Kien Nguyen was born to a Vietnamese mother from a once wealthy family and her American civil engineer lover. His mother's family, who had lost their wealth when the French left Vietnam, lived among neighbors who treated them as pariahs because of their colonialist background. Saigon fell to the Viet Cong on April 30, 1975. Kien Nguyen was there. He watched the last U.S. Army helicopter leave without him, without his brother, without his mother, without his grandparents. Told with stark and poetic brilliance, this is a story of survival, a story of hope-a moving and personal recorded of a tumultuous and important piece of history. The Unwanted by Kien Nguyen. This book left me heartbroken and stunned. There have been only a few books that have impacted me the way this book has. The poverty, abuse and tenacity of his spirit, leaves me ashamed of my own comfortable life. I wish there was a way to reach onto the pages of the book and comfort this child and to feed him.
The son of a wealthy Vietnamese woman and an American businessman, Nguyen was nearly eight when Saigon fell to the Vietcong. For the next decade he and his family endured hardships brought on by the privileged lives they had enjoyed under the capitalist regime. Although his writing lacks the lyricism of recent memoirs like The Liar's Club or Angela's Ashes, Nguyen's voice is clear and strong, and he is adept at capturing both the broad sweep of life under the Vietcong and the peculiarities of growing up in a colorful and emotionally dysfunctional family during a jarring and vicious revolution. Perhaps the most engaging aspect of his memoir is its portrayal of the ironies that ensue when the old order collapses and the social hierarchy is turned upside down. At one point, Nguyen's mother, imperious and a virulent snob, is called before the newly installed communist leadership only to encounter her former gardener, a man she barely acknowledged before the revolution but who now has the power to strip her of all she owns. For the most part, though, this memoir reminds us of life's many undeserved injustices. Nguyen and his half-brother, Jimmy, who is also Amerasian, pay a particularly high price for the accident of their genealogy, enduring the scorn of their countrymen, especially the communists. At 18, the author and his family emigrated to the United States, where he now works as a dentist. With the purely personal goal of 'healing' himself, Nguyen concludes by hoping that his narrative will also help other Amerasians born during the Vietnam War mourn their 'lost childhoods.' (Mar. 20) Forecast: This is part of a growing literature of memoirs about the horrors in Vietnam after the fall of Saigon. If well reviewed, this should sell well to readers with an interest in that conflict and its aftermath. In addition, film rights have been sold to the producer of Driving Miss Daisy, which could enhance sales down the road.
Reviewed on: 03/01/2001
Release date: 03/01/2001
Genre: Nonfiction
About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators.
Open Ebook - 343 pages - 978-0-316-05005-0
FORMATS
The Unwanted Book Summary
The Unwanted By Kien Nguyen
TIP SHEET