I Love Yous Are For White People - a memoir's Interests
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Kerry Cohen, author of Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity, said, "Lac Su's extraordinary story of exile - from a country, a family, and ultimately from himself - is both a heart-wrenching and immensely entertaining read. Lac is a master storyteller. Each scene was like a Wes Anderson film - quirky, moving, surprising - and the more I read the more I fell in love with this vulnerable and hurting, but also resourceful and self-sustaining, boy."
Dave Pelzer, author of A Child Called It and recipient of the National Jefferson Award said, "I Love Yous are for White People is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. A breath-taking journey about beauty and love."
Tish Cohen, author of Town House and Inside Out Girl said, "In I Love Yous are for White People, Lac Su has given us the ultimate in memoir. A remarkable story full of sweetness, pain, but most of all, hope."
Victor Rivas Rivers, author of A Private Family Matter: A Memoir said, "Lac Su’s raw and riveting memoir, I LOVE YOUS ARE FOR WHITE PEOPLE, is a testament to the power of bearing witness to one’s own experience. Without blame or excess of analysis, Lac Su takes us into the heart of the immigrant experience. His journey is harrowing, often funny, sometimes brutal, as Lac Su copes with the dangers of being a proverbial stranger in a strange land – compounded by dysfunction in his own household. For all of us who have at times sought the dark side in our search for love and belonging, this is a story that leads us back to the light – to discovery and ultimately hope."
School Library Journal said, "From the frightening exodus his family made from Vietnam and through their resettlement and generation-specific acculturation in Southern California, Su offers excellent storytelling with keen psychological insight. While his mother cared for everyone as the family continued to grow, his father strove hard on both their behalf and in frustration at his son's apparent thickheadedness. The careful, almost timid five-year-old grew into a gang-affiliated and alienated teen. Nevertheless, and amid economic and emotional poverty, Su has become successful as a scholar, father, and writer."
Mim Eichler Rivas, author of Beautiful Jim Key, coauthor of Finding Fish with Antwone Fisher and coauthor of The Pursuit of Happyness with Chris Gardner said, "I LOVE YOUS ARE FOR WHITE PEOPLE by Lac Su is that rare combination of a miraculous yet true story that also happens to be masterfully written. The author’s account of his family’s nightmarish escape from Viet Nam, on foot, under heavy gunfire, and then by boat – told sparingly and unforgettably – sets the stage on which the rest of his story spools out with such a flow that you forget you are in the act of reading. Lac Su has told a brave story that is also a cautionary tale that should be read by many, showing us the way to how our youth – immigrant and otherwise – can come to know their true worth."
Kirkus Review said, "The riveting opening sets the stage as the family raced to a rickety boat to escape their homeland, dodging communist gunfire as they ran. The son of war refugees, the author came of age in the poor enclaves of Los Angeles with an emotional burden familiar to children of immigrants. Su offers a compelling narrative of immigrant life, cultural dissonance and the tug of familial obligation."
Library Journal said, "In this moving first memoir, Su, vice president of marketing for a global think tank, recounts his family’s escape from a difficult life in Vietnam for another in Los Angeles. Much of the City of Angels is the polar opposite of shimmering Hollywood—Su encounters abject poverty and gang culture. After looking for love in all the wrong places, he eventually establishes an identity in his adopted country. Anyone who wonders what obstacles an immigrant must overcome will be fascinated by this assimilation story; Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior complements it nicely."
San Diego Union-Tribune said, “Haunting, brutal . . . From molestation and abuse to gang banging and armed robbery, [Su] spares no detail in his memoir – and he doesn't regret sharing any of it.”
San Francisco CHRONICLE said, “Harrowing . . . a haunting memoir . . . with this debut, [Su is] ready for a much-deserved audience.”
StuffWhitePeopleDo.com said, “In a recent memoir, Vietnamese American writer Lac Su directly addresses this topic, right in his book's title: I Love Yous Are for White People.”
VANITY FAIR said, "This is a powerful book about immigrants finding the harsh realities of East L.A. instead of the American dream, and redoubling their efforts and getting it in the end."
NEWD Magazine said, "With each transparent penstroke, Su offers audiences an inside look at his exchange of shameful ashes for the beauty of hope and a new tomorrow. Simply, I Love Yous Are for White People is a story of redemption."
Angry Asian Man of www.AngryAsianMan.com said, "What I love most about I Love Yous is not necessarily the tale itself -- I have read my share of stories about new Asian immigrants in America. What really moves me is Lac's vivid, powerful recollection of his early life, told with sensitivity, fearlessness, and a knowing nod to anyone who's been there too."
Minority Militant of MinorityMilitant.blogspot.com said, "Hands down, all biases aside, it was a great book. A must-read for anyone interested in the Southeast Asian American experience. I'm convinced I-Love-Yous are for White people."
Jee of 8Asians.com said, "Plainly clear by now that I LOVE this book and have come to love the man who wrote it. I don’t know what to tell you, except that you should totally check this book out."
Slanty of SlantEyeForTheRoundEye.com said, "I couldn't put [this] fucker down. I'm already half way through this MF and I may have to finish it up tonight, and the way I read, lips wide open pronouncing every word - fuck people - I'm not going to sleep tonight."
Kimle Nguyen of AZNRaps.com said, "A memoir with a title as controversial as, “I Love Yous are for White People,” one would expect it to be attention grabbing, and Lac Su does just that, by providing an interesting, but also inspirational story about his early life and the transition he makes from gang banging to pursuing a doctoral degree in psychology."
Hyphen Magazine said, "...what truly works about the book is that Su manages his narrative with neither self-pity nor self-aggrandizement. (That the memoir does not fairly drip with delusions of grandeur makes it, I have to say, unique in the slate of autobiographies by Vietnamese American men to date.) I liked the Lac I met in his pages. And it is a long-awaited treat finally to have a Vietnamese American memoir to recommend reading..."
I Love Yous Are For White People - a memoir's Details
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Swinger
Zodiac Sign:
Virgo
I Love Yous Are For White People - a memoir HYPHEN Magazine puts a stamp on I LOVE YOUS ARE FOR WHITE PEOPLE. A book review: http://lnk.ms/2vHhPPosted at 4:04 AM Oct 8 view more
I Love Yous Are For White People - a memoir's Latest Blog Entry
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Lac's talk at Catalyst Foundation's Vietnam Culture Camp
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Lac's talks at the Alameda Juvenile Hall Literacy-Write to Read Program
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It's amazing, I'm the reason
Everybody fired up this evening
I'm exhausted, barely breathing
Holding on to what I believe in
I'm a monster, I'm a maven
I know this world is changing
Never gave in, never gave up
I'm the only thing I'm afraid of
____________________
I just wrote a book, a memoir titled, I Love Yous are for White People. HarperCollins - Perennial is the publisher. It is in bookstores now. If we were kicking it around a camp fire, these are the stories I would share.
I Love Yous are for White People is a stirring, pulse-pounding memoir about one Asian-American immigrant’s struggle to find himself, win his father’s love and transcend the dangers of urban life in Los Angeles.
As a young child, I was dragged through a harrowing escape from the Communists in Vietnam. With a price on my father’s head in our home country, my family was forced to immigrate to the only place we were provided—seedy West Los Angeles circa 1979. Our high hopes for an American Dream were efficiently squashed by squalid living conditions and a cultural fabric that refused to thread us in. My search for love and acceptance amidst poverty and psychological turmoil, created by a harsh and unrelenting father, turned my young life into a comedy of errors, and, ultimately, led me to a dangerous gang experience that threatened to tear my life apart.
Heart-wrenching, irreverant and ultimately uplifting, I Love Yous are for White People is memoir at its most affecting, depicting the struggles that countless individuals have faced in their quest to belong, and even more have endured in the pursuit of a father’s fleeting affection.
Publicity - Speaking Engagements & Events
Contact:
Gregory Henry
Publicity Manager
Harper Perennial
HarperCollinsPublishers
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022-5299
212-207-7185(p) 212-207-7901(f)
Gregory.Henry@HARPERCOLLINS.com
your very welcomed, i really could not make just one chapter my fav. from beginning to end it was great. it was really funny the story of your uncles. =]=]=]i guess i'll be checking on your facebook.=]take care=]=]=]
Hello! Well, I was finally able to get your book in. Oddly (although I am not surprised after eight years at the place), my store only got one copy (which I have faced out with a staff recommendation), but the other store in town got 11 copies! They have already sold some, so I guess people didn't need anyone recommending it to them. Good job :) Eliza
I Been doin good,whats god wid u tho? i liked the book tho ,i found many things related to me ,cause my parents also came to america by boat and my dad is also an south vietnam soldier,but i was born here.Anyways,keep up the good work
Hey Lac, I just finished your book. Amazing.. It was great meeting you at your book signing (Borders - San Diego) ... Best wishes! And thank you for sharing your story.
I listen to NPR (one of the only english speaking stations without static) on my run/walk and you happened to be on yesterday..pho real :) ha! Well, I have not read your book yet but plan to. I can't see why it wouldn't resonate with most people and if not they should read it so they might understand what it's like to be a Stranger in a Strange Land!
Yo, I loved the book. I can't wait to get started on a song dedicated to it. The story is told so vividly I feel I was there. I will recommend this to everyone I know. It's a must read!
Your new photo addition (the drawing) caught my attention and guided me here - I have to say I greatly enjoyed the excerpt from your book. Happy times at the bookstore readings!
hello Lac, it looks as if today is your first bookstore reading... here's hoping there's so many more to come that you could get tired of bookstores and fans - but you don't actually get tired, just more grateful more happy more alright and ready for ... well, more i guess. ps how about you-tubing one or more of these bookstore exchanges? just somethin' ... good good day and night for you lac on this one and any that may follow... larry
It IS an awesome book cover. And the author of the book is a very WONDERFUL and FANTABULOUS guy that I know out in Cali! Lac Su....maybe you've heard of him?? And if you haven't....you still should buy the book! I'm sure that you will enjoy.