Availability:
Library | Call Number | Format | Status | Item Holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Avon Public Library | B LIEU L | BOOK | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
Searching... Brockton Public Library | LIEU S | NEW BOOK LOCAL HOLDS | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
Searching... Canton Public Library | 92 LIEU | NEW BOOK LOCAL HOLDS | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
Searching... Duxbury Free Library | B LIEU, SUSAN LIE | BOOK | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
Searching... Hingham Public Library | B LIE | NEW BOOK LOCAL HOLDS | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
Searching... Marshfield Ventress Memorial Library | LIEU LIEU | BOOK | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
Searching... Plymouth Public Library | B LIEU | 14 DAY BOOK | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
Searching... Sandwich Public Library | B LIEU | BOOK | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
Searching... Scituate Town Library | LIEU LIE 2024 | BOOK | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
An emotionally raw memoir about the crumbling of the American Dream and a daughter of refugees who searches for answers after her mother dies during plastic surgery.
Susan Lieu has long been searching for answers. About her family's past and about her own future. Refugees from the Vietnam War, Susan's family escaped to California in the 1980s after five failed attempts. Upon arrival, Susan's mother was their savvy, charismatic North Star, setting up two successful nail salons and orchestrating every success--until Susan was eleven. That year, her mother died from a botched tummy tuck. After the funeral, no one was ever allowed to talk about her or what had happened.
For the next twenty years, Susan navigated a series of cascading questions alone--why did the most perfect person in her life want to change her body? Why would no one tell her about her mother's life in Vietnam? And how did this surgeon, who preyed on Vietnamese immigrants, go on operating after her mother's death? Sifting through depositions, tracking down the surgeon's family, and enlisting the help of spirit channelers, Susan uncovers the painful truth of her mother, herself, and the impossible ideal of beauty.
The Manicurist's Daughter is much more than a memoir about grief, trauma, and body image. It is a story of fierce determination, strength in shared culture, and finding your place in the world.
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Playwright Lieu delivers a stirring debut memoir focused on the fallout from her mother's untimely death in 1996. Dividing the account into six sections, each corresponding to different meanings of the Vietnamese word ma ("Mother," "Ghost," "Tomb," "But," "Newborn Rice Seedling," and "Horse"), Lieu traces her anguish across decades and continents. The youngest of four children, and the only one born in the U.S., Lieu grew up helping her Vietnamese mother, Hà Thi (or "Jennifer" to her American clients) operate several nail salons in Northern California. When Hà Thi died suddenly after receiving an abdominoplasty from a surgeon with a history of malpractice, 11-year-old Lieu was set adrift. She took multiple trips to Vietnam as a young adult, attempting to understand her mother within the contexts of both the country's history and her own family. She also consulted mediums and old family recipes in attempts to conjure her late mother's spirit. After settling back in the U.S., Lieu wrote and performed an autobiographical play that fostered dialogue about Hà Thi among her mostly tight-lipped relatives, and helped ease tensions between Lieu and her often-harsh father. Lieu's candor about her mother's faults (body-shaming chief among them) and righteous anger at the surgeon who killed her set this apart from similar fare. It's a generous portrait of grief that will touch those who've struggled with loss. Agent: Monika Verma, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary. (Mar.)
Booklist Review
Lieu's childhood was a frenzied blur of food, aunts, and nail salons, all under the firm control of her mother (Ma), who had seemingly achieved the American dream after fleeing Vietnam with Lieu's father in 1981 and settling in California. The first-generation child of refugees, the author grappled with identity, caught between two cultures and mixed messages, torn between dutifully eating meals, then enduring body-shaming from the same elders who prepared them. After losing Ma to complications from plastic surgery, however, 11-year-old Lieu and her family struggled to coexist and eventually crumbled. When loved ones refused to discuss Ma, Lieu looked to her memories for direction as she pursued college, employment, religion, and marriage before researching the details of her mother's death while attempting reconciliation with her family. Her quest led to her one-woman show, "140 Lbs: How Beauty Killed My Mother," a means of healing. Drawn from that show, which toured nationally to great acclaim, Lieu's achingly honest debut is a stirring addition to Vietnamese American memoirs that will resonate with anyone coping with loss.
Table of Contents
| Prologue | 1 |
| Vengeance | 12 |
| Part I Ma, Ghost | |
| Susan's Nails | 23 |
| Squid and Chives | 37 |
| Fighting Words | 49 |
| Goodbye | 61 |
| Exodus | 68 |
| Part II Ma, Tomb | |
| Severance | 75 |
| The Cult | 79 |
| Packing | 97 |
| Motherland | 102 |
| Part III Mà, But | |
| The Hunt | 113 |
| The Wedding Crasher | 121 |
| Spirit Channeling | 129 |
| The Calling | 136 |
| Resistance | 142 |
| Part IV Má, Mother | |
| Bloody Feet | 157 |
| Digging | 171 |
| The Messenger | 176 |
| 140 LBS | 185 |
| Smoke Signals | 199 |
| The Psychic | 204 |
| Paris by Night | 215 |
| Uncle #9 | 218 |
| World Premiere | 231 |
| Part V Ma, Newborn Rice Seedling | |
| The Bird | 257 |
| Slow Dancing | 265 |
| Call Me Má | 269 |
| Squeeze Back | 274 |
| Part VI Mã, Horse | |
| Persimmons | 281 |
| Acknowledgments | 299 |