BookPeople Presents: Thao Votang - Linh Ly is Doing Just Fine

Please welcome Thao Votang in conversation with Lise Ragbir to celebrate Linh Ly is Doing Just Fine!

This event is free and open to the public.

• Start time: 7:00 P.M.
• Run time: 45-60 minutes, followed by a signing line.
• Location: The second floor of BookPeople.

The author will be signing copies of the book after the speaking portion of the event.

• To get a book signed, a copy of the event book or an item of equal value must be purchased from BookPeople.

Guidelines:

• Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
• There will not be a live stream or recording available.
• BookPeople reserves the right to cancel or postpone this event if necessary.
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About the book:

Told with deadpan humor and brutal honesty, this debut novel follows Vietnamese American Linh Ly’s unraveling as she reckons with the traumas of both her past and present, perfect for fans of Joan Is Okay and Luster.

When twenty-seven-year-old Linh Ly’s recently divorced mother begins dating a coworker, Linh is determined to make sure he is worthy of her mother. She’s seen the kind of men her mother ends up with—she grew up watching her unreliable and volatile alcoholic father as her mother worked two jobs to make ends meet. Linh is certain that her mother can’t do this on her own, but what begins as genuine worry quickly turns obsessive.

Following her mother and spying on her dates becomes part of Linh’s routine, especially after a university shooting at Linh’s work that leaves her feeling adrift—at least her mom’s dating life gives her something to focus on. Linh doesn’t exactly have a life of her own (dating or otherwise) and figures the best course of action is action—not how she handled the shooting: curl up in a ball and wait it out.

Linh is slowly forced to reconcile the image of her mother from her childhood with the woman she’s getting to know as an adult. Growing up Vietnamese in the middle of Texas with a broken household taught Linh a certain guarded way of living—one she never quite left behind.

Moving, insightful, and caustically funny all at once, Linh Ly Is Doing Just Fine depicts a quarter-life crisis in deeply relatable prose.

About the author:

Thao Votang is the author of LINH LY IS DOING JUST FINE (Alcove Press, 2024). Her work has been published in Salon, Hyperallergic, Sightlines, Southwest Contemporary, and Lucky Jefferson. When she’s not watering her plants or playing tennis, she can be found reading one of the many books she has put in her bag or hidden under that couch cushion. Her fiction is informed by her experience as part of the Vietnamese diaspora deep in the Lone Star State, her interest in how we love our mothers, and the climate catastrophe.

About the moderator:

Lise Ragbir is a writer, curator, and the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of VERGE. Her essays— which lie at the intersections of race, identity, and culture— have appeared in Hyperallergic, Frieze, Artnet, The Guardian, Time Magazine, USA Today, The Boston Globe among other publications. She is also the co-editor of Collecting Black Studies: The Art of Material Culture (2020,) University of Texas press. Her works of fiction have been featured in Catapult, Intellect in the UK, Pree Literature and more.
Photo credit Hakeem Adewumi.

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