had some of the best stories I have read in years, and also, a couple of the worst! But all in all, it was an interesting, unique collection with some absolutely hysterical, beautiful and perceptive observations about Vietnamese immigrants mesching into Ame...

from Sean191

So well-written with every character well-developed. I only wonder how this work is perceived by people who are actually Vietnamese or of Vietnamese decent. I didn't seem disrespectful of their culture, I'm just wondering how accurate it's perceived.

from TommyB

This is one of the best books I have read in the last couple of years. Robert Olen Butler has portrayed the people and culture of the Vietnamese community in the United States so convincingly that I was compelled to research how he had developed such insight. (His only direct connection to Vietna...