Another Review at MyShelf.Com

Unpolished Gem
My Mother, My Grandmother, and Me

by Alice Pung

     

Alice Pung, author of Unpolished Gem: my mother, my grandmother, and me, was a month away from being born in 1980, when her mother, father, grandmother, and aunt arrived in Australia as Cambodian emigrants, refugees, victims of the Khmer Rouge.

Nevertheless, this book is not about the atrocities of war, although some are mentioned. It is not about grief over family members left behind, nor about the psychological fallout displaced people experience when they lose everything, even though hints of the pain float to the surface of Pung’s story now and again.

Rather, Unpolished Gem is the author’s clear articulation of the fears, yearnings, and, ultimately, acceptance of the historical, familial, and multicultural dynamics playing upon the heart and mind of an insecure, over-achieving, Cambodian-Australian girl, beloved by her grandmother and misunderstood by her mother, who comes to appreciate that the three women are lovingly tied, not as much by family and culture as by a common yearning for love and acceptance, not just of each other, but also of themselves.

Pung’s voice rings true, her spare, powerful prose conveys the confusion, the hesitancy, the panic, and, in the end, the resolution of the question, Who am I? with the lightness and strength akin to the bamboo tree, and just as beautiful.

Pung is a Melbourne, Australia lawyer, and this is her first book. Surely, she has other stories clamoring to be told. I, for one, will be eagerly awaiting them.

The Book

Plume, a member of the Penguin Group
January 27, 2009
Trade paperback
0452290007 / 978-0-452-29000-6
Memoir
More at Amazon.com
Excerpt
NOTE:

The Reviewer

Deb Kincaid
Reviewed 2009
NOTE:
© 2009 MyShelf.com