Perfume Dreams

Book excerpt: "Along the Perfume River lives an old woman who has never left her village, who has raised children and grandchildren, never having seen the other side of the river. A nightclub owner from Vietnam travels the world, hobnobbing with international celebrities. A young man goes to college in America, only to return to Vietnam with made-up stories and forged photographs of himself with President Clinton. And another grows up both an American teenager and a Vietnamese general's son ... the author himself." "In this collection of essays, noted journalist Andrew Lam explores his lifelong struggle for identity and challenges definitions - both society's and his own - of what it means to be an immigrant, a son, and a survivor."--BOOK JACKET.