Review a Book that Describes Some Aspect of the Vietnam War

For this extra credit assignment, you will need to read and review a book that describes some aspect of the Vietnam War.

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Jane Park Reviews the Book Nam Moi
My name is Jane Park and during the summer of 2016, I read Nam Moi: A Young Girl's Story of Her Escape from Vietnam by Charlene Lin Ung.

Who were the boat people? What happened to them? In Charlene Lin Ung’s compelling novel Nam Moi: A Young Girl’s Story of Her Family’s Escape from Vietnam, these questions are answered. After providing a brief history of her family, Ung begins to tell the story of her escape, starting with her experiences as an eight-year-old girl, when the first signs of impending turmoil become evident in South Vietnam.

As Viet Cong troops approach Saigon, the Ung family’s home, Nam Moi’s father resolves to leave the country with his family rather than yield to the enemy. While risking arrest, he secretly organizes the evacuation of Nam Moi’s older siblings first, and afterward, the rest of the family. They prevail over the squalid conditions of the Tung An, a cargo ship that transported refugees to the Philippines, and after months of waiting in various refugee camps, the family is finally able to leave for the United States. In America, the family is faced with more difficulties. Not only are they lacking money, they are also committed to adopting a new culture. Nam Moi is heavily burdened with her education, uncertain future, and most of all, the passing of her father due to cancer, but through her experiences, she develops a genuine appreciation and affection for her family, especially her parents.

Charlene Lin Ung is currently an engineering manager for an aerospace company. She lives in Los Angeles with her two children.

I highly recommend this book to students and adults who wish to learn more about the plight of Vietnamese refugees. Ung’s diction is not difficult to grasp; in fact, the simplicity of her words makes her story all the more human.

In sharp contrast to dull schoolbooks, Ung’s poignant and vivid account of her difficult journey elicits sensations and emotions only the young Nam Moi, along with thousands of others, has encountered in the unforgettable exodus of the Vietnamese.

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Phillip Cate Also Reviews the Book Nam Moi

I also read Charlene Lin Ung’s 2015 novel Nam Moi, which tells the inspirational story of her family’s escape from Vietnam during the war. Although beginning with a muddled family history, Ung’s story soon transforms into an emotional account of her family’s survival. Ung tugs on heartstrings as she combines factual history with sharp sensory detail, such as when she “looked through the openings of [her] house and saw artillery rounds flying by like fireworks” during the Tet Offensive. Later, she describes her brother’s passing in the Vietnam War, claiming, “the war had truly touched our family now.” Ung’s literary power often transfers into the most minute stories included in her work. One compelling example tells of her family’s ingenious attempt of making slippers made of gold to transport money into Indonesia to allow her siblings to prosper. Ung’s primary tale, however, covers the horrid conditions of the ship Tung An. Ung recounts: ¨one public toilet was available for the 2,318 refugees.¨ She includes several other conditions of the voyage too graphic to share in this review. 

Ung’s writing, as stated earlier, often deviates from the rich and powerful focus of the story. The novel oddly switches between historical analysis of the war and her family’s story, often distracting the reader from the main point. Nonetheless, Ung successfully paints a vivid portrait of her journey to readers. 

As for a recommendation, I would strongly suggest this work to a researcher or history student studying the Vietnam War. However, an individual uninformed about the war may find the story confusing and unsatisfying. As a student of United States history, I thought the book served as an intriguing resource for information on the war as well as a first-hand account of living during the Vietnam War.

Despite its frequent lapses in organization, Nam Moi serves its purpose to express the pain and anguish of Vietnamese refugees. A former San Marino High School graduate and current employee of JPL, Ung proves to readers that her family’s struggles remain as poignant as ever.

Christine Chang Also Reviews the Book Nam Moi

I also read the book Nam Moi and I definitely enjoyed reading and learning about Charlene’s life. On a scale to one to ten (ten being the best), I would rate this book a nine. This book in many ways has captured my attention and has widened my perspective to something that I never could imagine happen. Charlene Lin Ung, better known as Nam Moi in the book, recalls all the bad and the good that her family and herself had to go through to escape from Vietnam. 

The reason I rated the book a nine and not a full ten is because although it was an intriguing story, the intro, to be more specific the first chapter or so, did not hook me right away. Skimming through those first few pages I learned about her family and her family traditions. Her family, the Ungs, had the heritage of the Hakka people. Originally her family came from China but moved to Vietnam. The part that really started to get me to read and read was when she finally started telling the stories about her life on the boat, Tung An and when her family had to separate in order to safely escape Vietnam. That's the part I absolutely loved and found so interesting. 

Charlene gives an insider look to all her stories and it isn't just recalling events that occurred, but as you read, every word, it sends you to that moment and it feels like you're there with her on that boat, in that refugee camp, in that cramped space with the rest of her family trying to survive and stick together. She captures you with her real stories, her real feelings, her real insecurities. 

It's really inspiring how much her father and mother influenced her to be the woman she is today. She was set in making her parents proud even when she wasn't rewarded or recognized for her generosity and following orders. She never forgot how much her parents sacrificed their social standing and life in Vietnam to give her and her siblings a new beginning. That is truly inspiring. 

Overall, this book is such a great read for those who want a personal, but also a factual story of a little girl escaping everything she knew, to go somewhere new and start a new life, a better life. Nam Moi is a book that I will never forget and I now know how hard it really was to escape a place and the anxiety one would feel when thrown into those situations. Charlene wrote a beautiful and detailed book of the life lessons and the opportunities she was given in this new world.

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Caitlyn McCall Reviews The Book Sorrow of War
My name is Caitlyn McCall and during the summer of 2016, I read a book entitled The Sorrow of War.

This 233-page novel was written by Bao Ninh, a former North Vietnamese soldier, who wrote this book for his graduation project at Nguyen Du Writing School. In 1990, the book was published and four years later it was translated to English. Ninh has become critically known for this piece and it has received the Independent Foreign Fiction Award in 1994. Alongside the award, The Sorrow of War became an international best seller. The New Statesman and Society predicts that The Sorrow of War will become the All Quiet on the Western Front of our era.

The book describes . . .

how Ninh’s experience as a member of the Glorious 27th Youth Brigade in the Vietnam War influenced his fictitious book to express the true horrors of war.

takes the reader through the eyes of Kien, a soldier of the North Vietnamese Army, to experience his life before, during, and after the war.

In the book, Kien discusses his life as a teenager from Hanoi, his memories during battles, and dealing with the pain after the war. When Kien was a teenager, he falls in love with Phuong. Their innocence and character change as the war continues. On the day when Kien heads off to war, Phuong gets raped by an older soldier. She never recovers and later turns toward prostitution. This event did not just affect Phuong, but it made Kien realize that there is no room for ethics during war. Kien wrote, “Losses can be made good, damage can be repaired, and wounds will heal in time. But the psychological scars of the war will remain forever” (p.193). After she is raped, he becomes more violent and never truly happy again. There are also stories where his comrades sacrifice their lives for him. One time, he is put into a hostage situation. Later, his friend distracts the soldier, giving Kien enough time to escape. He just runs. Kien did not even try to help his friends. The last thing he remembers is their terrible screams as they died. After the war, Kien is so mentally wounded. “What remained was sorrow, the immense sorrow, the sorrow of having survived. The sorrow of war” (192). Kien often has a flashback, seeing his friends die, hearing their last words, and how he did nothing to help them.

The book, though given high reviews, is unorganized. It jumps from the past to present without transitions. At times, it even changing point of views. As a reader, you have to use context clues to find out what perspective and time is being foretold at the moment. When I first started reading this book, I was confused and it was hard for me to follow the story. But the further I read, the story started to piece together and make sense. In the end of the book, you find that all of the stories were originally written by Kien. He wrote about his experiences of the war. One day, all of his work ended up in the hands of Bao Ninh who tried to put the events in chronological order, to which he found that there was none. So he left the story in a bit of a mess that adds to the chaos of war.

Although the book may be confusing at times, I recommend this book to students in my summer school US History class. It is worded nicely and very informative. Fair warning though, this book does contain occasional vulgar memories and unnecessary profanity. But that is war for you. Soldiers had to find ways to cope with the war. Those who did serve time in the war were forever changed. They had to live with sorrow, the haunting memories of war.

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Angela Qian Also Reviews the Book The Sorrow of War

I also read the book The Sorrows of War. The book occasionally confused me because the perspective changes out of the blue. There are a lot of new vocabularies that I did not know before, so the book is hard to read to me.

I recommend this book because I think it reflects the cruelty of war and the effect of war on human nature. In the book, love is used to illustrate loss. Kien loses innocence, family, education and positive manner of life. The war has totally changed him, and the rest of the other soldiers. The war hurts them forever, they lose the ability to love and appreciate the beautiful things. There is no one who can understand Kien after the war. Kien talks to the mute girl showing that he wants someone who can listen to him. He does not need to be comprehended. He just wants a quiet audience to listen his story. I learned that war ruins people’s peaceful lives, thinkings, and families. During the war, people could not control their own fates. The soldiers did not even know when they would die. In the novel, the soldiers played the cards and talked to others in the jungle, but they were killed after a few hours. This shows how unpredictable war can be.

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Alice Li Reviews the Book The Things They Carried

My name is Alice Li, and during the summer of 2016, I read a book entitled The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien.

People are usually not intrigued in reading a historical book, especially when it is based on a war. I feel the same way. However, I recently had a wonderful time reading a novel like this in the past weeks. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien was first published in 1990 and has won several awards including the title of New York Times Book of Century and the Winner of the Prix du Meilleur livre Étranger and Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize. Additionally, It was the finalist of Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award. In the book, the author indicates several stories he experienced during the Vietnam War by describing the things soldiers carried in their bags and hearts; it reveals how the soldiers’ thoughts cast a shadow on the influence of war.

Although the twenty-two stories in the book are not closely linked to each other, the reader can still see the big picture in which the characters remain the same. He spends lots of time stating what the troops carried both physically and mentally. They carried not only the weapons and rations they needed to survive but also dignity and responsibility. Every soldier carried photographs; it brings the reader the idea that the war separates love. The sympathy that the book gives us is one of the reasons why it enables people to keep turning the pages. Reading the book brings me a feeling of solemness. I would find a place where no one is talking in order to get into the book and slog with the characters. Jokes, emotions, or shameful memories that the characters carried on their shoulders would always get to an end. I understood that everything comes full circle, and the war would get to the end no matter what savage things happened.

Throughout the stories, Tim O’Brien shifts back and forth from third voice to first person point-of-view. In the story “In the Field”, the author has used an omniscient third person perspective. The ending story was quite impressing. It is called “The Lives of the Dead.” The use of paradox in the title makes an appeal to the audience. In this story, Tim O’Brien narrates a story of when he was a fourth-grader and fell in love with a girl after watching a World War II film with his parents. The nine-year-old girl named Linda, who wore red cap everywhere, had her hat pulled off by a classmate one day, revealing Linda’s balding head. O’Brien’s innocence is lost after seeing Linda’s head, and later again to the girl’s death. The author experienced love and death in one moment and also makes note of his comrades’ death from the previous stories during the Vietnam War. Tim O’Brien uses a childhood story to end the book. His experience of person’s death in youth brought him the courage to face difficulties. While these life lessons are ingrained in O’Brien’s mind, Linda and his other comrades will also accompany him forever.

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