The Refugees

The Refugees is a 2017 collection of short stories by celebrated Vietnamese American author, Viet Thanh Nguyen. Nguyen has written fiction, academic nonfiction, and children’s books, and his novel The Sympathizer won the Pulitzer Prize in 2016. Nguyen received his doctorate in English at the University of California Berkeley, and he currently is a literature professor at the University of Southern California. Nguyen’s scholarship and literary works focus on the experiences of Vietnamese communities in the United States. The Refugees deals with themes of intergenerational conflict, otherness, and trauma in Vietnamese diasporic communities following the Vietnam War. The book received positive reviews, was listed on several 2017 best book lists, and won the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association Honor Award.

Content Warning: Some stories in this collection depict sexual acts, violence, sexual violence, and instances of racism/racial prejudice.

This guide refers to the Barnes and Noble Nook eBook edition of The Refugees.

Plot Summary

The Refugees consists of eight short stories and two essays.

In “Black-Eyed Women,” the unnamed protagonist is a ghostwriter living with her mother. They are visited by the ghost of her older brother, who died defending the protagonist from pirates as the family crossed the ocean as refugees from the Vietnam War. The apparition helps the narrator reconcile the trauma of that day. The narrator becomes closer to her mother, who is a source of ghost stories. The narrator finds her voice and plans to write a collection of ghost stories using her own name.

Liem, the protagonist of “The Other Man,” comes to America as a refugee. Liem is sponsored by Parrish Coyne, a gay man living with his partner, Marcus Chan. Growing up in a society that represses homosexuality, Liem was unable to explore his sexuality until he moved in with Parrish and Marcus. Liem takes a job at a convenience store and works hard; he wants to view himself as a good person. When Parrish leaves for a conference, Liem gets to know Marcus better. The two have sex, leading Liem to a path of self-discovery.

In “War Years,” the protagonist recalls an episode from his teenage years in which his mother comes into conflict with Mrs. Hoa, a garish woman who zealously raises money for anti-communist forces in Vietnam. When the protagonist’s mother refuses to contribute, Mrs. Hoa slanders her. The protagonist’s mother takes him along with her to confront Mrs. Hoa. They discover her shabby living conditions, and they gain sympathy for her when they learn she lost a son in the war and her husband is missing. Mrs. Hoa sews uniforms for the anti-communist forces in her tailor shop. The narrator’s mother contributes $200 to her cause—an extravagant amount for the struggling family.

In “The Transplant,” Arthur Arellano has nearly lost everything due to his gambling addiction. He befriends Louis Vu when he receives a liver transplant from a man that is presumably Louis’s father. Louis uses Arthur to store counterfeit goods at his house. Arthur has a falling out with his wife, Norma. When it comes to light that the transplanted organ was not from Louis’s father, Arthur confronts him. Their friendship ends, and Arthur is left in limbo with no friends and is unable to reconcile with his wife.

Mrs. Khanh, the main character of “I’d Love You to Want Me,” struggles with her husband’s declining memory due to dementia or Alzheimer’s. Professor Khanh mistakenly calls her “Yen,” eliciting jealousy from Mrs. Khanh. As his condition declines, Mrs. Khanh is forced to give in to her son Vinh’s wishes and retire from her part-time job at the library. She vows to read to her husband every day for the rest of his life.

In “The Americans,” James Carver is a 69-year-old Black Vietnam War veteran who goes to Vietnam with his wife, Michiko, to visit their daughter, Claire. James does not like Claire’s boyfriend, a robotics engineer named Khoi Legaspi. Old tensions come to a head when James calls Claire’s life choices stupid and walks away when Khoi gives them a demonstration of his demining robot. James catches pneumonia in a monsoonal downpour. Claire takes care of him in the hospital, reminding him of how he would care for her as a young child.

Thomas, the main character of “Someone Else Besides You,” invites his father to live with him after his mother suddenly dies of an aneurysm and his wife, Sam, leaves him over his indecision about having kids. His father, Mr. P, was as tough as a drill sergeant to Thomas and his siblings growing up. He decides it is time to fix Thomas’s life shortly after Thomas meets Mimi, Mr. P’s former mistress, now girlfriend. They visit Sam, only to find she is pregnant and plans to raise the child alone. Mr. P vandalizes her car as they leave. Sam visits Thomas to confront him. Thomas tells her he wants to be a father to their child.

In “Fatherland,” Phuong’s father, Mr. Ly, named her and her younger brothers, Hanh and Phuc, after his first set of children. These children fled to America when their mother discovered Mr. Ly was having an affair with Phuong’s mother. The former Mrs. Ly writes letters bragging about the first Phuong’s successes. Phuong is jealous of her half-sister. However, when the elder Phuong, who goes by Vivien, visits the Ly family in Vietnam, she reveals that despite her lavish spending, she is not really a doctor. Her mother made up her success story. After Vivien leaves, Phuong burns photographs they took with her and plans her escape from her current life.

Nguyen includes two essays in The Refugees. The first, “On Being a Refugee, an American—And a Human Being,” explores these intersecting aspects of Nguyen’s identity. He contends that refugees are derided as un-American because they remind Americans of the precarity inherent in their society. For America to live up to its promise, it must become more accepting of the most vulnerable in society. In “In Praise of Doubt and Uselessness,” Nguyen describes the enormous effort and struggle that goes into writing a book, academic or otherwise. He hopes society can recognize this and give as much value to the doubt, faith, and failure that it takes to create in the humanities as it does in the sciences.