Stealing Buddha's Dinner

At the beginning of her memoir, Bich and her family arrive in Grand Rapids with only $5 and a knapsack of clothes. They are met by their sponsor, Mr. Heidenga, who sets them up in a rental house on Baldwin Street that has “splintery wooden floors that slanted in different directions” (13). Seven of them live in the small gray house: Bich; her sister, Anh; her father; her grandmother, Noi; and her uncles, Chu Cuong, Chu Anh, and Chu Dai (who isn’t actually an uncle but Cuong’s best friend). Bich describes having dinner at the Heidengas’ house a year later and watching their daughter eat from a shiny red can of Pringles. Bich will continue to fall in love with American food.

Bich tells the story of her family leaving Vietnam. It is the spring of 1975. Bich is eight months old and Anh two years old, and the Vietnam War is raging. Saigon will fall soon and staying means re-education camps or worse. On April 29, the family finds a way onto one of the ships leaving the city, facing armed guards along the way.