I Love Yous are For White People

I Love Yous are for White People is a memoir by Vietnamese-American Lac Su, published in 2009 by HarperCollins. This guide refers to the first US edition. The title paraphrases Pa, the author’s emotionally distant and abusive father, who rebuffs his son’s declaration of love at the age of 14. Su writes in simple prose and organizes the material chronologically, relying on the power of his experiences as a young immigrant in Los Angeles to carry the narrative.

The book opens with Su struggling to keep up as his family runs toward the rickety fishing boat that will take them away from Communist Vietnam. A flashback reveals what life was like before the family fled. Pa was a well-respected business owner in Da Nang until the threat of denouncement as an American collaborator forced him to leave. After a harrowing journey to the US via Hong Kong, the family settles in a rundown apartment in a seedy section of Los Angeles, where Pa works as a prep cook for meager pay. He dresses Su in a suit and tie on his first day of school, making him the target of ridicule and marking the beginning of Su’s search for acceptance.