In the Temple University Press News of the Week dated September 11, 2024, a great review for Prof. Linh Thủy Nguyễn's book, Displacing Kinship: The Intimacies of Intergenerational Trauma in Vietnamese American Cultural Production, by Choice is shared. The review read, "By examining creative works, Nguyên (American ethnic studies; gender, women, and sexuality studies, Univ. of Washington) reframes second generation Vietnamese American intergenerational trauma in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. As the children of Vietnamese refugees, they continue to process the meaning of war as inherited from their parents even 50 years following the end of the Vietnam War. Nguyên examines how these families assimilated to American society while dealing with racism and its sociological implications. She analyzes their experiences through the works of second generation Vietnamese American creators, including graphic novels, films, novels, and interviews. Specifically, the author explores queer musician Thao Nguyen’s album Temple (2020) and queer author Ocean Vuong’s novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (2019), among other creative works, to understand intergenerational trauma, including queer trauma. Nguyên argues that the children of Vietnamese refugees are still dealing with the intergenerational trauma stemming from a violent past, which is hardly spoken of within refugee families, whose experiences are further complicated by racism and white supremacy in the US. Nguyên's important book reshapes traditional narratives about how war, communism, and racism have impacted Vietnamese American families across generations."
- T. Chan, MIT Libraries