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Feb 06, 2009

Rock rated it:

I've been flagellating trying to write a review of this story, I think because I want so badly to relate it to the multitude of political cultural historical events that it skirts, always affected by them but rarely addressing them. That is a credit to Ms. Yang, who establishes herself here as a powerfully lyrical writer, with both feet firm in what I (as an ignoramus) imagine to be the Hmong oral tradition. Though these pages together are a memoir, the Latehomecomer is not Ms. Yang but rather More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Feb 13, 2009

Claudia rated it:

Kao Kalia Yang's written words read just like her spoken words sound - eloquent, sparse, and powerful in their own quiet, poetic way. Kalia's book is the first novel published by a Hmong American woman, and as a creative non-fiction memoir of her family's migration from the hills of Laos to refugee camps in Thailand to the cities of Minnesota, it makes a beautiful addition to the long history of Hmong storytelling as well as a promising start to what is likely to be an incredible career for Kali More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 31, 2008

Jane rated it:

Minnesota author, Kao Kalia Yang, wrotes a beautiful, deeply moving memoir of her family's journey from Laos to America. She captures the essence of their struggles leaving Laos, in the refugee camp (where she is born) and assimilating to an American-Hmong lifestyle. She laces their story with the thread of the elders unending hope that their offspring would have better opportunities making their sacrifices worthwhile. There are many inspirational and tear jerking passages that touched me deeply More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 24, 2011

Rachel rated it:

I really enjoyed this book. Growing up around several Hmong people, I was shocked that I did not know the Hmong story. I read this book and it whetted my appetite to learn more about the Hmong people. Next, I read "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down." This book explains the Hmong plight very well, and helped me understand The Late Homecomer more. My favorite part in this book was when the family came to the United States and she writes how they took a bath with a strange smelling More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 14, 2011

Terry rated it:

This memoir of a young woman's experiences in Thailand after her family's escape from war-torn Laos and their subsequent immigration to America is very touching. Kao Kalia Yang has an amazing memory and deftly writes about her family's experiences on 2 continents. The struggles of her family are difficult but the family members are able to remain full of hope. One comes away from this book with a deep admiration for the Hmong people who made it to this country. They were willing to give up ev More...

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Sep 19, 2010

Mike rated it:

Calls or visits home often turn into strange, strangled conversations between me--booknerd, liberal, English prof, atheist, movie nut--and various family members--some Palindrones, a bedlam of evangelicals, quite a few People junkies, a couple of other teachers (primary special ed; secondary math and social studies), and one or two other stray booknerds. Before travel, I bone up on the Gosselins, tamp down my smartassholishness. Etc. I've only once--just once, in 43 years--said anything about More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 28, 2010

Carmella rated it:

Our book group recently read this book....then we learned that the author would have come to our meeting. We all gave it very high marks. I copied this short synopsis from coffeehouse.com

In search of a place to call home, thousands of Hmong families made the journey from the war-torn jungles of Laos to the overcrowded refugee camps of Thailand and onward to America, but their history remains largely unknown. Driven to share her family’s story after her grandmother’s death, Kao Kali More...

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Apr 08, 2010

Niagmiv rated it:

It is a book like this that gives hope to the hundreds of thousands of us that are 'refugees' within the United States and strive for that American Dream. However, the reason why I enjoyed this book is because Kao Kalia Yang thoroughly explored the heart and soul of her loved ones and shared it with all of us through her poetic language. For one, the Hmong people are not so open with their feelings and thoughts. Secondly, there were multiple generations who were all in different stages of life More...

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Mar 22, 2010

Zoe rated it:

In this artful and heart-wrenching memoir, Yang tells the story of her Hmong family, who escaped Laos to find themselves in a series of refugee camps in Thailand before eventually moving to the United States. Yang depicts clearly and tenderly life in Hmong villages before, during, and after the Vietnam war; life in the refugee camps where she spent her first seven years; and life as an immigrant. The description of her family crossing the Mae Kong river was particularly harrowing for me. I read More...

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Nov 28, 2009

Sharon rated it:

The author was born in a refugee camp in Thailand after her family left Laos. With almost poetic language, she tells the story of her family particularly her paternal grandmother and her parents. After the Vietnam War the Hmong, who had been US allies in the "Secret War" in Cambodia and Laos, were massacred and survivors were driven from their homeland across the Mekong River into refugee camps in Thailand. Interweaving the legends and spiritual beliefs of the Hmong into her tale of More...

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Nov 19, 2009

Rach rated it:

Halfway through this book I decided that it should be required reading for any non-Hmong person who lives in the Twin Cities/western Wisconsin or in California's central valley--any place where the large numbers of Hmong families have resettled. I later found out it is required reading this year for the incoming class at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire. I learned a lot about the incredible struggles faced by the Hmong during and after the Secret War in Laos. The writer's voice is clea More...

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Jul 10, 2009

Catherine rated it:

This is a beautiful memoir, deftly written, and the arc of three generations of women's lives gives a wonderful resiliency to the text. There are repeated images - walking; typing; struggling to speak - but within the disparate worlds of Laos, Thailand, and the United States each theme takes on a different resonance. The author's focus on words - spoken, then written, and the relationship between the two in more than one language - is haunting, and I got chills when she wrote an essay in high More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 21, 2010

Eli rated it:

Yang has a beautiful, lyrical writing style that sucked me in from page one. Unfortunately, I never felt like truly I connected to her as a "character" or with the story she was telling.

Some of it was inter-cultural friction: as an environmental activist and a by-choice childless person, I slammed again and again against Yang's assertion that "the only way to live life is to give life" (i.e. if you don't have at least 6 kids, you're doing something hideously wron More...

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Aug 24, 2010

Ryan rated it:

I had been meaning to read "The Latehomecomer" by Kao Kalia Yang for some time now, as I had heard great things about it. Recently my Grandma was given a copy and allowed me to borrow it, which I'm glad she did.

I've always heard bits and pieces of stories of what the Hmong people had to endure while in the jungles of Laos, but I've never read it from beginning to end. In the Latehomecomer, I felt like I was put in the middle of it all and was able to see for myself just som More...

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Jan 11, 2010

Gretchen rated it:

This, again, was maybe a little closer to 3.5. The writing was a little scattered, but the story was very strong. I read it for a book club, and hadn't heard of it before. What made it even more interesting to me is that the story took place in my immediate neighborhood of St. Paul (after the family made it to the United States, that is). Yang mentioned a house her family lived in within a few blocks of my house, and described a supernatural experience there ... it creeped me out, and I had to l More...

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May 17, 2008

Betsy rated it:

I found this book fascinating for the first 2/3 and then when the family arrived in America, I felt that the pace slowed somewhat. It's a great study of one extended Hmong family and how they cope with adversity in Laos, Thailand and the U.S. and also overcome it. I liked some of the images that Yang expressed such as the babies waiting in the clouds to be born.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 06, 2011

Sarah rated it:

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.

I actually didn't learn much about the Vietnam War in high school, and I had no idea the Hmong people were abused by the US government in such a manner, and in such recent history. The author is extremely talented and I would be intrigued to read anything else by her, because I feel the most valuable thing about this particular novel and what gave her such a voice, was that it was a personal memoir about her family and their struggles, a lot havi More...

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Jun 24, 2009

Laura rated it:

This book, Kao Kalia Yang’s telling of her own families story form the jungles of Cambodia to her success as an author, reminds me of how lucky I really am to have been born in the United State. It is also a cautionary tale of the human cost of America’s foreign policy. The Hmong were our allies in the Viet Nam War, but many were abandoned when the US pulled out of Southeast Asia. They were hunted by the Khmer régime and nearly exterminated. In 1979, while I greeted the guests at my wedding More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jul 07, 2010

Sophie rated it:

This was an excellent, excellent memoir. I loved the poignancy of Yang's writing, especially near the end of the novel. I wasn't thrilled with the writing at the beginning, but it quickly developed and became better as the book continued. Although I was aware of the large numbers of Hmong immigrants in the United States, I was unaware of the vast majority of the circumstances surrounding their arrival and their situation back in Asia. It was heart-breaking.

I liked the inclusion of t More...

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Sep 12, 2010

Amy rated it:

This book hit home for me, literally. Yang and her family move to Minnesota and settle into a housing project very near where I lived when I was in elementary school. Due to the high Hmong population in St. Paul, I went to school with a handful of Hmong kids and reading this memoir makes me realize that although I was in classes with these kids, even had desks adjacent to some of them, I definitely did not appreciate who they were and what some of them were going through at the time. I have n More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 23, 2011

Linda rated it:

I had the privilege of receiving an early reviewer audio of this book. I cannot recommend it highly enough. The story is written and read by Kao Kalia Yang. I was so pleased to be chosen to review this book as I was a teacher in Monterey during the early eighties and had the amazing and humbling experience of working with children newly off the boat from Laos, Viet Nam and Cambodia as they were brought through the Travis intake center to Monterey during the aftermath of Viet Nam War. As the chi More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 27, 2011

Elizabeth is currently reading it

September 1, 2011 The meeting was at the home of Elizabeth & Mark. We discussed the nonfiction book:
The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang. We discussed the extraordinary transition that the Hmong people had in coming to our country and, more importantly, coming to the Green Bay area--wow! How difficult and challenging that must have been! This book gave us some meaningful insights into the Hmong culture. Our culture is so opposed to theirs in some ways. There was a comm More...

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Feb 18, 2009

Shana rated it:

Kao Kalia Yang tells her family's story from the jungles of Laos to the projects of St. Paul and beyond with grace, humor, compassion and wonder. She retells her grandmother's stories with a respect that leads one to truly appreciate the ease of our lives.

Yang struggled as a child with English, school, and double expectations. She has overcome obstacles most of us couldn't and has become a gifted storyteller, just like her grandmother.

As I drive around St. Paul after fi More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 11, 2009

Barbara rated it:

The prologue nearly put me off right away--the author referred to herself in third person, which felt contrived and amateurish and phony. I pushed on, however, and am glad I did. Some of this book was really lovely--that is, the very powerful material was often heart-breaking, but some of the writing was lovely, and her portrayal of tenacity, family ties, and honest, unflinchingly realistic love was often beautifully done. I did see her youth in her writing at times; maybe it would have been More...

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Jun 26, 2009

Thomas rated it:

There is a plainspoken lyricism at this book's core that I found completely compelling. I'm not a memoir reader normally, but Kao Kalia Yang's heartfelt stories of her grandmother called to mind memories of my own ancestors. I really liked this book. It's also accessible, a great choice for book clubs, and I plan on using next year in my composition classes. I'll close by quoting the opening passage, which captures much of what the book is about:

"Before babies are born they li More...

3 comments like

Oct 12, 2009

Yvonne rated it:

This is the first book I have read by a Hmong author and I found it very insightful. This autobiography traces the author's early experiences in Laos, Thailand and her family's immigration to America. Family ties are supreme in Hmong clans, which sometimes makes them unpopular with their fellow Americans, but, after reflecting on their harrowing past, I can see why they would value a strong family base. While I don't wish for the terrors of their past, I do think we would all fare better if we l More...

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Apr 09, 2009

Gail rated it:

A young Hmong author writes of her family's experience in the jungles of Laos, refugee camp in Thailand and subsequent journey to the United States. Of course, all this came about because the U.S. abandoned the Hmong people of the mountainous regions of Laos and Cambodia who had collaborated with us during the Vietnam War, to be hunted down and killed by the Khmer Rouge if they did not escape. An important book to read on many levels, one being this piece of overlooked U.S. history and another More...

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Jun 24, 2011

Sue rated it:

This book is absolutely wonderful. It is a beautifully written tribute to the author's Hmong family. Born in a refugee camp in Thailand, Kao Kalia Yang tells her family's story of their journey to Minnesota in their pursuit of a better life. It is filled with Hmong tradition and stories. The dedication at the beginning of the book says: "For my grandmother, Youa Lee, who never learned how to write. To my baby brother, Mawxwell Hwm Yang, who will read the things she never wrote." More...

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Jan 29, 2011

Glorious.Clio rated it:

It's marvelous.

I was lucky enough to hear Kao Kalia Yang speak at a Convocation at my University, and though her voice trembled with fright, her words were so powerful that I was shaking with unshed tears in my seat.

The same can be said of her book.

It is the story of her family, fleeing Laos, then Thailand, and seeking refuge in Minnesota. Her life seems so different than mine, and then she'll say something that makes me connect. Simple things, like ex More...

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Dec 31, 2008

Deb rated it:

The author's memoir of her escape as a young girl from Laos to a refugee camp in Thailand and her immigration to the US is encircled in the story of her grandmother. The book began with the story of her grandmother and parents who were caught in the war, and ended with the funeral of her grandmother. The author's story was nestled between the stories of her family, as she transitions from a life in a refugee camp to a chaotic immigration and adjustment in St. Paul, MN. The author explored her More...

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