Butterfly Yellow by Thanhha Lai
When Hằng was 12, her 5-year-old brother Linh was taken away as part of Operation Baby Lift and sent to the United States at the end of the Vietnam War. She and her grandmother spent the next six years worried about his safety, wondering about his life and planning for their reunion.
After spending time in a refugee camp, Hằng made the difficult journey to Texas, alone, to find her beloved sibling. Grueling travel, the language barrier, and cultural differences all challenged Hằng, yet she remained determined.
Writes Thanhha Lai in Butterfly Yellow (HarperCollins), “Her brother is the only person left from her youth. Grandmother gone, Father gone, Mother gone. Hằng never would have crossed the sea on a rotting fishing boat if he weren’t waiting for her. It has taken too many years, but finally, since landing here yesterday, the two of them are enveloped in the same landscape and the same heat.”
Along the way to Amarillo, she meets LeeRoy, a young man her age who has left home to pursue his dream to become a cowboy. He is following around his favorite country singer when he gets roped into helping Hằng find her brother. Although their languages are drastically different, LeeRoy can understand her way of speaking and is patient and kind. They come to enjoy each other’s company, and an awkward friendship develops.
Butterfly Yellow is a story about Vietnamese immigrants, but represents immigration challenges for all humans. Separation from loved ones and the search to reunite, with dangerous travel, lack of clear communication and unexpected friends is all part of the journey.
Everyone’s story is different though, and there is no guarantee for a perfect outcome. Hằng is ecstatic to locate her brother, yet when she finally is face to face with Linh, her heart breaks, for a number of reasons.
Butterfly Yellow is also the story of an unlikely relationship, and the joy it can bring when it is unexpected. Hằng and LeeRoy spend the summer living next door to Linh and his white, adopted family, working on a ranch. As she works through the trauma of her travels and the difficult reuniting with Linh, LeeRoy is there for her and a young love begins to grow.
I loved Thanhhà Lai’s poetic prose, short chapters and quirky characters, and appreciate her charm and sense of humor. The tragedy of war and separation is undeniable, yet with this determined, young Vietnamese girl and this white cowboy wannabe Texan, she has shown how healing can happen.
Her personal experiences and research allow for her story to feel authentic and realistic. This book is categorized as Young Adult Fiction; the main characters are 18 years old, but it is a wonderful read for all.
I had a chance to dig deeper in this Q&A with the author.
Q: Hằng has had a horrific, dangerous journey to get from Vietnam to America. Only 18 years old, she has suffered great losses, has been challenged physically, emotionally and is burdened with the language barrier. Why do you think she remains hopeful and shows restraint and patience when the meeting with her brother, Linh, doesn’t go the way she hoped?
A: First she tries avoidance of her own history and trauma, thinking she could trick her mind into concentrating on one obsession: her brother. So the hope and patience are layered. They show her attempt at coping and also her innate need to reconnect. I think we all do that when utterly overwhelmed–we push our minds to think about something else or someone else until we are forced (however reluctantly) to approach our hurts.
Q: How much of you and your personality is in Hằng?
A: We both use humor to get through trauma, and we’re both relentless when we have a goal. I tend to create funny, spunky girls whom I would want to have lunch with.
Q: You came to this country at age 10. What was your journey like?
A: At 10, everything was a hazy adventure. While at sea on a navy ship, I thought we were on a strange vacation. I was thrilled to see whales and dolphins but not at all happy to brush teeth with salt water. I thought we would turn around any day and go home. After all, I was a month from finishing fourth grade. I didn’t feel scared or confused until we reached Alabama. But that story is well documented in my first novel, Inside Out & Back Again.
Q: Initially, Linh doesn’t remember anything about his youth in Vietnam. Is that typical? Hằng is just a few years older and she is obsessed with her younger years and her family. How did you decide to make their memories so different from each other?
A: Linh was 5. Then for the next six years, he receives absolutely nothing to reinforce his memories of Vietnam. Not language, family, climate, smells, tastes, not even a photograph. Life is about moving forward and learning to calm his panic, which happens when he is given Linh the Horse.
Hằng was 12. That’s a huge difference in terms of establishing a sense of self in a particular culture. Most importantly, she spends the next six years obsessing about Linh with her grandmother. That is their main topic of conversation. Every fruit in season reminds them of Linh, every night whisper, every wish, every guilt. Then she accepts the monumental task of finding him and reclaiming him. So it’s no wonder she wants to neglect her own trauma in favor a potentially heroic act.
Q: I enjoyed the unlikely young love sprouting between Hằng and the cowboy wannabe, LeeRoy. Is LeeRoy based on anyone you know, and do you have any plans for them to meet again in a future book?
A: LeeRoy is a boy I might have gone to high school with in Fort Worth, Texas. I created him to be innately kind, no matter how he wishes otherwise. A more savvy or moody cowboy would have been too scary for a traumatized Hằng. For now, I’ll let them play out their bumbling friendship in readers’ imaginations.
Q: How long did it take you to write this book? What is your writing process?
A: This was a hard write. It took forever to get the pacing right, the distinctive points of view, the research of boat people experiences. At first I set most of the action on the boat and the island, but I decided not to focus on the trauma. That feature was built in and wouldn’t diminish no matter at which point I chose to start Hằng’s story. So I decided to set it in Texas, in a brittle flat land where against all odds she began to heal. I had an outline in my head. I had scenes like the county fair, the butterfly, the ranch, the rodeo, the boat, the island. Putting all that in the right order took so many revisions.
Q: What makes this book a Young Adult novel?
A: I think it’s because my characters are teens and the novel is written in present tense, thus there’s no adult reflection. So voila, it’s YA although — I’ve met plenty of adults reading Butterfly Yellow.
Q: You shared Hang’s past throughout the book. Did you write it separately and in advance, or as you went along?
A: All of the above.
Q: Are you working on something new yet?
A: I am playing with a prose-poem sequel to Inside Out & Back Again. So basically myself at 12 and in Texas. A novel about the anxieties inherent in growing up with refugee, go-getting parents. I have a picture book coming out at some point. And maybe a novel that looks at female sexuality.
Butterfly Yellow is now available for purchase.
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