Huang, Guiyou, ed. Asian American Autobiographers:
A Bio-Bibliographic Sourcebook. Westport, Conn:
Greenwood Press, 2001.
Hutner, Gordon, ed. Immigrant Voices: Twenty-Four
Narratives on Becoming an American. New York:
Penguin, 1999.
Amy Lillian Manning
Pastries Bharti Kirchner (2003)
In her fourth novel, BHARTI KIRCHNER brings to-
gether her passion for fiction writing and food to
create a story focused on a young, talented baker
named Sunya. Born of Indian parents, Sunya is
raised in Seattle by her single mother. Her father,
a graduate student at the University of Washing-
ton, mysteriously abandons the family after she is
born. Her mother withstands the criticism of the
small Indian community and sustains herself and
her daughter by running a doughnut shop. Sunya
trains in France and comes back to Seattle’s Wall-
ingford neighborhood to set up a boutique bakery
that is known for its delicious desserts, notably the
signature item called a “Sunya cake.”
Sunya’s troubles begin when a national chain
plans to open a branch near her store. The chain’s
substandard ingredients allow them to undercut
her prices, and the bakery war begins. This war is
fueled by the local food critic who revels in Sunya’s
misery. Sunya, whose personal life is rocky be-
cause of her breakup with her Japanese boyfriend,
is made further miserable by the bakery war and
loses her nerve as a baker. She has a talented, if
temperamental, staff that enables her to continue
her business.
Sunya’s personal life picks up when a film-
maker—in town to film the World Trade Or-
ganization ministerial meetings of November
1999—begins to court her and engages her ideas
in developing his film. Sunya also hires a talented
Japanese baker whose cheesecakes compensate for
the absent “Sunya cake.” Meanwhile, she receives
mysterious missives from a lurking stranger invit-
ing her to connect with the Apsara bakery in Japan.
She learns from her Japanese baker that the Apsara
is a Zen bakery where people go to find inner peace
through baking. Upon his advice, Sunya signs up
for a two-week class to rekindle her baking talents.
While in Japan, she meets up with her long-lost
father, who has become a monk and abandoned
familial life in search of nirvana. When her father
dies, she returns to Seattle, having found her bak-
ing talents. She ultimately wins the bakery war and
is off to a happy life as an entrepreneur.
This romantic novel continues some of the
major themes in Kirchner’s writing including the
clash of cultures, parent-child relationship, au-
tonomy of women, and the need to balance the
demands of multiple cultures.
Nalini IyerPhan, Aimee (1977– )
Born to Vietnamese refugee parents in Orange
County, California, Phan attended the University
of California, Los Angeles. During her freshman
year at the university, she read and was inspired by
NO-NO BOY by JOHN OKADA. The novel showed her
the effect that Asian-American literature can have
on one’s perception of history and self. In college,
Phan wrote for the campus newspaper and after
graduation became an intern at USA Today. Phan,
however, pursued her interest in creative writing
by attending the M.F.A. program at the University
of Iowa Creative Writing Workshop, where she was
awarded the Maytag Fellowship. Phan currently
teaches English at Washington State University.
Phan’s debut novel, We Should Never Meet,
features eight linked stories that represent the
aftermath of a historical event called “Operation
Babylift,” the evacuation of thousands of orphans
from Vietnam to the United States weeks before
the fall of Saigon. The novel traces the resettle-
ment of several of these orphans, as well as young
boat refugees, as they come into adulthood in the
United States. Phan’s stories challenge the idea be-
hind the operation: that these babies are destined
to find a better life in the United States. The novel
asks us to consider “Operation Babylift” as em-
blematic of the U.S.-Vietnam experience. As such,
the novel poignantly highlights how even matters
that seem so close to the heart—white families’Phan, Aimee 241