A Banh Mi for Two

i somehow ended up simultaneously reading two books by debut authors about bi, viet american teenage girls visiting vietnam (the other being she is a haunting) and i think maybe i shouldn't have because i started to get small details mixed up between the two titles despite the different genres. there are orchids in front of this house, hydrangeas in front of the other. this mother works long hours in a nail salon, this other mother used to sleep alone in one. loads of food references in both. whoops.

a bánh mì for two is pretty fluffy, maybe a tad saccharine; the book itself has a flowery pink fore-edge design that reflects its vibe. the story ends up basically being a series of cute dates between the MCs, with a premise vaguely tacked on. the surface-level family and culture details are generally fine, but the other ones are fairly thin: lan works her family's bánh mì stand that regularly has long lines that "wrap around the neighborhood," but vivi happens to stop by one morning (four chapters later) and it's slow enough that lan just leaves right then and there (and there's no indication má or triết are also present to hold down the fort, but it's also made a big deal that lan works hard so her mom doesn't have to, and the cart is their whole livelihood, and so on). vivi and cindy somehow end up doing their first semester of college abroad (which is already strange and unusual) but are only ever really stationed at their dorm that's right across from lan's bánh mì cart. they don't go to class, except that one time vivi can't stay out too late because she has "class in the morning" and that other time she supposedly attends courses but can't focus all day. and i have to really squint to accept that vivi ends up in a completely different location for study abroad than she told her parents because in this world, you can avoid alerting them while having them sign a bunch of paperwork, going to the embassy, getting a student visa, and using the same SIM card (i assume)/calling them from abroad without incurring roaming costs. the whole lying subplot i didn't pay too much attention to as a result. am i an overthinking party pooper? why do i do this to YA novels? should i stop reading YA, or have the last bunch i've read just been unrealistic in the name of fiction?

my biggest gripe was how the author seemed to have scenes visualized in her head, but often failed to give stage directions, so the characters became unmoored from their gorgeous surroundings. one second they're having a conversation at the café, the next they're on a motorbike with no transition. vivi fidgets with the spoon. (what spoon? the one in lan's egg coffee?) lan walks into her house sopping wet and dripping puddles everywhere after somehow riding a scooter through knee-high stormwater, then sits on some furniture and flops onto her mattress. (or you do you, i guess.) they take their shoes off on wet concrete on a rooftop and fall sideways onto a presumably dry picnic blanket(?). my editor brain would do this: instead of going straight from dialogue in the café to "i help vivi hop onto my motorbike, our fingers brushing against each other," i'd change it to "when i help vivi hop onto my motorbike, our fingers brush against each other." way less jarring, and a small hint that we've jumped forward in time. i'm not saying i need to have my hand held as a reader to imagine—just try not to give me whiplash.

finally, i really don't know about stuffing nearly all of the book's conflict and reconciliation into the last fifty pages, complete with contrived lovers' quarrel. it was kind of a relief to have the inevitable all out in the open at last, but it felt rushed and over too soon. some pretty big life decisions get made in just a short chapter or two.

i definitely wanted to like this! too bad it was disjointed and hard to follow in parts. my notes above don't even really get into the "major" family arcs/character development. i was somewhat aware things were moving along in a certain direction but the reading experience just felt so scattered.