Reviews of Perfume Dreams

A BookSense notable book

“[A] powerful collection of essays.”—Library Journal

“Lam shatters the assumptions of readers who have encountered the Vietnam experience only through American pop culture.…He writes with the delicacy and intensity of a poet.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Andrew Lam writes with the honesty of a true journalist and the feeling of a born storyteller. On his many journeys between Vietnam and the U.S., he sees first-hand the global consequences of war. Perfume Dreams is a meaningful book for our times.”—Maxine Hong Kingston, author of The Fifth Book of Peace and Woman Warrior

“Much will be made—and rightly so—of the eloquent commentary Andrew Lam’s essays provide on Vietnam and the Vietnamese. But his collected essays have a far deeper reach. Lam brilliantly illuminates the universal issues of self and home and human striving. Andrew Lam speaks to each of us quite individually and personally, with wit and compassion, about the things that connect us all at the deepest level. Perfume Dreams is a fascinating and important book by a truly gifted writer.”—Robert Olen Butler, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

“Andrew Lam’s description of what he faced as an 11-year-old in a refugee camp is so powerful that I literally stopped people on the street and insisted that they read these pages. Perfume Dreams brings a fresh, provocative perspective to our understanding of Vietnam—as a country, culture, war and emblem of American public policy failure—all the while reminding us that the U.S. is not at the center of this narrative.”—Elaine Mar, author of Paper Daughter

“Lam paints unforgettable portraits of the horror of refugee camps, a father who was once a three-star general, and a rebellious son who finally finds his own home, not in Vietnam or United States, but in the country of story.”—Maria Hummel, author of Wilderness Run

“Andrew Lam’s engaging and thoughtful collection of essays on the Vietnamese diaspora offers a fascinating window into lives spent in exile. A terrific achievement.”—Paula Peterson, author of Women In The Grove