The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
When I was in college, I took an oral history class. I was able to interview people that I thought I knew well, as those that I did not, and I found out quite a lot. One of those was my French teacher who told me how she escaped the Nazi’s during the war, when she was a young girl. She had been my teacher for all four years of French, but she had never mentioned that in class.
I am reminded about this, becasue Thi Bui became the work on this memoir when she was interviewing her parents for an oral history project. But, from there, she was able to get even more of the story, both through research, and continuing to hear the stories.
What strikes me about her story, is how similar it is to other memoirs I have read, about getting displaced, and how you learn to live with it. Not as horrific as Maus, but still with that sense of something missing, and always being ready to flee, because you never know when you have to again. I am currently, at the time of this reading, reading about book about a woman interred in World War II because she was Japanese. She took keeps everything she needs to flee on her at all times. I heave heard stories of those who have had to flee, and how it never leaves you. You are always prepared because you can’t trust the government to protect you.
Well, written, I hope others read it, and it becomes a standard in schools and libraires, because not only does it tell the story of one family, it tells the story of the Vietnam War, which is too recent for older people to know, because they lived through it.
And the last thing, that I thought was profound, was how much starvation there was. Thi’s grandfather defects to the the Viet Kong because they had food, and he was starving.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.