For those of us who have only known life in an affluent country with a stable, democratically elected government, it’s hard to imagine the danger and drama of regime change in other parts of the world. Everything you believed in and all you’ve worked so hard to attain, can abruptly become a liability, and the peace and security of your loved ones suddenly put at risk.

This is the fate that befell so many South Vietnamese the day after the fall of Saigon in 1975, which marked the end of the Vietnam War with victory for the communist North Vietnamese forces.

One such person was Tim Tran, who relates his experience in the memoir, American Dreamer: How I Escaped Communist Vietnam and Built a Successful Life in America by Tim Tran with Tom Fields-Meyer.

To make that historical event even more personal and painful, Tran, a native-born Vietnamese, had experienced life in America on a scholarship and attained a degree in business from the University of California, Berkeley. He’d only returned to South Vietnam less than a year before the country fell to the communists.

In American Dreamer, Tran describes his childhood in a loving family that thrived through hard work, determination and amazing resourcefulness that emerges out of necessity. And how his father provided the motivation and the training for him to succeed academically.

Chapters about his immersion into American culture during his university years are a testament to his outgoing personality and the gracious, friendly, and helpful reception he received from almost all the Americans he interacted with.

Accounts of navigating day-to-day living in a totalitarian regime, harrowing experiences trying to arrange an escape from Vietnam, life-threatening confrontations as boat person beset by pirates, and volunteering with agencies while in a refugee camp are gripping and told with candour and humility.

Once back in America, career success is achieved with a combination of effort, excellence, enthusiasm, and integrity The author just doesn’t abide in America, he embraces it, holds it to his heart, then magnanimously gives back by creating an endowment that will for many years support the library operations at Pacific University. In these pages, Tran also pays tribute to all those who have supported him in fulfilling this dream.

Entertaining and inspiring, American Dreamer, attests to the fact the American dream is still alive for those determined enough to pursue it. And furthermore, there’s no need to make America great again, for people like Tran, it still is and always has been.

Argh. I just don't know what to say here -- clearly, this should've posted on Friday, but I only got one sentence down that I didn't delete. This is only posting today because I didn't let myself cut anything. This episode is too short, I think. When I consider everything I want to complain about, it all boils down to length (I'm not even seeing page counts on Amazon/Goodreads for the last couple of these). I do think the episode length is a legitimate problem, but at the same time, it's part of the design of the series, so I should just shut up about it.

Which is just a long way of saying, I think I liked this episode, but I'm not sure -- it sure didn't satisfy my need as a reader to get a chunk of story big enough to appreciate what's happening around these characters. I'm not saying these need to clock in at 250 pages or anything. Just 10-20% more?

Which is a crying shame -- because there's real opportunity in these pages for Michiko and Kris to get something done (both to help their people and the readers who like them as characters), but there wasn't time. Ojo doesn't seem like the same man anymore -- which is completely understandable, but I'm having to do too much surmising to get to my understanding. I did like Adechike's portion of this episode -- that was really well done.

Oh, and Lavinia continues to be just the worst person in this world. but that's not a surprise, really.

The action here revolves around this world preparing for the looming war -- I get why the characters don't know what actually happened to set off the conflict, but it'd be cool to let the readers in on the secret. There's preparations for war -- both in getting fighting forces ready, and refugees from affected/soon to be affected areas streaming into Twaa-Fei. Which is going pretty horribly -- between the stress that an influx of refugees brings to an area and a healthy dose of subterfuge on someone's part.

Speaking of Twaa-Fei, I'd have preferred to see more examples of this compact on between the nations working (however well it actually functions) before seeing it on the verge of collapse. It's hard to appreciate just what they're close to losing without seeing it more.

I'm still in this 'til the end, I think I'm still enjoying this -- but I feel the authors are holding out on us, which bothers me. I'm trusting they'll win me over (again) soon.

I read Nguyen's well-received first book, The Sympathizer, so I was eager to read this collection of short stories, and happy to see it available on NetGalley. When I initially selected Sympathizer, it was on my husband's recommendation, but that book easily sold me on Nguyen's ability to compel a reader, especially one who wasn't sure about the subject. Like Sympathizer, the characters here live difficult, often impossible lives. In some cases, I admit, I wasn't sorry the story was short; I was happy to escape to a different place, with new characters and challenges. Despite the slim volume, the characters are fully-realized, and their stories are crafted with care and compassion.

Wow this collection made me think and get even more fascinated about those who left Vietnam and came to the United States to resettle. Some stories didn't resonate with me as much as others did. The stories flowed together well though I thought.

"Black-Eyed Women" (5 stars)- a woman with a career as a ghostwriter finds herself laying some ghosts to rest. Her heartbreaking story of her and her family fleeing for a better life in America will gut you when you get to the end and read about how entwined she is with her mother. 

"The Other Man" (5 stars)- a man who resettles in the US in the 1970s finds himself on uncharted territory when he ends up being sponsored by two gay men in San Francisco. 

"War Years" (5 stars)- a young boy recounts a story about a widowed woman from Vietnam demanding money from his family in order to fight the Communists. The story helps him see his mother and father in a new light. I honestly thought the story was going in a different direction until I got to the end and you end up feeling pity.

"The Transplant" (4 stars)- A man named Arthur Arellano who has a liver transplant. This causes him to look for the man's family. This causes him to look at his family in a different way when he finally meets the son of his transplant donor. I was enjoying this until the end, when I think that Nguyen maybe wanted you to feel sorry for poor put upon Arthur. I was kind of over this guy though when you realize how self absorbed he is.

"I'd Love You to Want Me" (5 stars)- A woman who is struggling with her husband's onset of Alzheimer's. Mrs. Khanh's story was probably my next favorite after Black-Eyed Women. Her realizing that her husband had a life she didn't know and how she really doesn't care for her oldest son. You get to see Mrs. Khanh slowly giving up on her dreams when she starts to think about what does love really mean. In her mind, it's being devoted.

"The Americans" (5 stars)- James Carver, an African American former Air Force pilot (I think) goes back to Vietnam with his Japanese wife to visit their daughter who is there teaching. Lord, his daughter was exhausting. There's a scene when she yells at her father for what he did while running missions in the country. And sigh, nope, no sympathy for Claire. I did love though James going through his struggles in his career and life and him being pretty baffled by his daughter and what she wants from him. Loved the ending a lot though. 

"Someone Else Besides You" (3 stars)- My least favorite. A man going through his family's history and why he wasn't ready to have children with his ex wife. The father in this story was odd to me. I don't know what his purpose was besides to criticize the son. The story takes an odd turn after some vandalism.

"Fatherland" (5 stars)-Really enjoyed this one. A woman named Phuong is excited to meet her half sister who has lived in America, that comes back to Vietnam to visit her, and the rest of the family. The story set up (Phuong's sister Vivien) was raised with her two other siblings in America and her mother divorced their father. The father marries his mistress and has three other children he names after the first set (yeah that happened). What I loved was Phuong coming to realization about her father and her half sister.