“If you don’t remember your roots and connection to the past, how can you expect to live the right way and make decisions in your life for the future?”

Mother-daughter stories always get me emotional. I find them personal in how they are able to look at two individuals, their bond, and that bridge in between that brings two generations together. I felt this while reading Dr. Elizabeth Nguyen’s ALOHA, VIETNAM. This story about Xuan and her daughter, Anh, explores mental health as Xuan tries to understand Anh’s bipolar disorder diagnosis just as Anh learns how to cope with it as she comes of age. 

Mental health can be a sensitive topic, especially within the Asian community. There are some cultural taboos surrounding it that are different from how we’ve come to accept and acknowledge it today and this was an aspect that stood out to me in Aloha, Vietnam. I cannot recall reading a book that touches on mental health in realistic detail through an Asian perspective and Dr. Nguyen handles it with great care. By telling it through Xuan and Anh’s point of view, I was able to understand what Anh was going through and the concerns Xuan felt. It is also through this that the story adds another layer. 

As a mother, Xuan worries about Anh, while also blaming herself for Anh’s diagnosis believing it to be karma from her steadfast intention of immigrating from Vietnam to the US. Meanwhile, Anh, a first generation American, wants to be a regular teenager just like everyone else and her struggle to accept her diagnosis makes her feel more of an outsider than she already feels. It becomes not just about Xuan and Anh coming to terms with Anh’s bipolar disorder, but about a mother giving all of herself for her daughter, and a daughter growing to accept every part of her identity and her origins in order to move forward.

Aloha, Vietnam is a quick read and the relationship between Xuan and Anh leaves so much between them left unsaid near the end, but it tugged my heart and left me empathizing for the characters and those in real life who struggle with mental health.

Thank you so much to @bookpublicityservices for sending me a #gifted copy of the book.