Phuc Tran explores abuse, racism, and tragedy through his love for books and punk rock in this irreverent, funny, and moving memoir of an immigrant family assimilating in America for today’s #PubDay celebration!
SIGH, GONE: A Misfit’s Memoir of Great Books, punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In by Phuc Tran
“[Tran] writes movingly about his struggle for acceptance and his two-pronged attack to achieve assimilation: first, an attempt at academic excellence (he ranked fourteenth in his class of 333) and, second, what he calls ‘Operation Look Punk,’ explaining that one way to fit in is by not fitting in…A clever conceit, in this connection, is his naming each chapter with the title of a great book (CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, THE SCARLET LETTER, THE METAMORPHOSIS, etc.) and then finding a parallel with his life in each. The result is a compelling story of an outsider discovering himself and a world where he fit in.”–Booklist, starred review
“Tran and his parents fled Saigon as war refugees in 1975, and they eventually settled in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. There, they became the lone Asians in a town that ‘offered all the rainbows of Caucasia’…Funny, poignant, and unsparing, Tran’s sharp, sensitive, punk-inflected memoir presents one immigrant’s quest for self-acceptance through the lens of American and European literary classics. A highly witty and topical read—an impressive debut.”–Kirkus Reviews, starred review
SIGH, GONE: A Misfit’s Memoir of Great Books, punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In by Phuc Tran; 9781250194718; available now.