I love Kim Thúy's writing, and this novella is no exception. Whenever I pick up one of her books, I know I am going to be treated to beautiful, evocative writing; a semi-autobiographical plot; a delicate, nuanced view of immigration; a visceral longing for her Vietnamese homeland; and a love for her adopted country (Canada).

Mãn (which means "fulfilled") grew up in Vietnam with her adoptive mother, Maman, who would often leave Mãn with friends or neighbors when she had an assignment as a revolutionary. There Mãn learned to be invisible, to serve the families with deft hands, anticipating their wants so they would have no cause to turn on her. This prepared her for the life of a foreign bride to a Vietnamese man in Montreal. Maman wanted her to be assured of a safe life, and Mãn continued to take up as little oxygen as possible.

Once in Montreal, however, Mãn is befriended by Julie, a smiling, open-hearted woman who dissolves the boundaries that Mãn has set up around herself. Soon Mãn is running an increasingly famous restaurant built around remembered and reimagined Vietnamese recipes. In Paris Mãn meets someone who will dissolve the boundaries around her heart as well.

Kim Thúy is a restaurateur and chef, and her passion for food is evident in this novel. If you love food, you will enjoy her descriptions of the tastes and textures of various foods used in Vietnamese cooking. But it's also a novel about a life between worlds and the struggle to find personal fulfillment in such a tenuous space. As in [Em] and [Ru], each chapter is only a page or two long and the book is short, but the language is rich and savory and the images linger. ( )

Thúy's brevity adds grace and poetry to an already touching story of an immigrant to Canada from Vietnam. Mãn's attention to tradition through food allows the reader to share the distress of severance from her Maman and her homeland. A beautiful, memorable story. ( )

An impressionistic novel in which Mãn recounts the tale of her three mothers in Vietnam and how her Maman arranged for Mãn to marry a Canadian man to get Mãn out of the country. As Mãn settles into life with her new spouse, running the kitchen at his restaurant, she finds contentment and success. But while on a trip to Paris, she meets a man who upends everything she knew about herself.

A beautiful, short tale Mãn's story is compelling even in it's brevity. The novel is not quite linear as Mãn recounts events in Vietnam that pre-date her birth and life with Maman as well as recounting the life and friendships she builds in Montreal. The novel would be fascinating to dissect in a classroom setting as each chapter heading is a Vietnamese word and it's English translation although the novel was originally published in French, so there's a three-fold translation happening that would be fascinating to dig into from a critical perspective. A solid and quick read. ( )

Man was a quiet and simple book to read. It is a novella really, composed of short chapters – some just one or 2 paragraphs long- that I read over two evenings. But what great pleasure….

Kim Thuy has been in the best sellers list here in Canada with her previous book [b:Ru|7574245|Ru|Kim Thúy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328008172s/7574245.jpg|9928952]. I have not read it, although it has been in my radar for a time, then I came across this edition of Man: light blue hardcover with a picture on the overleaf that hypnotised me. I could not resist it.

The surprise is the story, which charmed me. Kim Thuy’s writing is economical and poetical. She does not make grand turns of the language or over dramatize it. The first person narration suits the character’s gentleness and subtle ways.

The immigrant narrative always touches me. It could not be otherwise, as I am an immigrant myself and the experience of living in an alien culture defines who I am in many ways. The relationship between culture and food has been explored in other books before, but Kim Thuy does it here with language that subverts the genre. Memories, flavours, vocabulary, sacrifices and ultimately love are articulated with a lyrical cadence.

Next time I am drawn to a book in a bookstore, as I was by this edition, I am going to trust my instincts with more confidence…
( )

This book came to me at the right time. I've been in one of those ruts where I have a couple piles of books at home, holds checked out from the library, and while they're all books I want to have read none are books I really want to start reading. For some reason they're all too long or too heavy (figuratively) or too heavy (literally) or too dense or too flip. Then I picked up Mãn, and it was light and short, with tiny, vignette-like chapters and airy, poetic prose.

I liked the focus of this book, the main character Mãn, leaving Vietnam to settle in Montreal with her new husband, staying quiet and dutiful while slowly learning about boisterous and joyful affection from her new neighbors and family. Mãn fuses the quiet, subtle ways of loving she was used to, like her adoptive mother stroking her braid three times the same way Mãn does with her own children when they leave for school, with the everyday proclamations of love her neighbor and friend Julie gives to her husband and children. She celebrates fusion in her quiet way in her husband's restaurant, where she uses food to remember and help others remember their homes in Vietnam, the people and rituals and experiences they left behind, adding Vietnamese flavours to Quebecois dishes; she also hires a French pastry chef to add depth and difference to Vietnamese baking. Kim Thúy's writing is spare and beautiful; some other reviews have mentioned that they wish Mãn's relationship with her children had been fleshed out a bit more, and while I sort of agree, by the end of the book I left with the impression that Mãn loves her children very much. Part of her struggle is with methods of expressing love that differ between the culture she grew up in and the culture her children are growing up in.

Regardless of the story, and whether or not you like the choices that Mãn makes or that the author makes about what to focus on, this book is beautiful to read. Crisp and flowing, each short chapter is like a love poem.
( )