A review by dillarhonda
Thousand Star Hotel by Bao Phi

Thousand Star Hotel, the latest poetry collection by Bao Phi explores his Vietnamese heritage and his experience of racism in America. Phi’s poems grapple with the complicated legacy of the Vietnam War as it has impacted generations of Vietnamese Americans. I appreciate Phi’s use of contemporary references (hello Star Wars) but some of his poems devolve into tired clichés and unnuanced anger. Rather than sink his efforts into making us see racism with new eyes, Phi often re-presents the ugly bits we’ve become all too familiar with. I much prefer his descriptions of his daughter, of his fear of fatherhood, and his trepidation about the fate of future generations; it’s Phi at his most vulnerable, most naked. In his final poem “Refugerequiem” he encapsulates the horror of the Vietnam War in an image of his daughter chasing him around the dining room table; her eyes “seeing everything behind me.”