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A review by ovenbird_reads
In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner
4.0
Around the World: Cambodia
Fiction, but based strongly on the author's own experiences as a child during the rule of the Khmer Rouge. This novel brought the brutality to the surface, forcing a very intense and emotional reading experience. I frequently had a hard time continuing as the atrocities piled up. But Vaddey Ratner keeps her story from plunging irrevocably into despair by showing the reader moments with wings, poetry that soars, love that keeps victims from laying down in the mud and giving up. If you knew very little about the Khmer Rouge, as I did, this is an eye opening story that you are unlikely to forget any time soon.
I wasn't sure how to rate this. It was an extraordinary book, but so painful that I had a hard time actually enjoying the read. I kept on because I felt it was important to bear witness to events that seem to have been largely forgotten. Everyone grows up knowing about the Nazis and the Holocaust. Why don't we all know about this?
Fiction, but based strongly on the author's own experiences as a child during the rule of the Khmer Rouge. This novel brought the brutality to the surface, forcing a very intense and emotional reading experience. I frequently had a hard time continuing as the atrocities piled up. But Vaddey Ratner keeps her story from plunging irrevocably into despair by showing the reader moments with wings, poetry that soars, love that keeps victims from laying down in the mud and giving up. If you knew very little about the Khmer Rouge, as I did, this is an eye opening story that you are unlikely to forget any time soon.
I wasn't sure how to rate this. It was an extraordinary book, but so painful that I had a hard time actually enjoying the read. I kept on because I felt it was important to bear witness to events that seem to have been largely forgotten. Everyone grows up knowing about the Nazis and the Holocaust. Why don't we all know about this?