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4.4 AVERAGE
4.4 AVERAGE
An educational memoir. I've never read a book from mid-century Vietnam told from the point of view of a Vietnamese person. Glad to have amended that.
Really well done.
Really well done.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-paced
I finished this book in one day- it's such an utterly fascinating story with amazing art that I could barely put it down. Just as the blurb on the book jacket states: this book will break your heart and heal it. More than once I teared up while reading it as the writing and art is so profound. This novel makes my heart ache for refugees-- then and now. What a scary thing, to leave a country you once loved, and to risk imprisonment or death (and more), just for a chance at a life and a future for you and your children. I've heard the saying "no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land," and this novel proves that.
I highly recommend this book!
Some of my favorite quotes:
"But being a child, even a grown-up one, seems to me to be a lifetime pass for selfishness. We hang resentment onto the things our parents did to us, or the things they DIDN'T do for us..." (pg. 317).
"...What if all my mother remembered was that I came up short? How do I let go of all the anger I have put away?" (pg. 322)
I highly recommend this book!
Some of my favorite quotes:
"But being a child, even a grown-up one, seems to me to be a lifetime pass for selfishness. We hang resentment onto the things our parents did to us, or the things they DIDN'T do for us..." (pg. 317).
"...What if all my mother remembered was that I came up short? How do I let go of all the anger I have put away?" (pg. 322)
I loved this book. One of the best graphic novels I have ever read!
The legacy of the oral history as the memory book of collective experience is reimagined in this graphic novel. Through the illustrated representations, we get both a heart breaking and uplifting glimpse into the immigrant experience. With nothing left out but still preserving the space between for the imagination to fill in the blanks.
Thi Bui’s account of her family’s journey leaves you yearning to collect an oral or written history of your own family’s path to how you got here. And as she asks, leaves you wondering how much of the history ends up imbedded inside you? The beautiful, the sad, the incomplete? Additionally, what parts can you rewrite for the next generation?
That reimagining is particularly important when dealing with hidden traumas that were left I dealt with. As Bui imagines, these untold struggles become the demons that haunt the family through multiple generations. The very act of collecting and sharing these fears in this format is a sort of cathartic release from the PTSD of their life in Vietnam all the way through present day. A truly moving memoir.
Thi Bui’s account of her family’s journey leaves you yearning to collect an oral or written history of your own family’s path to how you got here. And as she asks, leaves you wondering how much of the history ends up imbedded inside you? The beautiful, the sad, the incomplete? Additionally, what parts can you rewrite for the next generation?
That reimagining is particularly important when dealing with hidden traumas that were left I dealt with. As Bui imagines, these untold struggles become the demons that haunt the family through multiple generations. The very act of collecting and sharing these fears in this format is a sort of cathartic release from the PTSD of their life in Vietnam all the way through present day. A truly moving memoir.
A beautiful story about a Vietnamese family and their immigration experience to the land of the free. As all immigrants the author's parents were seeking a better future for their children. This is a must read for ALL to help understand what some people endure to come America. My immigration story is very different but lots of similarities growing up in the U.S.