We Should Never Meet : Stories

Rating:
Summary: lives intertwined
Review: A beautifully written first novel from Aimee Phan. The book delves into the lives of those affected by Operation Babylift - the orphans, the families torn apart, the volunteers, etc and illustrates the beauty and misfortunes of these people's lives that others had turned a blind eye towards afterwards. I highly recommend this book to everyone!

Rating:
Summary: Phan or Fiction
Review: Aimee Phan's freshman effort seeks to continue the tradition of historical fiction. The mission of fiction is to tell a good story, period. No doubt, Phan probably heard stories about Operation Babylift and, according to her website, her mother used to be a social worker who worked with foster children in Little Saigon. Her story focuses on three people who were placed in foster care after they arrived in the US and one person who was adopted by a Caucasian family. Scenes and characters from the past are put alongside the present in order to lay down the foundation for what is to come. No one plays the hero and no one plays the victim. Her book is an easy read because Phan's prose is basic and to the point. She does a good job of switching back and forth from the past to the present without losing the reader. The settings, her characters and their interaction with one another provoke insight into what it means to lose a loved one, or a homeland, and how it still hurts when one decides it is necessary to move on.