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The Best We Could Do
(The Best We Could Do)
by
This illustrated memoir is about the search for a better future and a longing for the past. Exploring the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has on a child and her family, Bui documents the story of her family’s daring escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s, and the difficulties they faced building new lives for themselves.
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Hardcover, 329 pages
Published
March 7th 2017
by Harry N. Abrams
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I read this for my Asian-American studies class, and our discussion made me enjoy this book even more! A school book I actually enjoyed? I know! I'm surprised too!
At first, I wasn't too big of a fan of the art style. However, after analyzing why Thi Bui illustrated it the way she did, I think it was perfect for the story. Truthfully, I don't know too much about the Vietnam War except for the few things I remember from 12th grade history class. This was a wonderfully intimate look at her family's ...more
At first, I wasn't too big of a fan of the art style. However, after analyzing why Thi Bui illustrated it the way she did, I think it was perfect for the story. Truthfully, I don't know too much about the Vietnam War except for the few things I remember from 12th grade history class. This was a wonderfully intimate look at her family's ...more

I still remember how I felt the first time I read the graphic memoir "Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant", by Roz Chast. I wanted the world to read it...
I laughed. I cried. I laughed and cried at the same time! And by the way.... I felt it should be required reading for anyone who had aging parents! Both my parents were dead - and I still got value 'as' a mother: not wanting to leave my own daughters a mess to deal with after I die.
Roz Chast's graphic memoir TRANSFORMED the word GRAPH ...more
I laughed. I cried. I laughed and cried at the same time! And by the way.... I felt it should be required reading for anyone who had aging parents! Both my parents were dead - and I still got value 'as' a mother: not wanting to leave my own daughters a mess to deal with after I die.
Roz Chast's graphic memoir TRANSFORMED the word GRAPH ...more

This book is featured on Throwback Thursday @ https://readrantrockandroll.com/2018/...
I picked this up from Netgalley as soon as I learned about it. I love reading graphic novels and this one piqued my interest after reading the blurb. I had already read A Different Pond with my kids and loved that one, so I had a good feeling about The Best We Could Do.
This is an extremely moving graphic novel about a family’s immigration from Vietnam and how they do the best they can to make a living in a new ...more
I picked this up from Netgalley as soon as I learned about it. I love reading graphic novels and this one piqued my interest after reading the blurb. I had already read A Different Pond with my kids and loved that one, so I had a good feeling about The Best We Could Do.
This is an extremely moving graphic novel about a family’s immigration from Vietnam and how they do the best they can to make a living in a new ...more

The Best We Could Do brings to life author Thi Bui’s search for a better future while longing for a simpler past. This beautifully illustrated and emotional story explores the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has on a child and her family.
Alternating between the present, Bui's own childhood in California, and the lives of her parents amid the chaos of the Vietnam War, Bui explores the saga of her country while trying to understand the history of her parents and gr ...more
Alternating between the present, Bui's own childhood in California, and the lives of her parents amid the chaos of the Vietnam War, Bui explores the saga of her country while trying to understand the history of her parents and gr ...more

Empathetic, honest, and emotional. A gorgeously illustrated memoir of a woman who looks to the past to understand her parents and her complicated relationship with them. In 1978, Thi Bui's parents fled South Vietnam with three young children and one on the way. The Best We Could Do tells the story of them growing up in Vietnam, raising a family in the midst of the Vietnam War, their harrowing nighttime escape by boat, and the difficulties of starting a new life in the United States. The tale be
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This was...difficult to read.
Just by the first chapter I knew this was something that would make me uncomfortable, forcing me to confront issues of my own that I glanced over, a nagging thought I couldn't face, because my anxiety wouldn't allow it.
At its heart, it's a story about family. The author explores what it means to be a child of immigrant parents. As our main character recently became a mother, she sets off to understand her parents and fix a relationship that involves unresolved traum ...more
Just by the first chapter I knew this was something that would make me uncomfortable, forcing me to confront issues of my own that I glanced over, a nagging thought I couldn't face, because my anxiety wouldn't allow it.
At its heart, it's a story about family. The author explores what it means to be a child of immigrant parents. As our main character recently became a mother, she sets off to understand her parents and fix a relationship that involves unresolved traum ...more

A heartfelt, engaging, comprehensive illustrated memoir, The Best We Could Do really blew me away. I do not gravitate towards graphic novels as a format, but this book completely hooked me from the opening panels as Thi Bui embarks on her own journey of motherhood for the first time, and seeks to close the gap between herself and her parents by better understanding where she comes from and their own stories. She does incredible amounts of research and is able to distill years of history and emot
...more

I read this graphic memoir in one sitting and found it affecting as a story and lovely to look at. It's a story that is familiar, the desire to understand the past of one's parents, and in becoming a parent, finding yourself in a better place to do so. Her parents divorced, but to help her understand the past, and tell the tale, they came together to help her. She did lots of secondary research in addition to talking with her parents.
And since it is about Vietnamese parents who became refugees e ...more
And since it is about Vietnamese parents who became refugees e ...more

Such an important and empathetic graphic memoir about Thi Bui's journey to understand her Vietnamese family and their immigration to the United States from South Vietnam. The Best We Could Do begins with Bui's foray into motherhood and how it reminds her of her mother's story and sacrifices. To cultivate a deeper comprehension of her family's past, she interviews her parents, travels back to Vietnam, and spends tons of time learning about the history of the war and her family's place within it.
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Feb 03, 2020
C.G. Drews
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
graphic-novel,
read-2020
This was utterly powerful and also gut-wrenching. These are the kind of stories that both haunt and humble you, and I think it's so intensely important to read about history through #ownvoices perspectives (not a white textbook's lens) and I just can't even imagine the suffering the Bui family went through as they fled Vietnam in the 1970s and eventually immigrated to the USA. Sometimes I just want to shake anyone who discriminates refugees and just...just demand they read first-hand accounts li
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3.5 stars
I really liked the art and I definitely learned a lot about Vietnam's history.
However it's a memoir. And, unfortunately, like with many memoirs, I often felt the author didn't dig deep enough or was reluctant to tell the whole truth (probably to, understandably, not hurt her parents). For all author's anger against her parents, she never quite articulated why she felt it. The narrative also was often unclear about certain events, especially how for all the talk about poverty, somehow he ...more
I really liked the art and I definitely learned a lot about Vietnam's history.
However it's a memoir. And, unfortunately, like with many memoirs, I often felt the author didn't dig deep enough or was reluctant to tell the whole truth (probably to, understandably, not hurt her parents). For all author's anger against her parents, she never quite articulated why she felt it. The narrative also was often unclear about certain events, especially how for all the talk about poverty, somehow he ...more

May 27, 2018
Rincey
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
poc-author,
favorites
Totally cried while reading this. <3 <3
See me talk about this briefly in my May wrap up: https://youtu.be/ymb11Zcb248?t=23m51s ...more
See me talk about this briefly in my May wrap up: https://youtu.be/ymb11Zcb248?t=23m51s ...more

Mar 10, 2020
April (Aprilius Maximus)
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2020
“Family is now something I have created - and not just something I was born into.”
representation: own voices Vietnamese & Vietnamese American rep.
[trigger warnings are listed at the bottom of this review and may contain spoilers]
✧·゚: ✧·゚: 4 s t a r s :·゚✧:·゚✧
Wow, I learnt so much reading this. And what a beautiful art style too. Definitely recommend this one if you can handle the subject matter.
trigger warnings: giving birth, needles, suicide attempt, stillbirth, loss of a child, war, gun ...more
representation: own voices Vietnamese & Vietnamese American rep.
[trigger warnings are listed at the bottom of this review and may contain spoilers]
✧·゚: ✧·゚: 4 s t a r s :·゚✧:·゚✧
Wow, I learnt so much reading this. And what a beautiful art style too. Definitely recommend this one if you can handle the subject matter.
trigger warnings: giving birth, needles, suicide attempt, stillbirth, loss of a child, war, gun ...more

#mystrangereading The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. Autobiographical/historical/memoir of Bui's own story and the story of her family's voyage out of devastation of the Vietnam War.
🎨 The artistry stands on its own as a beautiful, gorgeous, unique story.
🎨 The story was heart wrenching, inspiring and poignant.
🎨 My only issue came from the stream-of-conscience style of story-telling which just threw me all over the place emotionally and "physically" between the stories.
Overall, this is a ...more
🎨 The artistry stands on its own as a beautiful, gorgeous, unique story.
🎨 The story was heart wrenching, inspiring and poignant.
🎨 My only issue came from the stream-of-conscience style of story-telling which just threw me all over the place emotionally and "physically" between the stories.
Overall, this is a ...more

Finally! This is one book which is hundred percent what it's blurb described as.
I struggled to read this graphic memoir as it's intense and heavy at times. Trigger warnings for violent scenes and abuse and neglect. Vietnamese war times. I don't know what I was thinking when I picked up this one but it turned out to be one of the most memorable graphic novel reads ever. Even though the author claims that the events are true and they happened but most of the part seems like it's subjectively repr ...more
I struggled to read this graphic memoir as it's intense and heavy at times. Trigger warnings for violent scenes and abuse and neglect. Vietnamese war times. I don't know what I was thinking when I picked up this one but it turned out to be one of the most memorable graphic novel reads ever. Even though the author claims that the events are true and they happened but most of the part seems like it's subjectively repr ...more

Aug 18, 2018
Lisa (not getting friends updates) Vegan
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
This book is San Francisco’s One City One Book for summer 2018 and I wanted to read it during this period. It’s a fast read and I was able to read it in a couple of days.
It’s a wonderful graphic biography book and interesting history book, and a fabulous book about parents & children and relationships, and trauma.
I’m always in awe of people who can take their pain and experiences and feelings and create writing/art and here there are both. For most of the book I particularly enjoyed the text, e ...more
It’s a wonderful graphic biography book and interesting history book, and a fabulous book about parents & children and relationships, and trauma.
I’m always in awe of people who can take their pain and experiences and feelings and create writing/art and here there are both. For most of the book I particularly enjoyed the text, e ...more

This was a great autobiography graphic novel. The author talked about her parents leaving war-torn Vietnam and moving to the USA. This also shared the daughter's story of growing up an immigrant and very poor.
This is definitely worth a read! ...more
This is definitely worth a read! ...more

‘The Best We Could Do’ by Thi Bui is my first time to read a graphic novel. It’s a powerful illustrated memoir about a young Vietnamese woman havinng a baby, and recognizing at that moment her own essential link in her family’s story. Bui’s mother flew in from California to be with her daughter while she was in labor, and as Bui expresses so well, “but now that she’s here, she can’t bear to be in the same room.” Accompanying this caption is the picture of her mother standing out in a hallway cry
...more

Well done graphic novel by a woman who came to the US with her family as Vietnamese refugees after the fall of Saigon. Thi Bui reconstructs her parents' paths from their childhoods to where/who they are now, and muses on how their respective pasts have shaped her own life.
Interesting and beautifully illustrated. I especially loved everything having to do with her father. Just.....for some reason, it did not resonate with me or emotionally engage me. Good, but I would have liked to have had a mor ...more
Interesting and beautifully illustrated. I especially loved everything having to do with her father. Just.....for some reason, it did not resonate with me or emotionally engage me. Good, but I would have liked to have had a mor ...more

This was incredible. The amount of time and work that had to go into its creation alone was fascinating. The tough conversations that took place between a daughter and her parents made me want to cringe and cry.
Thi Bui came to this country under a traumatic veil.Her family is from Vietnam and during the 60's and 70's she shows us how the country went to war with itself and the French influence on their culture. What it was like to grow up in a communist country and then forced to flee to protec ...more
Thi Bui came to this country under a traumatic veil.Her family is from Vietnam and during the 60's and 70's she shows us how the country went to war with itself and the French influence on their culture. What it was like to grow up in a communist country and then forced to flee to protec ...more

4.25/5stars
the art and the story were BEAUTIFUL
the art and the story were BEAUTIFUL

Reading Women Challenge 2018
5. A graphic novel or memoir
Not sure what I was expecting when I picked this one up to read each night before going to sleep. As someone who reads comics and graphic novels for academic research purposes, I thought that not much can surprise me, hence me naively thinking this will be a light read. Yet The Best We Could Do broke my heart in more ways than it mended it. And I am happy with that!
Bui’s visually stunning book is so much more than an immigrant story: he ...more
5. A graphic novel or memoir
Not sure what I was expecting when I picked this one up to read each night before going to sleep. As someone who reads comics and graphic novels for academic research purposes, I thought that not much can surprise me, hence me naively thinking this will be a light read. Yet The Best We Could Do broke my heart in more ways than it mended it. And I am happy with that!
Bui’s visually stunning book is so much more than an immigrant story: he ...more

Sep 16, 2018
Negin
rated it
it was amazing
Recommends it for:
those who like memoirs and/or graphic books
I loved this graphic memoir. The illustrations are gorgeous, the story grabbed me right away, and the pain of the author and her family’s past was beautifully depicted. They were refugees who moved to the U.S. after the Vietnam War, but that’s not all that the story is about. There is far more to it than that. It’s a story of a family, rather than just the Vietnam War.

This has to be one of the most emotionally-gripping books that I have read in a while.

My favorite quote:
“Proximity and closene ...more

This has to be one of the most emotionally-gripping books that I have read in a while.

My favorite quote:
“Proximity and closene ...more

Thi Bui’s “The Best We Could Do” made me cry thinking of my parents, and the endless sacrifices they made as immigrants raising a family in America, and everything that’s going on in our country today, It has to be one of the toughest decisions my parents had to make, leaving everything behind, and moving to an unknown, foreign country. All immigrants and child of immigrants know those “ugly” teenager phases we went through, we were so frustrated with our parents for not being able to speak Engl
...more

3.5/5 stars
Oh, to be disappointed by ones own expectations!
Me not loving this book is absolutely not this book's fault. I just imagined something very different when I picked it up. I wanted more of family's relations, struggles to fit in and adjust, culture shock and such. And in a sense all of that was in the book, but on a very large and diffused scale.
The Best We Could Do is more of a family's saga that spans over generations while telling a very detailed war story. More of a history lesson ...more
Oh, to be disappointed by ones own expectations!
Me not loving this book is absolutely not this book's fault. I just imagined something very different when I picked it up. I wanted more of family's relations, struggles to fit in and adjust, culture shock and such. And in a sense all of that was in the book, but on a very large and diffused scale.
The Best We Could Do is more of a family's saga that spans over generations while telling a very detailed war story. More of a history lesson ...more

💭Pre-reading thoughts:
This sounds like an emotional journey, involving Vietnamese history which it's something I really want to know more of. ...more
This sounds like an emotional journey, involving Vietnamese history which it's something I really want to know more of. ...more

I read this book in one sitting (breathless, emotionally turned inside-out) and you should too.
Bui's family is different from mine in many ways, but I still experienced a sense of recognition on every page, as if her family life had been stitched together from patchwork pieces of mine, or vice versa. It's Thi Bui's truth, but I think it's a lot of other people's truth, too -- I won't use the word "universal," which I mistrust, but it has a sense of scope, of historical breadth. It's an intimate ...more
Bui's family is different from mine in many ways, but I still experienced a sense of recognition on every page, as if her family life had been stitched together from patchwork pieces of mine, or vice versa. It's Thi Bui's truth, but I think it's a lot of other people's truth, too -- I won't use the word "universal," which I mistrust, but it has a sense of scope, of historical breadth. It's an intimate ...more

The Best We Could Do is a wonderful illustrated memoir that covers the author's experience as an immigrant to the U.S. from Vietnam as well as her parents' experiences of war while they were still living in Vietnam. I read this back in March 2017 and wish I had reviewed it sooner so I could be more detailed here, but I learned a lot from this book and thought it was beautiful and affecting. I read an ARC of this and some of the art was unfinished. I shouldn't even be mentioning this, but I thoug
...more

I enjoyed this graphic-memoir of Thi Bui's family - their lives in Vietnam, coming to America, and how becoming a mother has made her think differently about her parents and their decisions. Sometimes the non linear nature made it hard to follow but I usually found my way.
...more

This graphic novel-memoir was so honestly written, I could feel the author herself growing and learning in the process of both the story and the storytelling. It was very interesting to learn more about Vietnam history, especially from a specific and personal point of view, and compare it to what I have learnt about it in school and in the media. There were lots of intense emotions behind the story too, mostly coming from Thi herself, that I couldn’t really understand, but perhaps Thi doesn’t ei
...more
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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Albion Web Series: What resonated with you about Thi's story? | 1 | 3 | Sep 01, 2020 01:43PM | |
Play Book Tag: The Best We Could Do - 4 stars | 2 | 9 | Aug 22, 2020 09:01PM | |
Play Book Tag: [POLL]The Best We Could Do by Thi But- 5 stars | 1 | 11 | Feb 23, 2020 02:11PM | |
Play Book Tag: The Best We Could Do - Thi Bui - 4 stars | 2 | 10 | Feb 13, 2020 08:13AM | |
Reading Women: 5) A Graphic Novel or a Graphic Memoir | 30 | 163 | Nov 08, 2018 11:48AM | |
Team Hooman: Spoiler Free - The Best We Could Do | 5 | 5 | Sep 19, 2018 07:42PM |
Thi Bui was born in Vietnam and immigrated to the United States as a child. She studied art and law and thought about becoming a civil rights lawyer, but became a public school teacher instead. Bui lives in Berkeley, California, with her son, her husband, and her mother. The Best We Could Do is her debut graphic novel.
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“Proximity and closeness are not the same.”
—
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“Maybe being their child simply means that I will always feel the weight of their past.”
—
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