Vietnamerica: A Family's Journey

Vietnamerica: A Family’s Journey is a graphic memoir by illustrator and designer GB Tran. Published in 2010, the memoir encompasses four generations of GB’s family and focuses on the lives of his mother, Dzung Chung, and father, Tri Huu. Through intersecting narratives from various narrators, locations, and time periods, GB traces his parents’ experiences from their youths in Vietnam during the Japanese and French occupation to the subsequent Vietnam War and their lives as refugees in the US. As a US-born Vietnamese American, GB devotes the memoir to retelling his parents’ stories and portraying an intimate account of the sacrifices and modes of survival that his family endured. In understanding his family’s past, GB develops a stronger appreciation and respect for them and his Vietnamese heritage. Vietnamerica earned a Society of Illustrators Gold Medal in 2011 and was listed in Time’s top 10 graphic memoirs.

This guide references the 2010 hardcover version published by Villard Books.

Summary

GB divides the story’s events into 12 nonlinear segments with multiple narrators in varying settings. Most sections begin with Dzung Chung, his mother, telling him stories about the family’s past while preparing a meal. As the

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