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lilyreads01's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, War, and Terminal illness
alexutzu's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and everyone that contributed to the existence of this book for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!
This was a shattering book that brought tears to my eyes multiple times. It was also a beautifully written account of a tragic story that many refugees have to go through. The journal-like structure, build upon entries represented by fragments of history, sayings and stories, letters to her son and images, creates a complete perspective on the life of the author blending with the horrors of the past. I liked how the book started with explaining the title through a definition, while towards the end it came back to it again through a story, like a cycle. I also felt that the poetic style brought even more depth to it.
I felt that going through a terrible illness and writing something like this for the close ones is an emotional, but wholesome and brave gift to leave behind, a chance to pour everything out. Hope that the author will rest in peace, she seemed to have amazing book ideas that I would have liked to check out if she got to write them.
I would like to wrap up the review with a quote from the book that I really appreciated because of its meaning. I feel that it is a beautiful manner to describe the way in which different people can connect and provide help and support in times of need, teaching us to always be considerate to each other:
This was a shattering book that brought tears to my eyes multiple times. It was also a beautifully written account of a tragic story that many refugees have to go through. The journal-like structure, build upon entries represented by fragments of history, sayings and stories, letters to her son and images, creates a complete perspective on the life of the author blending with the horrors of the past. I liked how the book started with explaining the title through a definition, while towards the end it came back to it again through a story, like a cycle. I also felt that the poetic style brought even more depth to it.
I felt that going through a terrible illness and writing something like this for the close ones is an emotional, but wholesome and brave gift to leave behind, a chance to pour everything out. Hope that the author will rest in peace, she seemed to have amazing book ideas that I would have liked to check out if she got to write them.
I would like to wrap up the review with a quote from the book that I really appreciated because of its meaning. I feel that it is a beautiful manner to describe the way in which different people can connect and provide help and support in times of need, teaching us to always be considerate to each other:
"With only our bodies and our hearts, we build a bridge."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide and War
Moderate: Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, and Racism
introvertsbookclub's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
When writing about war it is so easy to get it wrong, and end up with something that feels overly sentimental in a cheap way, or as though experiences of war are being mined for story and used to draw out a reflection on the present day that somehow makes the past all worth it. But Y-Dang Troeung's writing is that rare example of someone who can investigate and reflect on war, trace its impact to the present and highlight the strength and resilience (but also luck) that was needed to survive, while still condemning the trauma that continues to reverberate from it.
Her writing is fractured into small pieces, moving between various points in the past and the present, and allows for the failure of memory and record-keeping to always provide dates and times and numbers of people, instead relying on lived experiences and the conflicting memories that do remain to tell a story that feels more human and more realistic. The Cambodian Genocide is not a part of history I was familiar with, but she was able to convey nuances of politics, contradict accepted retellings of the Genocide with more honest ones and share intimate stories from the time that were far more impactful and informative than a textbook ever could be. Her meditations on refugees and the performance of gratitude that is expected of them in host countries that are less than welcoming, was another strand of her writing that moved beyond the expected and the presumed to pose questions about the greatest crisis of our generation and ask why we still aren't treating immigrants and refugees as real people.
This was both a larger story of the Genocide, and the story of one family's survival of it. Her family carried a burden of pain that was still harming their lives decades later, both emotional and physical. Her love for her son and her imagining of his future was filled with the hope of freedom from historical and familial trauma, but when we as societies are so bad at reckoning with history and taking responsibility for it, is liberation for those who are considered collateral damage ever possible?
'Landbridge' is such as incredible piece of writing, born from a lifetime of questioning and thoughtfulness. It is another book that I think everyone should read, or at the very least anyone working in our governments.
Her writing is fractured into small pieces, moving between various points in the past and the present, and allows for the failure of memory and record-keeping to always provide dates and times and numbers of people, instead relying on lived experiences and the conflicting memories that do remain to tell a story that feels more human and more realistic. The Cambodian Genocide is not a part of history I was familiar with, but she was able to convey nuances of politics, contradict accepted retellings of the Genocide with more honest ones and share intimate stories from the time that were far more impactful and informative than a textbook ever could be. Her meditations on refugees and the performance of gratitude that is expected of them in host countries that are less than welcoming, was another strand of her writing that moved beyond the expected and the presumed to pose questions about the greatest crisis of our generation and ask why we still aren't treating immigrants and refugees as real people.
This was both a larger story of the Genocide, and the story of one family's survival of it. Her family carried a burden of pain that was still harming their lives decades later, both emotional and physical. Her love for her son and her imagining of his future was filled with the hope of freedom from historical and familial trauma, but when we as societies are so bad at reckoning with history and taking responsibility for it, is liberation for those who are considered collateral damage ever possible?
'Landbridge' is such as incredible piece of writing, born from a lifetime of questioning and thoughtfulness. It is another book that I think everyone should read, or at the very least anyone working in our governments.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Racism, and War
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