Grass Roof, Tin Roof

by Dao Strom

In this stunning novel about a Vietnamese family resettling in the isolation of California gold country, Dao Strom investigates the myth of westward progress and the consequences of cultural displacement.

Told from multiple perspectives and interwoven with the intimate reflections of a middle child, Grass Roof, Tin Roof begins with the story of Tran, a Vietnamese writer facing government persecution, who flees her homeland during the exodus of 1975 and brings her two children to the West. Here she marries a man who has survived a different war. He promises understanding and guidance, but the psychic consequences of his past soon hinder his relationships with the family. The children, for whom war is now a distant shadow, struggle to understand the world around them on their own terms.

Strom’s characters viscerally experience the collision of cultures and the spiritual aftermath of war. Grass Roof, Tin Roof is a beautiful work of profundity and empathy, powerful emotion and rare insight.

Genres: Fiction, Asian American, Asian Literature, Novels, Asia, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Dao Strom is the author of Grass Roof, Tin Roof and The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys. She is also a writer of songs; she writes and records as The Sea and The Mother.

The New Yorker praised Strom's story collection,The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys, as being "quietly beautiful...hip without being ironic."

Her latest work is a hybrid literary/music/art project, an experimental memoir, We Were Meant To Be A Gentle People, accompanied by an album, East/West. This project received a 2014 RACC Grant and a 2013 Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship.

Previously, she has been the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, a James Michener Fellowship and the Nelson Algren Award, among other recognitions. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop.

Dao Strom was born in Vietnam and grew up in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California. She lives in Portland, OR.

Reviews

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 4* of five

Re-read this because the Clinton campaign ad on "no place for Captain Khan in Drumpf der Dummkopf's Murrika" made me want to scream. Sick-making to think people in a country made entirely of immigrants can think that way.

And this book, Strom's first novel, holds up beautifully to a second read. Fine, fine book, and quintessentially American.

[Fadillah · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Years later, I found some words my mother had written in a yellow spiral notebook. I don't know when exactly she'd begun writing this, or to whom, if anybody, these words were directed, don't know whether it was a journal entry or the start of a story. It was only one line, not even comnplete, and it was on the first page. The rest of the notebook was empty. The words were in Vietnamese: O my dear T, how many tired nights we and that was it. Who was the mysterious T? I could believe it was myself she was addressing, using my Vietnamese birth name Thuy, but with such angst, why? Or maybe it was my brother, the other T? Or was it some oblique address to herself or to an old friend, unnameable, an old lover maybe, a code for some other topic or affair she'd had reasons not to share with us? I ransacked her other papers for answers. I read many of her books. I asked her sisters to translate letters she'd written. Nothing has revealed as much as those few words, this barely begun line - the hazards, the contingencies of it. Often I have thought: How shall I respond? And I do.”
- Dao Strom, Grass roof Tin Roof
.
.
I have love and hate relationship with this book. I love the writing and the intricacy of the subject brought forward by the author specifically in exploring the complexity of immigrant generations. BUT, the way the book shift to one events to another events can be confusing. The point of view from many characters were done okay-ish. In the beginning of the story, we get to follow Tran , the unconventional vietnamese writer whose also the mother of Thien and Thuy . Then we get to see the perspective of Thien that fled Vietnam together with her mother to USA once the communist takeover the country. He was young but able to remember the arduous journey. Once reached there, we were introduced to Hus, A Denmark Immigrant that eventually married Tran and become a step father to Thien and Tran . Here’s where it gets tricky because the major voice started to take over as we followed Thuy (or known as April) simply because his step father wanted them to adapt to American way of life ASAP. April or Thuy then have another sister which is Beth and thats when the family felt complete in their own way. The plot progressed with its connection to the major Incidents that shaken their family foundation. The House plan, The death of Amy Abraham The shooting of their Neighbor’s Dog, Tran’s illness and her sudden demise, Thien being disowned and many more. Sometimes the author just mentioned it briefly and expected the reader to entangle the mess itself. I did not mind it that much but it may hinder some readers from continuing reading the book. At the end of the day, the book did deliver what it wanted to do. That being a migrant and displaced person, they are more likely to experience language and cultural obstacles, facing social exclusion and racism in their daily life and the insecurity especially on their self esteem being a Third Culture Kids. The question of sense belonging also were raised when Thuy went back to Vietnam to reconnect with her relatives only to question herself that maybe this is not meant for her. Overall, If you are okay with disjointed writing and did not mind the inconsistency of the characters’ POV, then i will recommend it. What a poignant writing! I can feel that Dao strom actually scattered pieces of herself in the book particularly in Thuy character considering she was also born in Saigon Vietnam and Fled the country with her mother when she was a baby.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that my thesis advisor suggested reading for preparation purposes for my thesis. Fractured, lyrical, subtle in its exploration of war, migration, race, and trauma. I yearned for a more clear narrative, at points, to anchor the book, but I think it ultimately works for the novel, about a Vietnamese-Danish family in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. It's about displacement and alienation, after all.

[kelvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was so good! Strom so poignantly captures the struggles of migrating to a completely new world, and the consequences of cultural loss. Each character is written so beautifully, showing their individual strengths, weaknesses, and the difficult interpersonal relationships which they hold so dearly and yet seem so willing to toss away.
Grass Roof, Tin Roof felt very much like a memoir that was somehow written by five individual characters. I would love to read multiple entire series devoted to each one--Hus's especially, as I felt there was a substantial part of his life that we completely missed on. But maybe that's just due to him having given up his past a long, long time ago.
I'd definitely love to reread this novel again. Strom's style of writing and conveying her thoughts as living, breathing things has also served as a strong influence for my own thinking, and my own writing. <3

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s hard to navigate a world ruled by the doctrines and secrets of your parents, of your country, of your self. It’s harder to live in a world that sees you as other, that wants you to choose a side. And it’s hardest to live in a permanent grey state, not defined one way or the other. Dao Strom’s Grass Roof, Tin Roof created an experience that built in my stomach and creeped and pulled at my heart. How do you separate yourself from your country or your parents? Especially when they did not leave you with a solid sense of identity to begin with? How do you come into your own without completely forsaking where you came from? Strom does not leave an answer so much as she leaves a conversation on these matters. Follow the story of Tran and her family as they leave the turmoil of communist Vietnam to settle and “become Americans.”

[BookList · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing is nuanced and poignant. But, for me, this narrative of the Vietnamese immigrant experience feels a bit repetitive. I look forward to reading future works by Ms. Strom.

[Marika · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Concerning love, she told herself she was practicing the Buddhist paradox of "living simultaneously": immersion and non-attachment together."

I was ready to give up on this book halfway through simply because the plot shifted (intentionally) off of the main character (the main character in the beginning at least.) The first part of the book, set in Saigon, is riveting - especially to a female writer. I was wrapped up in her story - that when the plot shifted to another character, her Danish husband, I felt a bit cheated. The middle chapter that focuses on Hus seems icy compared to warmth expressed in Tran's. As the stories progress, the intention become much more clear, but the transition was jarring. As the story moves through the views of her children the symmetry starts to become more clear. The warmth, and redemption of Hus's character, comes back around at the end and makes the novel more than worth the time and effort.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hopeful, really hopeful, with the promise of this book. I read an excerpt of it in an anthology of California authors and was intrigued. I wanted to see how the author was going to use the Gold Country in California as a possible character in the book. While the scenarios faced by the central characters were compelling, and the writing which juxtaposed Vietnam and America for adults, young adults, and children was a strong construct, I didn't end up making it to the end of the book. There are repeated italicized sections of the book which confused me - they jump back and forward in time and in and out of reality and became too distracting.

[Powells.com · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel follows Tran, a Vietnamese woman, from her days of working for a politically charged newspaper in Saigon in the '70s to her family life in California and on into her children's lives. A precise story about the nature of belonging. I loved it.

Recommended by Aubrey, Powells.com

http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=06...

Have you read this book? Add your own review to our website and enter for the chance to win a $20 gift certificate.

[Sandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an interesting personal history of a Cambodian (?) girl being raised in the States after a tough childhood in S.E. Asia..... but it wasn't very well written and ultimately I lost interest in it..... I see now from the 'find books by title or author' list that she has written several others, among them 'The Gentle Order of ' I like the title so perhaps I'll read that, or give this one a second chance.

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is the story of a refugee family that relocates to California after the Vietnam war. Like several of the other reviewers here, I was much more engaged in the novel during the first and last chapters that take place in Vietnam. The middle portion of the book is set in Sacramento and just wasn't as intriguing to me. I've been to Sacramento, maybe that is why. All together I enjoyed it though.

[Sarah]

I found this book a bit odd in its structure but quite compelling. I enjoyed the vignettes that provided an insight into the immigrant experiences (differing by generation, country of origin, and personality).

[Jobiska (Cindy) · Rating 3 out of 5]

SPOILER IN REVIEW



Weirdly episodic and scattered, and I don't know what the author was tring to convey/get me to feel. The most compelling character (to me) was the mother, who dies less than half way through.

[Ruby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11840195

[Evan White · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started and finished: Thailand, 2004

[Frances · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story of a Vietnamese woman who emigrates to the US, marries a Scandinavian immigrant, and raises her family in Gold Country CA. Each chapter is a story from the perspective of a family member.