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Where the Sea Takes Us
In this memoir, Kim Huynh traces his parents' lives from a poor village in central Vietnam through affluence in Saigon, to their harrowing experiences after the American withdrawal and the fall of Saigon in 1975.
- GenresAustraliaNonfiction
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 6, 2017
I added this book on my tbr in 2008, the year I registered on Goodreads! It's one of my project this year to clear my tbr of whatever books I added in 2008 (thankfully, only a handful of them left). My interest in this books lies in the fact that my husband's parents fled Vietnam in the late 70's when my mother-in-law was heavily pregnant. My husband was born in the refugee camp in Thailand! The in-laws do not, however, ever speak of their trials so I read of others'.
This book tells of the author's parents, their backgrounds (the first 2 chapters were about both sets of grandparents and their origins), their struggles against poverty, their little victories, and in the end, their endeavour in seeking better futures for their sons. Both families were living quite comfortably when the Indochina War broke. Both families lost everything and had to suffer through terrible hunger. The devotion of the parents, the hard work of both parents and children, most of them survived and despite flirtation with communism, fought for education to pull themselves through to better living conditions. The author is a politician in Canberra and his brother is a doctor living in an affluent Sydney suburb so I guess the parents are very happy and proud of their sons' achievements in freedom.
This book tells of the author's parents, their backgrounds (the first 2 chapters were about both sets of grandparents and their origins), their struggles against poverty, their little victories, and in the end, their endeavour in seeking better futures for their sons. Both families were living quite comfortably when the Indochina War broke. Both families lost everything and had to suffer through terrible hunger. The devotion of the parents, the hard work of both parents and children, most of them survived and despite flirtation with communism, fought for education to pull themselves through to better living conditions. The author is a politician in Canberra and his brother is a doctor living in an affluent Sydney suburb so I guess the parents are very happy and proud of their sons' achievements in freedom.
May 23, 2019
What a page-turner! Kim is currently my lecturer at ANU so when I started reading this memoir, I was worried I wouldn’t enjoy it. Turns out Kim is a cracking good writer and I chewed through this book a lot faster than I thought I would.
I think what surprised me the most is just how exhilarating every moment was. Even though the narrative centres on the lives of his parents Thiet and Van, he also follows stories about other family members whose daily experiences are all just incredibly intriguing.
Next on my to-do list is to ask Kim if he still keeps his family knife in his drawer at uni...
I think what surprised me the most is just how exhilarating every moment was. Even though the narrative centres on the lives of his parents Thiet and Van, he also follows stories about other family members whose daily experiences are all just incredibly intriguing.
Next on my to-do list is to ask Kim if he still keeps his family knife in his drawer at uni...
July 26, 2013
One story of the many...
April 6, 2016
A gentle, thoughtful capturing of a Vietnamese family.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews