Family

Throughout the collection, Le views family and familial-type bonds as a source of tension, as his characters struggle to forge, maintain, or recover their ties to family. Many characters overtly question these bonds, like Henry, who sees his daughter’s similar appearance to him as “accidental” (87); while other characters, like Nam, sometimes seek to cut them off entirely. Other characters, like Juan or Mai, have experienced the loss of these bonds through external force such as war or state violence.

Le often frames the struggle with family as a question of duty or responsibility. The characters of Nam and Henry provide the clearest example of this. Each faces doubts about their own desires to maintain their connection to family - Nam’s father, for instance, or Henry’s daughter - and often they find that they are incapable of the responsibilities that these family members seem...