Sundara is a young Cambodian girl who is forced to flee her country and the Khmer Rouge. She finds herself thousands of miles away from home, her parents and siblings, living on the west coast of America with her aunt, uncle and two cousins.
This is a story about balancing responsibilities to family and culture with those to personal identity and development. Sundara is a sweet, hardworking and dependable member of her household, but she is also a teenager with hopes for her future in this new place. How can she reconcile the pressures of home with her longing for a “white skin” American boy– a boy who is in love with her and won’t give up so easily? How can her family reconcile their traditions with their new surroundings?
This book touches on the difficulties of remaining true to your roots while listening to your heart and the rhythms of a new place.
Memorable excerpts:
[about fitting in] “What did Soka think? That she could go to an American school and squat in the cafeteria to eat as if she were still half a world away?” (p. 81)
[about diversity in America] “She’d been so busy trying to understand exactly what Americans were like, she’d missed the point. Americans were all sorts of things.” (p. 88)
[about finding a cultural balance] “Maybe their mistake was in feeling they had to choose, fearing they couldn’t be American without giving up being Khmer. Why couldn’t they be both? In the end, after all, what was more American than coming from someplace else, bringing another culture with you?” (p. 188)
[about America-centrism] “Surely America was an amazing country, and worth feeling thankful for. But the way some Americans talked, you’d think this was the only country on earth worth loving.” (p. 189)
Something About America 