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A review by sahanac
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
5.0
Christ but this was a book. I didn't know truly what to expect going into this, but I certainly did not expect to cry halfway through. I did though!
Thi Bui started this book as a history, but realized that it needed something to ground it. It felt too amorphous to stand alone. So she turned it into a memoir - a personal history where she saw the ways she was parented in comparison to the ways she was raising her own child. And she so beautifully wove the immigrant experience, taking her parents stories as established people in their own country, forced to leave, and her and her siblings stories, as children brought to assimilate to the American Dream, and the tension created in the family. She almost named the book "Refugee Reflex" and (while I like the current title far more), I think there's so much to examine in this book through that lens - what does it mean to flee from a country that is yours? What does it mean to grow up knowing your life would be different if you had not left - but to not remember what could have been your country? The art is stunning, the book is utterly heartbreaking and poignant, and in turn, so lovely. A history might be about the refugee reflex, but this is a family story instead. And it's about everyone doing the very best they could do.
Thi Bui started this book as a history, but realized that it needed something to ground it. It felt too amorphous to stand alone. So she turned it into a memoir - a personal history where she saw the ways she was parented in comparison to the ways she was raising her own child. And she so beautifully wove the immigrant experience, taking her parents stories as established people in their own country, forced to leave, and her and her siblings stories, as children brought to assimilate to the American Dream, and the tension created in the family. She almost named the book "Refugee Reflex" and (while I like the current title far more), I think there's so much to examine in this book through that lens - what does it mean to flee from a country that is yours? What does it mean to grow up knowing your life would be different if you had not left - but to not remember what could have been your country? The art is stunning, the book is utterly heartbreaking and poignant, and in turn, so lovely. A history might be about the refugee reflex, but this is a family story instead. And it's about everyone doing the very best they could do.