Cambodian American Books

Joan Criddle has woven a gripping account of the personal experience of one young woman, Teeda Butt Mam, and her family under the oppression of the Khymer Rouge. Although I knew a little about Cambodia's killing fields, this book reveals in considerable detail the brutality and horror of Pol Pot's regime. Yet, it's an inspiring tale of survival, courage, and family loyalty under the most extreme conditions of deprivation, fear and suffering. I couldn't help but wonder if I would have had the strength, ingenuity and willpower to survive such horror. The book also includes many interesting details about traditional Cambodian life and culture.
I highly recommend this book. It's an amazing story!

Joan Criddle has woven a gripping account of the personal experience of one young woman, Teeda Butt Mam, and her family under the oppression of the Khymer Rouge. Although I knew a little about Cambodia's killing fields, this book reveals in considerable detail the brutality and horror of Pol Pot's regime. Yet, it's an inspiring tale of survival, courage, and family loyalty under the most extreme conditions of deprivation, fear and suffering. I couldn't help but wonder if I would have had the strength, ingenuity and willpower to survive such horror. The book also includes many interesting details about traditional Cambodian life and culture.
I highly recommend this book. It's an amazing story!

Joan Criddle has woven a gripping account of the personal experience of one young woman, Teeda Butt Mam, and her family under the oppression of the Khymer Rouge. Although I knew a little about Cambodia's killing fields, this book reveals in considerable detail the brutality and horror of Pol Pot's regime. Yet, it's an inspiring tale of survival, courage, and family loyalty under the most extreme conditions of deprivation, fear and suffering. I couldn't help but wonder if I would have had the strength, ingenuity and willpower to survive such horror. The book also includes many interesting details about traditional Cambodian life and culture.
I highly recommend this book. It's an amazing story!

THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOK I EVER READ. I HAVE THE PLEASURE OF WORKING WITH VITOU AND I HAD THE FIRST HAND ACCOUNT OF HIS STORY. HE NEVER STOP TO AMAZE ME FOR THEIR WELL TO SURVIVE.THIS STORY SHOW THE TERMENDOUS COURAGE AND STRONG WELL TO SURVIVE AMONG MONSTERS WHO HAVE NO REGARDS TO FELLOW HUMANS, YOU HAVE TO WORK HARD AND RISK YOUR LIFE EVEN FOR THE BASIC NECESITY OF LIFE JUST TO SURVIVE. THIS IS AN EPIC OF FORGOTTEN HOLOCUST AND THE STORY OF A CAMBODIAN FAMILY GOING THROUGH HELL AN BACK. A SUCCESS STORY OF A FAMILY MOVING TO A COUNTRY WITH A DIFFERNT CULTURE AND LANGAUGE AND MAKING SOMETHING OF THEMSELVES. I AM PROUD TO BE A FRIEND OF VITOU AND I HAVE THE PLEASURE OF KNOWING HIM. EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS BOOK, IT WOULD MAKE YOU APPRECIATE MORE OF WHAT YOU HAVE IN LIFE.

When I was younger I heard bits and pieces about Cambodia and Pol Pot in the news, but didn't really know what it was about. Through "Destroy You" I finally know about the horrendous and evil history that was being made in that country during the 70's and 80's. This biography follows the story of one particular educated Cambodian family who was exiled from Phnom Penh, along with the entire city full of inhabitants. The Khmer Rouge was doing its job of "cleansing" the city of anything of western influence. Most of the educated populace, including doctors, teachers, lawyers, etc., were murdered, leaving a population of mostly uneducated slaves whose job was to work in the rice fields all day long. Music, laughter, and play were not allowed. The people were taught that everyone was of equal value and equally dispensable, and everyone should work hard to contribute to the good of all with the meekness, acceptance, and fortitude of the water buffalo.

Meanwhile, entire villages were massacred if complaint about the government was overheard. Life was incredibly miserable, especially knowing of friends and relatives that had been killed or had disappeared. When Viet Nam invaded Cambodia tens of thousands of Cambodians attempted escape to Thailand, but Thailand did not want them all, and forced many back at gunpoint, killing anyone, including children, who refused to climb down the treacherous, land mine-studded cliff back into Cambodia. Throughout this book I was grieving about the incredible evil that humans can perpetrate against other humans, and amazed at the endurance and determination of this family and others that managed to survive all this horror.

A story like this can yank us out of any tendency towards self-pity or complaining about the minor difficulties in our lives. I have also read the follow-up book, "Bamboos and Butterflies", about this family after they immigrated to the U.S. Their will to survive is carried on as they integrate into a new culture, and reminds us of why so many seek refuge in the U.S.

This book was really good. I got very connected to the characters and learned a lot about a culture that I did not previously know a lot about. I really thought Grace's struggles were realistic and could feel her pain throughout the story and the resoultion was very satisfying.

Many Ly's ROOTS AND WINGS tells of teen Grace and her mother who travel back to the Cambodian community in Florida to busy her grandmother. But Grace is also on a mission to uncover mysteries bout her family roots - and discovers more mystery and realities than she'd expected. An excellent story of Cambodian culture emerges.

After her grandmother dies, Grace finds herself and her mom on a trip to the Cambodian community of St. Petersburg, Florida, to give her grandmother a proper funeral. But Grace plans on using her first trip to a Cambodian community for more than just a funeral. She plans on solving some mysteries, like why she's never met her father, and why her mom and grandma left St. Petersburg to begin with.

Once in St. Petersburg, Grace is warmly welcomed by her mom's old friends but judged harshly by others due to a family history she had very little to do with. As her family mysteries are slowly solved, Grace finds herself falling farther away from her mother -- and all she can do is wonder how anything can ever be the same.

All I can say is that ROOTS AND WINGS is amazing. I knew nothing of the Cambodian culture before I read this but I could still relate immensely to Grace and the struggles she was facing. The different reactions she faced from the members of the community, along with the different parts of her history she discovered, all worked together to create an appealing and thoughtful novel about the hardships and love of the Cambodian culture that anyone, Cambodian or not, can enjoy.

Reviewed by: Harmony

My son herd sarah talk at his school and requested that i would buy this book for him. He read it and loved it. He has taught me a whole bunch about the history of Cambodia and the reasons that it all happend and what happened. I give this book 5 stars because even though i haven't read it my son has told me more about this book than any other that he has read deserving me to come back to this site and make sure other people buy this book and read it.

This is a great book. I personally know the author, and it took her over 13 years to write it. She interviewed many real cambodian refugees and did a lot of hard work. It is very informative.

If you read only one book on Cambodian refugees, this should be it. Ethnography at its best

In one of the most productive books I have read on the subject of Southeast Asian immigration, Aihwa Ong weaves her way though the quotidian issues and fuses those with a larger theoretical framework to come up with this brilliant work. Balancing is a key element in this book. In Buddha Is Hiding: Refugees * Citizenship * The New America - we see Cambodian refugees in the process of developing into "citizen-subjects" by reconciling the forces of being-made by and self-making through some of the more coercive institutions and techniques of regulation. Taking into account such issues as religious salvation and juxtaposing that against neoliberal agendas, Cambodian refugees comply to the self regulating mechanisms but also challenge them and learn to negotiate with the welfare system, employment requirement, the medical establishment, issues of masculinity and femininity, as well as popular culture. The irony is that within the spectrum of color where the Cambodians are seen to occupy the lowest rungs (unjustly, of course) Cambodians have found a niche. Within this framework, Cambodians are dealing with their own struggles to cope with "American" living (battling with the ever present challenges of popular culture) while striving to maintain "Cambodian" values of family and home culture. In the end, Ong raises profound questions about current and past Asian American narratives while adding a new and very different dimension to the issue of citizenship in an era of globalization.

Ong writes: "Theoretically speaking, the model of Asian America as a community of ethnic exclusion is unable to conceptualize new transnational Asian subjects, except to identify them as "foreign-born" and therefore not Asian American. And despite rhetorical gestures to the contrary, Asian Americanism as a conceptual category has gradually picked up biopolitical criteria; in the practical world of an economy driven by forces of globalization, it operates within the framework of racial bipolarism, sorting out populations in the churning demographic diversity by separating the wheat from the chaff, whitened from the blackened. By ignoring the majority of disadvantaged immigrants, the discourse in effect participates in the racial coding of Asian Americans as elite citizen-subjects rich in wealth and intellectual accomplishments. The Asian America model thus inadvertently excludes in the same way that the model-minority concept initially excluded them. In this sense, it becomes and encoding technique of governmentality - in the interest of economic flexibility."

Initially, my sense was that Ong was looking to set some sort of "inclusion" agenda. Arguing, I thought, that the previous discourse of Asian America just did not include or have space for the neoliberal framework and refugee narrative that the new immigrants: Cambodian, Hmong, Mien, and Vietnamese fall under. After reading the passage above, my sense is that the challenge is more fundamental - arguing that the previous discourse actually set up and is complicit with the techniques of regulation and is party to the same kinds of classificatory systemic violence leveled against the refugees. Moreover, I have heard criticism of Ong not coming down hard enough on violence against spouse and children. I am on record in disagreement with such criticism and argue that Ong straddles a very delicate ridge - certainly not advocating the violence but cognizant of its cultural, institutional, and psycho-social origins. The challenge I see her presenting is to expose the limitations of the "system" in all its complexities but coming from the same postmodern/Foucauldian roots finds herself unable to prescribe.

Needless to say, the issue is not a simple one. These are new times and new conditions. Refugees' situations and the process of transnational citizenship is "big stuff." Finally, deftly including the problematizing strategy and theoretical framework made popular by Michel Foucault - for anyone note familiar with the issue this is a great piece to get a better understanding of the biopolitics. Ong writes one for the ages.

Miguel Llora

I loved it I think that Kregg is a great write

If you've ever wondered why the war in Vietnam was lost, read this book. Dennis Kitchin was a young Philadelphia area draftee with a bachelor's degree from a small Ohio college. He takes the reader through the military induction process, through the demeaning boot camp training, to the Fort Polk, LA jungle training that preceeded the assignment to Vietnam, and on to the Cu Chi area of Vietnam where he served from late 1968 to 1969.

At every step along the way Kitchin questions the war and his own relationship to it until he comes to the realization that the Vietnam War was insanity. From the time he stepped into his assignment with the 25th Infantry Division foremost in the author's mind was leaving Vietnam. His focus, as was the focus of all who went to Vietnam, was his DEROS - short for date eligible to return from overseas service.

Kitchin writes about the patrols, the ambushes, his buddies (in particular a soldier named Tremaine), the comraderie, his officers, the beautiful country and the Vietnamese people in such a way as to give the reader a genuine feel for what was happening. At every point there is the horror of war and a young soldier's response to it. The book climaxes with Kitchin and Tremaine and others refusing to obey the orders of an officer that no one respected and who had ordered short-timers (those with less than 30 days remaining in Vietnam) out on a combat mission. The 30 thirty day rule, while not written down, stated simply that anyone with thirty days or less was not required to go into combat situations. For soldiers intent upon surviving to their DEROS the rule was of extreme importance. Failure to obey the orders of the Captain led to court martials and reductions in rank for those involved.

This book compares favorably to Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried". Given recent extensions to our solidiers tours of duty in Iraq it serves as a guide to what not to do to a soldier's morale. A wonderful book, a great read, and an object lesson to those who callously commit our troops to unwinnable wars.

This book is truly remarkable! A wonderful, touching read and incredible insight into the life of this young man. Waiting patiently for Mr. Fifield's next book.

I particularly recommend "A Blessing Over Ashes" for anyone interesed in 20th Century Southeast Asian history, as it puts a painfully personal face on the wars in Cambodia. But even for those who know little about this era, I would recommend it as a compelling story of one person's experiences as a member of two very different families. It is a story of personal identity, and it is a story of our common humanity. Are we defined by race? Blood? Experience? Where, in the end, does Soeuth belong? How can he reconcile his divergent experiences as a Cambodian and as an American? Much of this book is tough going. Soeuth and Adam's visits to the ghostly "re-education centers" are almost unbearably sad, and reminded me of some of the observations Philip Gourevitch makes of Rwanda in his work on another place, another genocide, another year, "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families." "A Blessing Over Ashes," is as honest a book as I have ever read.

There are dozens upon dozens of books on the killing fields of Cambodia out there...this one is different, because it tells the story of Adam and his Cambodian foster brother, Seouth. I was drawn to this perspective and enjoyed Adam's writing style very much. His descriptions and use of language are effective at getting emotions across without being sentimental and sloppy. At the end of the book, Adam and Seouth travel to Cambodia, and Adam made me feel as though I was there with them, riding a motobike down a dusty road, taking in the sights and sounds of an unfamiliar culture. Many books do not emphasize how poor the people of Cambodia are in a tangible way...Adam does this beautifully. If you are interested in how historical events affect individuals or have brothers or sisters, this book could change how you look at the world and reaffirm your relationships with others. (P.S...you might cry and laugh! I did).

Biographies written by journalists often offer rare treats. This one is no exception. Adam Fifield takes the extraordinary circumstances that brought a young Cambodian boy into his family and tells us how they became true brothers. This book will open your heart and your mind and stay with you for a long, wonderful time.

This book gives vivd description of Vietnam War also it has very exciting and intersecting scence which make you whant to keep reading more tmo find out what well happen next.

This is an outstanding book. Loung Ung is an excellent writer. I was educated by her first book: First they Killed my Father. This second book shows that she is truly a good author. I look forward to books she will write in the future. God truly is using you and your tragic experiences Loung. Thank you for sharing the struggles of your life. Loung, you are truly inspiring.

I just bought the first book on-line finally after reading the Lucky Child last year. I admired the courage and strength of the writer. It must took more than guts to write this book. Reading Loung's book as if I'm reading a book about myself. I'm too from Cambodian; I was too only 5 y.o. when war and genocide happened. My father was executed and murdered during this sadist era. I could truly relate myself to the author's life. Few years ago, I saw The Killing Field only briefly because I could not bring myself to watch it. But reading Lucky Child brought me back so much memories and nightmares. Before reading this book I always wondered what life was like for people back in Cambodia and how people lived day by day,this book answered some of my questions. Bravdo to Loung Ung and many thanks for being the voice of Cambodians. Those 2 Millions innocent people did not deserve to die and definitely NOT to die that way: brutiality and in unhuman ways. I am not a weepy person but reading this book, I cried the whole time. I cried for Loung and her family,for the 2 millions, and for all the survivors.
I absoultely and highly recommend this book to anyone. Lucky Child should be the reading book in every school.

I could not put this book down. Her second book was just as wonderful as her first. It was very well written. I was amazed at her writing skills. Great read!

I read Loung's first book and liked it, but something about it subtly bothered me. Reading this book, I realized that it was the anger that underlay the whole thing. She's certainly more than entitled to the anger, but it doesn't always make for the best writing or reading.

This book has been written by a more mature and settled Loung, and it shows. There's more reflection and a lot more humanity, bringing depth to the portraits of family members who were shown more one-dimensionally in the first book: an inevitable byproduct of the book being told straight from a child's point of view, and that of a child focused intensely on survival. I especially liked in this book how the "scary" brother Khouy was given added nuances of character; the moment when he said, hearing of his small sister's death, that "she was so small" brought a lump to my throat. The characters of the brothers and sisters are fleshed out here in a way that's really delightful and much more interesting to read than in the previous book.

What's best about this, I think, is how we're given a look at the love between the siblings and the incredibly resilience of the family members who stay in Cambodia. It's also a good portrait of how some people in Cambodia are moving on with their lives: in our minds, so much of Cambodia remains the war and the killing fields. We need to know that people are surviving and living their lives despite the shadows of this past: it makes the nation real to us instead of a symbol.

A gripping story that kept me up too late to read through it in one sitting. Some reviewers have said the sections on Chou were not as good as those on Loung, but I didn't find that at all -- I could actually have read a lot more from her point of view.

One quibble: the book needed slightly better proof-reading. There were a few spelling mistakes that spell-check missed, and an astounding miss on a picture caption, where one of the Angkor Wat temples was labelled "Wat BYRON" instead of "Wat Bayon." Otherwise, an excellent read.

Loung Ung's fascinating second book, Lucky Child, picks up the story that began with her first memoir, First They Killed My Father, and with both books I found it impossible to put them down once I'd begun reading. Lucky Child contrasts life for Loung as a refugee in America, with her sister Chou's life in rural Cambodia, and it's a revealing and moving comparison. Loung, with lasting feelings of guilt for those she'd left behind, found it difficult to fit in, whilst Chou, resigned to her fate, displayed the resilience and inner strength that is apparent in so many of her fellow countrymen and women.

I found two parts of this remarkable book particularly poignant, the heart-rending death of three-year-old Kung and the reunion between Chou and her brother Meng after a separation of eleven years. These passages were hard to read. Whilst the eventual meeting of Loung and Chou is an awkward affair, the tale of their brother Kim's escape from Cambodia to France is enthralling. The book tells a tale that underscores the importance of the bond between family members, the sheer strength of the human spirit and will to endure and most of all, it's a story of two sisters who have survived and flourished against all odds. Loung Ung has a special talent at storytelling. I recommend this book without hesitation.

After picking up this book to read for leisure I could not help but choose it over my lengthy required novels for class. "Home is East" is a compelling story that reveals common issues in a Cambodian-American home. Although this book focuses on a Cambodian family struggling to make it in the American dream, the story still carries universal themes such as love, compassion, forgiveness and belonging. I would recommend this book to all but especially the Cambodian community as it may reflect or can be related to the younger generations that are caught between two worlds.

The story begins with Amy Lim's character and follows her throughout a few years of her adolescent life. As you read through the book, there is a strong sense of guilt and resentment towards her parents as she does not know what is the "right" or "wrong" thing to do or act in public. She is too caught up in her mixed emotions about her family that often times gets bottled up as there is no outlet for her feelings.

This would be a great Summer read for teenage girls, although it is fiction it somewhat reflects the issues that arise Asian American families today.

In Home is East, Many Ly introduces us to Amy Lin, a young girl trying to find her place in both American and Cambodian communities, coping as her family falls apart. But this is not only a story of cultural identity and a dysfunctional family. Amy reminds us of our ability to love unconditionally and to forgive. And she reminds us of the tension between wanting to know truth and, at the same time, be protected from it. Many Ly masterfully explores these complex emotions within a story that is engaging from beginning to end.

I had planned to give this book to my niece after reading it, but I think I'll donate it to the local abuse shelter instead. I didn't enjoy reading it, because it was too upsetting. But it might be good for a child who has had an unhealthy family life to read about others in similarly difficult situations, so see that s/he is not alone, and that things can turn out okay.

The messages about abuse and friendship were poignant, but I'm not sure what the author is trying to say about gambling - it's very bad, but you can drink/gamble all night and come out rich. The poker scene on the beach felt a bit like a lesson in how to play, and didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the story.

It's sad that the Cambodian people depicted in this story do not consider themselves American, even after many years here. America is a land of people from all over, so it is possible to become completely American without forgetting/losing the heritage/culture of your homeland.

Home is East is a great new book. Amy and I,I have the feeling, could get along very well. We like a lot of the same things.
The story was really, really, painfully truthful. Everything, the gambling, the beating, and especially the leaving, was portraying a cruel fact of life.
The saddest scene, for me, was definitely when *spoiler* she saw her mother's new family.
Also, Sopiep's slow change from stand-up-for-herself tomboy sort of girl to a so-called 'girly girl' because of her growingly apparant crush on what's-his-face... sorry I forgot his name and couldn't be bothered to read the editorial, so if it says his name, you can all insult me, lalala

Many Ly's Home Is East tells the compelling story of Amy Lim, who has known all her life that her Cambodian mother intends to return home some day. Her mother is younger than Amy's American father and her Cambodian friends are sure she's married just to get to America. At age nine Amy is sure they're wrong - until her mother vanishes, and her father is devastated. How can she help when her remaining parent begins to fall apart? A poignant story of cultural differences and change.