I Love Yous Are for White People- a memoir by Lac Su

In bookstores now or on Amazon for $10.19!


PRAISES:

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"I Love Yous are for White People is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. A breath-taking journey about beauty and love."

- Dave Pelzer, author of A CHILD CALLED IT and recipient of the National Jefferson award

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"Su’s story manages to be one of the Vietnamese gangster, the artist/writer, and the filial son all at once. An uncommon balancing act, but one that his easy, surreptitiously precise prose manages well...it is a long-awaited treat finally to have a Vietnamese American memoir to recommend reading; don’t worry, it’s not just for white people."

-Hyphen Magazine

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"I LOVE YOUS ARE FOR WHITE PEOPLE by Lac Su is that rare combination of a miraculous yet true story that also happens to be masterfully written. The author’s account of his family’s nightmarish escape from Viet Nam, on foot, under heavy gunfire, and then by boat - told sparingly and unforgettably - sets the stage on which the rest of his story spools out with such a flow that you forget you are in the act of reading. Lac Su has told a brave story that is also a cautionary tale that should be read by many, showing us the way to how our youth - immigrant and otherwise - can come to know their true worth."

- Mim Eichler Rivas,

author of BEAUTIFUL JIM KEY,

coauthor of FINDING FISH with Antwone Fisher

and coauthor of THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS with Chris Gardner

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"Lac Su’s extraordinary story of exile - from a country, a family, and ultimately from himself - is both a heart-wrenching and immensely entertaining read. Lac is a master storyteller. Each scene was like a Wes Anderson film - quirky, moving, surprising - and the more I read the more I fell in love with this vulnerable and hurting, but also resourceful and self-sustaining, boy."

- Kerry Cohen, author of LOOSE GIRL: A Memoir of Promiscuity

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"In I Love Yous are for White People, Lac Su has given us the ultimate in memoir. A remarkable story full of sweetness, pain, but most of all, hope."

- Tish Cohen, author of TOWN HOUSE and INSIDE OUT GIRL.

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"I LOVE YOUS ARE FOR WHITE PEOPLE by Lac Su is that rare combination of a miraculous yet true story that also happens to be masterfully written. The author’s account of his family’s nightmarish escape from Viet Nam, on foot, under heavy gunfire, and then by boat - told sparingly and unforgettably - sets the stage on which the rest of his story spools out with such a flow that you forget you are in the act of reading. Lac Su has told a brave story that is also a cautionary tale that should be read by many, showing us the way to how our youth - immigrant and otherwise - can come to know their true worth."

- Victor Rivas Rivers, author of A PRIVATE FAMILY MATTER:A Memoir

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"The riveting opening sets the stage as the family raced to a rickety boat to escape their homeland, dodging communist gunfire as they ran. The son of war refugees, the author came of age in the poor enclaves of Los Angeles with an emotional burden familiar to children of immigrants. Su offers a compelling narrative of immigrant life, cultural dissonance and the tug of familial obligation..."

- KIRKUS Reviews

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"In this moving first memoir, Su recounts his family’s escape from a difficult life in Vietnam for another in Los Angeles. Much of the City of Angels is the polar opposite of shimmering Hollywood--Su encounters abject poverty and gang culture. After looking for love in all the wrong places, he eventually establishes an identity in his adopted country. Anyone who wonders what obstacles an immigrant must overcome will be fascinated by this assimilation story; Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior complements it nicely."

-LIBRARY JOURNAL

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"Haunting, brutal . . . From molestation and abuse to gang banging and armed robbery, [Su] spares no detail in his memoir - and he doesn’t regret sharing any of it."

-San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE

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"Harrowing . . . a haunting memoir . . . with this debut, [Su is] ready for a much-deserved audience."

-San Francisco CHRONICLE

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"In a recent memoir, Vietnamese American writer Lac Su directly addresses this topic, right in his book’s title: I Love Yous Are for White People."

-StuffWhitePeopleDo.com

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"This is a powerful book about immigrants finding the harsh realities of East L.A. instead of the American dream, and redoubling their efforts and getting it in the end."

-VANITY FAIR

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"The best memoirs trace not only the writer’s personal evolution, but also give the reader an insider’s view into history. That’s the case with Su’s account of his family’s escape from Vietnam and subsequent resettling in a gang-ridden pocket of Los Angeles. The dislocation cracks open Su’s father’s sense of his place in the world, and he takes his misery out on his tender-hearted son, who eventually turns to a gang for companionship. Heavy stuff, to be sure, but Su’s delight in the telling detail -- whether it’s the shiny 747 that whisks his family to their new life or his Vietnamese uncles’ incredulity at not being able to take home stray California dogs for dinner pokes a few pinholes in the darkness."

-Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE

(Considered my book one of the best memoirs to read this summer)

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"With each transparent penstroke, Su offers audiences an inside look at his exchange of shameful ashes for the beauty of hope and a new tomorrow. Simply, I Love Yous Are for White People is a story of redemption."

-NEWD Magazine