The below is perhaps the best customer review I have received on this rarely read novel of mine. Thank God that she exists.
I have written, bilingually and at times trilingually, all my life; yet, now in my sixties, i have never had a literary agent in America or anywhere; nor has my work ever been submitted to any literary award panel. This novel was submitted to the International Book Award panel by my publisher, AmazonEncore, the brand-new 2011 publishing arm of Amazon Corporation, who scouted me based on a Penguin contest. Being new and aiming for commercial fiction, AmazonEncore had no plan to submit my work to any literary award panel, except the IBA, who must have knocked on Amazon's door. The novel won the IBA's multicultural fiction; yet, as "Shannon" the reviewer pointed out, the novel "took place" entirely in America, with a flashback regarding the fall of Saigon, the nightmare that haunted the protagonist. To me, this is an American novel. At the time I wrote it, I meant to provide a contrast against "They Whisper," written by my would-have-been mentor/teacher and Pulitzer winner Robert Olen Butler. I meant to write an American novel, featuring a Vietnamese American female protagonist. In that sense, the novel would qualify as historical fiction as well.
This book is much more interesting than the description on Amazon. It's true that the title is Mimi and Her Mirror, but this is not a book about a magical mirror. This book is about a Vietnamese woman who arrives in America in her teens, and her experiences from college through to adulthood. It's also about following your dreams. There is a slight mystical element introduced by the mirror, but it is not the focus of the book. It's about finding your way in adulthood, and finding your way in and out of love. The story is tied to Vietnam, but takes place almost entirely in America.
It is nominally related to this author's other book - Daughters of the River Huong. However, I do not think you would need to read both books in order to appreciate them individually. I really liked this book, possibly more than the first. There was something about how it tied together, like a flower slowly opening and closing, revealing the interior petals slowly. In fact, twice, I couldn't stop reading because I was so engaged in the story and wanted to know what would happen next. When I finished the book, I paged back through it, reviewing what I had read, and thinking about it. I love how the writer writes with all of her senses, so that you can smell and taste as well as look and hear. The writing is so visceral that it's hard to forget; it appeared later in my dreams.
The scope is small - one woman's life, one woman's decisions, one woman's secret. For that reason, this book feels very complete - very well tied together,
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