Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam

I admit I probably gave this five stars because there's a panel of my high school gym and the bowling alley I hung out in and the elementary school where I got my nose broken, but really it earned its five stars. A grown Thien asks Russ what he was thinking when he was driving his family to San Jose when they first got to the US he tells him how he was trying to get to the 280 because driving from SF to San Jose on 280 is beautiful and he wanted them to fall in love with their new home. I was already teary by this point, but that did it for me.

The art work in this one is so special. I love the way the food items are the chapter headings and focus. So I found myself looking out for the food and it made the memories in the chapters more sensory and more special. The story is hopeful even in the hard parts. This was a memorable graphic novel.

I don't like rating memoirs, it never feels fair to rate someone's experience. This graphic memoir starts out in a harrowing situation as Pham and his family flee Vietnam, and ends with Pham as an older man becoming an American citizen. I did appreciate the device of using food to represent different times in Pham's life. That being said, I thought the time jumps were a little disorienting/disconnected. One of my favorite parts was actually the few pages at the end where he illustrates talking to people in his memoir about the memoir! I found that highly engaging. The art wasn't my personal favorite. I think readers of graphic memoirs, especially immigrant/refugee stories, will find this highly appealing.

This was great! I loved how Pham presented his memories via food. I thought it worked really well and could have read 100 more pages. It was also fun to see Gene Luen Yang make appearances since I believe they teach at the same school!!