Celebrating Vietnamese culture and community, The Fortunes of Jaded Women is a delight that rises above mere frothy literary confection...The sprinkling of fantastical elements and abundance of sisterly squabbles and scandals keep things juicy and bring plenty of laughs, but the characters are the real stars of the show...Each woman is joyfully rendered and fully developed, offering a welcome contrast to cliched depictions of meek and docile Asian women, and a powerful subversion of monolithic depictions of a people who have for too long been solely defined by tragedy.
Huynh’s debut novel explores the dynamics of a stubborn Vietnamese American family with humor and tenderness, ultimately showing how the women slowly find healing, love, and happiness together.
A contemporary Vietnamese American family in Southern California deals with the fallout of an ancient curse...Written with crackling humor and a shrewd, intimate understanding of Vietnamese American family life, the book is full of tart, broad comedy and farcical setups...But first-time novelist Huynh also uses her gift for humor as a tool to tell a unique story about exile and assimilation, highlighting the perils of trying to bend newer generations to ancient traditions and the difficulty of reconciling culture with the messy truths of modern American life... A funny, sharp, and insightful look at family bonds and the effecs of tradition on modern life.
Huynh debuts with an engaging if overwrought saga of a Vietnamese family curse in Orange County’s Little Saigon...A sudden change in tone derails the final third of the novel, littering what was an otherwise strong, character-driven narrative with implausible slapstick and convenient coincidences...Still, as the Duong sisters reunite and reckon with their family’s outmoded beliefs, Huynh pulls off an admirable portrait of well-meaning mothers and their children...Despite the bumps, it’s worth checking out.
