Short Girls

A Novel

By: Bich Minh Nguyen

Narrated by: Alice H. Kennedy

Van and Linny Luong are as baffling to each other as their parents' Vietnamese legacy is to them both. Van, the quintessential overachiever, has applied the same studied diligence to her law career and to her marriage - a beautiful idea that vaporized when Mr. Right walked out. Linny - pretty, fashionable, untethered - is grasping for purpose when her affair with a married man takes a humiliating turn.

Each is the last person her sister would call, but when Mr. Luong summons them home for his American citizenship party, Van and Linny find themselves communing about their past - their late mother, their father's obsession with his Luong Arm invention for short people, even the irony of their romantic straits. As these unlikely confidantes chart the uncertainty that defines them, they forge a new relationship and the wherewithal to overcome disappointment.

Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as "a writer to watch, a tremendous talent," Nguyen recasts her gifts marvelously in this first novel, infusing it with humor, compassion, and insight into siblings, aging parents, and the desires and ambitions that drive us.

©2009 Bich Minh Nguyen (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Nguyen's novel is clever and lively, a fine update to a familiar setup." ( Publishers Weekly)

Overall very good

The book was a good window into the world of a Vietnamese refugee/immigrant, thank you for opening that world to me.
It would have been good if the reader slowed down and read with a feel for the characters and what was happening in the book. It felt like she was rushing through.