by Dickson Lam
To the Contra Costa College community, especially the Puente Project, for inspiring me with your stories each day. Special shout-out to my Puente partner, Norma Liliana Valdez. You knock it out every time in the classroom and on the poetry stage. To Elvia Ornelas-Garcia for being willing to share joint custody of a program she loves so dearly.
For the gift of time and space to write, thank you to the Millay Colony for the Arts and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts.
To my teachers for their generosity and wisdom, from the MFA program at the University of Houston: Alex Parsons, Antonya Nelson, Chitra Divakaruni, Mat Johnson, Nick Flynn, Peter Turchi, and ZZ Packer; from the MFA program at Rutgers-Newark: Alice Elliott Dark, Jayne Anne Phillips, Rigoberto González, and Tayari Jones; from VONA: Chris Abani, David Mura, Junot Díaz, Andrew Pham; and my very first workshop instructors who gave my crappy writing so much love, care, and guidance: Elmaz Abinader and Faith Adiele.
Extreme gratitude to the readers who have shaped this book through their encouragement and insightful feedback, especially to Hirsh Sawhney, Armin Tolentino, Leslie Ann Murray, Tracy Lachica Buenavista, Nancy Pearson, Elizabeth Winston, Austin Tremblay, Celeste Prince, Julia Brown, Jameelah Lang, Talia Mailman, Aja Gabel, Michelle Mariano, Claire Anderson, Sara Rolater, Selena Anderson, Tyson Morgan, Thomas Calder, Justin Chrestman, and Jessica Wilbanks. Also, thanks to Ted Closson for adapting my work to comic form.
Special thanks to the editors who have published pieces from this book in earlier iterations: Jennifer Derilo, Roxane Gay, Steven Church, Karissa Chen, David Lynn, and Paul Lisicky.
Deepest thanks to Alison Hawthorne Deming for choosing my work. Forever in debt. Also, Christine Stroud and Alison Taverna at Autumn House Press for their untiring work to put this book in your hands.
And my wife, Jessica Morrow, who wouldn’t let me stop believing. You came right on time.
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The following essays originally appeared in the journals noted:
“Cross the Line,” Kartika Review, Fall 2011
A shorter version of “What’s in a Name?” was published as “An Echo,” PANK, Spring 2014
“The Key to the Combination,” The Normal School, Fall 2014
“Snowmen,” Hyphen Magazine, February 2015
“What’s in a Name?”, Kenyon Review Online, Fall 2015
The opening section of “An Unreliable Narrator” was published as “Sitting on the Toilet in the Alley Is the Hugger Who Waits for the Drunk Ear Picker to Bring the Red Bean Soup,” StoryQuarterly, February 2016
Questions for Discussion
Teaching resources including lesson plans, essay prompts, and creative writing prompts are also available at www.dicksonlam.net.
1. What is the significance of the memoir’s title, Paper Sons? In what ways is Lam a paper son?
2. How is Lam’s mother portrayed in the book? How would you describe the relationship between Lam and his mother?
3. Lam’s father is a primary focus of Paper Sons, while Lam’s sister seems to be a secondary character. What might be the author’s rationale for this? Did Lam inadvertently silence his sister by centering the book on his father, the abuser?
4. Writing is a prominent theme throughout the book, from graffiti writing, to Lam teaching writing, to the memoir itself. What power does writing have in Paper Sons?
5. Paper Sons is organized in short sections. Why might Lam have chosen this structure? How did this affect your reading experience?
6. Think of some common stereotypes of Asian Americans. In what ways does Paper Sons challenge these stereotypes?
7. Consider Cynthia Ngewu’s statement on the need for forgiveness: “We want to get rid of this burden we are carrying inside, so that we too can feel at peace” (p.213). How does this statement relate to the section “Bandaged Figures”? (p.173-177)
8. “Honesty was a prerequisite for forgiveness,” Lam says (p.212). Do you agree with this idea? Is forgiveness only possible with remorse? Under what conditions should we forgive? If the wrongdoing is denied, is it still possible for the victim to find “peace”?
9. In comparing the US immigration policy toward Chinese and Europeans immigrants before the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, Lam says, “Citizenship could be extended or withheld, but this choice had nothing to do with notions of legal or illegal; it had everything to do with affirming whiteness” (p.123). Could this same sentence be applied to the treatment of undocumented immigrants today? Why or why not?
10. Why do you think Lam ended the story the way he did? What does the ending reveal about his current feelings toward his father?
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About the Author
Dickson Lam’s work has appeared in StoryQuarterly, The Kenyon Review Online, Hyphen Magazine, The Normal School, PANK, The Good Men Project, The Rumpus, and Kartika Review. He holds MFA degrees in creative writing from the University of Houston and Rutgers-Newark. Currently, Lam is an Assistant Professor of English at Contra Costa College.