Susan Lieu had a distinct goal: "I wanted to publish this memoir when I was thirty-eight, the same age my mother was when she died from a tummy tuck." Lieu originally made her family tragedy public in 2019 in a sold-out one-woman theatrical show, 140 LBS: How Beauty Killed My Mother. In The Manicurist's Daughter, she alchemizes her live performances into print, fortifying it with all the background and backstories to produce a raw, mesmerizing look at paralyzing grief, immigrant identity, and familial dysfunction and redemption.
Lieu's parents, two older brothers, and older sister arrived in California in 1983 as "boat people." The family welcomed Susan, their only U.S.-born child, in 1985. Má founded two nail salons, earning enough to sponsor five relatives from Vietnam, whom she housed and employed. In 1996, Má went into surgery for a tummy tuck, nose work, and chin implant. She was deprived of oxygen for 14 minutes before the doctor called 911. She flatlined after a five-day coma. Má's death, Lieu would learn, "was the result of a negligent white man with a track record of preying on vulnerable Vietnamese refugees."
The extended family quickly imploded. The businesses faltered. Lieu spent decades chasing answers, trying to understand who Má was--her experiences, decisions, hopes, plans. Lieu lays bare her attempts to "reconstruct" and "resurrect" Má with tenacious honesty and vivid desperation, but also balances this with surprising humor and grace. Her revealing, chatty writing style proves both intimately confessional and undeniably inviting: her own "[s]eeking the truth" becomes rallying encouragement for readers to talk, share, explore, and ultimately forgive in order to live. --Terry Hong