Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Originally, this post had a different title AND a different, lovingly labored-over opening paragraph.  THAT, however, was before I completed my revisions on said opening paragraph and decided to get the kids and myself out the door to a park; I figured I could finish the post later.  As I headed off to brush my teeth and get my 3-year-old dressed, I did think to wonder if drafts were saved automatically or if I ought to look into doing it myself, but hey, we were only going to be gone a few hours, right?

Yeah.  Guess whose computer somehow turned off in our absence?  That’d be MINE.  Goodbye then, thoroughly-revised-opening-paragraph, because I don’t have it in me to recreate you.  Instead, here’s a recap:  I love me a good memoir, I was thrilled to receive a copy of So Happiness to Meet You:  Foolishly, Blissfully Stranded in Vietnam for review, and I was even more thrilled that it didn’t disappoint.  (I’m not sure why it took me so long to say–essentially–that, but there you go.  We’re more or less caught up now.  On to the review!)

Karin Esterhammer is a travel writer who decided to move her family from LA to Vietnam after getting laid off during the Great Recession.  (I didn’t realize that ‘Great Recession’ was an official name, by the way–you learn something new every day, right?)  There, she figured, they could teach English, live cheaply, and rent the LA home they could no longer afford to live in.

She was sort of right.

Two-plus years later, Esterhammer and her family moved back to the States.  It was a bumpier ride than expected–when isn’t it, really?–but one worth reading about; Karin’s own adventures adjusting to her environment, struggling with the language, and falling in love with the country are interspersed with the incredible life experiences of her Vietnamese friends and neighbors, the difficulties in successfully homeschooling an autistic child, and her husband’s employment roller coaster.  I laughed, I gasped, and (occasionally) I cringed, because that’s what happens with real life, right?  The ending felt abrupt, but no more to me than to the Esterhammers, I imagine; reality is nothing if not lacking in predictably-paced story arcs.  At the end of the day, I was riveted by one family’s experiences and learned a bit of what they learned without ever leaving my living room.  What more could you ask for in a memoir?