About this item
Highlights
- Inspired by the tales of four grandmothers - Thuan Le Elston's and her husband's - Rendezvous at the Altar: From Vietnam to Virginia traces Anne's Southern upbringing to her Mad Men-like married life; Kim's family as they survive French colonialism and the Vietnam War; Mary's transformations through the Great Depression and two marriages; and Ty's migration from Hanoi businesswoman to Arizona matriarch.
- Author(s): Thuan Le Elston
- 200 Pages
- Fiction + Literature Genres, Historical
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Book Synopsis
Inspired by the tales of four grandmothers - Thuan Le Elston's and her husband's - Rendezvous at the Altar: From Vietnam to Virginia traces Anne's Southern upbringing to her Mad Men-like married life; Kim's family as they survive French colonialism and the Vietnam War; Mary's transformations through the Great Depression and two marriages; and Ty's migration from Hanoi businesswoman to Arizona matriarch. Through a mother's journal to her children and the four grandmothers' narrations that bridge punk band names to the Temple of Literature, Elston compares gender roles, parenting, aging, and dying in a multicultural family.Review Quotes
"Thuan Le Elston's writing is eloquent, and her RENDEZVOUS AT THE ALTAR is profound. It brings four distinct pasts into a future universal family. These grandmothers' voices from the grave teach the living how to gain compassion and insight."
-- Le Ly Hayslip, author of the memoir WHEN HEAVEN AND EARTH CHANGED PLACES, the inspiration for Oliver Stone's movie HEAVEN AND EARTH
"Thuan Le Elston, who left Vietnam as a child just before the fall of Saigon and rose to become a member of the USA TODAY Editorial Board, has produced a moving and beautifully written piece of historical fiction. She skillfully mixes together the lives of four very diverse grandmothers from different worlds, and shows how their often grueling lives formed one very American family."
-- Jack Torry, former Washington, D.C., bureau chief for the COLUMBUS DISPATCH and the DAYTON DAILY NEWS, is author of THE LAST ONE OUT: YATES MCDANIEL, WORLD WAR II'S MOST DARING REPORTER
"RENDEZVOUS AT THE ALTAR weaves together the past and the present, the conscious and the subconscious, to create a magical tapestry of family and fate. Thuan Le Elston brings a journalist's eye for detail to the multigenerational story of her children's lineage across oceans, war, and struggle. The result is an emotional reckoning on the nature of ancestry, love, and connection."
-- Eric Lichtblau, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of RETURN TO THE REICH: A HOLOCAUST REFUGEE'S SECRET MISSION TO DEFEAT THE NAZIS