AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'I looked at the streets of Yagoona through eyes stinging with melted Maybelline liquid liner. Yagoona looked back at me, the wannabe hipster who dreamed of moving to a share house in the inner west, and cackled.
'Funny Ethnics catapults readers into the sprawling city-within-a-city that is Western Sydney and the world of Sylvia Nguyen: only child of Vietnamese refugee parents, unexceptional student, exceptional self-doubter. It’s a place where migrants from across the world converge, and identity is a slippery, ever-shifting beast.
'Jumping through snapshots of Sylvia’s life – from childhood to something resembling adulthood – this novel is about square pegs and round holes, those who belong and those on the fringes. It’s a funhouse mirror held up to modern Australia revealing suburban fortune tellers, train-carriage preachers, crumbling friendships and bad stand-up comedy.
'In Funny Ethnics, Shirley Le uses a coming-of-age tale to reveal a side of Australia so ordinary that it’s entirely bizarre.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Large print.
- Dyslexic edition.
- Braille.
Works about this Work
-
[Review] Funny Ethnics
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Kalliope X , Summer no. 5 2023;
— Review of Funny Ethnics 2023 single work novel'We start at the beginning with the title. “Funny Ethnics” is a self reflexive nod to the non-Asian audience about to read the book with a promise to be amusing with cross cultural humour. Le lives up to this promise and more, with her insightful voice through Sylvia her protagonist. Non Asians may laugh at some of the foibles Le illustrates but Asians would too but also have ‘a ha’ moments of recognition.' (Introduction)
-
Books Roundup Smashing Serendipity, Funny Ethnics, Birnam Wood
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , March 2023;
— Review of Smashing Serendipity : The Story of One Moorditj Yorga 2023 single work autobiography ; Funny Ethnics 2023 single work novel -
Funny Ethnics by Shirley Le Review : A Second-generation Migrant Wrestles with Longing and Belonging
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 3 March 2023;
— Review of Funny Ethnics 2023 single work novel
-
Funny Ethnics by Shirley Le Review : A Second-generation Migrant Wrestles with Longing and Belonging
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 3 March 2023;
— Review of Funny Ethnics 2023 single work novel -
Books Roundup Smashing Serendipity, Funny Ethnics, Birnam Wood
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , March 2023;
— Review of Smashing Serendipity : The Story of One Moorditj Yorga 2023 single work autobiography ; Funny Ethnics 2023 single work novel -
[Review] Funny Ethnics
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Kalliope X , Summer no. 5 2023;
— Review of Funny Ethnics 2023 single work novel'We start at the beginning with the title. “Funny Ethnics” is a self reflexive nod to the non-Asian audience about to read the book with a promise to be amusing with cross cultural humour. Le lives up to this promise and more, with her insightful voice through Sylvia her protagonist. Non Asians may laugh at some of the foibles Le illustrates but Asians would too but also have ‘a ha’ moments of recognition.' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2024 shortlisted APA Book Design Awards — Best Designed Commercial Fiction Cover designed by George Saad.
- 2023 shortlisted Readings Prizes — Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction
- 2023 shortlisted The Age Book of the Year Award — Book of the Year
- Sydney Inner West, Sydney, New South Wales,
