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First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers

Loung Ung

Start date: June 1, 2020

Finish date: June 29, 2020

Discussion: Country and Territories

Why we're reading this: Countries/Territories: Cambodia

First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung
[close] Countries/Territories: Cambodia

First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung

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Jan 27, 2021 Audrey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir-biography-autobiography, 2021-books

This is a memoir of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia (Kampuchea) from 1975 to 1980. It’s harrowing at times and sad but an important record.

Loung was only 5 when it started. She was the sixth of seven children living comfortably well off in Phnom Phen. Khmer Rouge soldiers forced everyone out of the cities to work in rice fields. The goal was to create a rich socialist, agrarian society (probably the stupidest idea since communism itself). Loung has a clear memory of the time despite her age. She is This is a memoir of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia (Kampuchea) from 1975 to 1980. It’s harrowing at times and sad but an important record.

Loung was only 5 when it started. She was the sixth of seven children living comfortably well off in Phnom Phen. Khmer Rouge soldiers forced everyone out of the cities to work in rice fields. The goal was to create a rich socialist, agrarian society (probably the stupidest idea since communism itself). Loung has a clear memory of the time despite her age. She is one of those people who have a clear and active mind and a vivid imagination. Even at her age, she saw through the propaganda BS.

Loung and her family worked long hours while starving, staying silent because everyone was informing on each other for food. She talks about the emotional toll of living in fear all the time. It led to hate and rage for her and many others. The educated were persecuted, so Loung and her siblings had to act stupid and illiterate. Ethnic cleansing took place. Her mother was half-Chinese, so they tried to darken their skin with dirt. People got sick but since all the doctors and nurses had been killed, hospitals were just where you went to die. I’m surprised as many of the family survived as they did.

Though the Angkar says we are all equal in Democratic Kampuchea, we are not. We live and are treated like slaves. In our garden, the Angkar provides us with seeds and we may plant anything we choose, but everything we grow belongs not to us but to the community. The base people eat the berries and vegetables from the community gardens, but the new people are punished if they do. During the harvest season the crops from the fields are turned over to the village chief, who then rations the food to the fifty families. As always, no matter how plentiful the crops, there is never enough food for the new people. Stealing food is viewed as a heinous crime and, if caught, offenders risk either getting their fingers cut off in the public square or being forced to grow a vegetable garden in an area near identified minefields. ... People who work in these areas do not come back to the village. ... In the new pure agrarian society, there is no place for disabled people.

Among the many crimes that exist in the Khmer Rouge society, bartering for food is viewed as an act of treason. If caught, the trader is whipped into confessing the names of all parties involved. The Khmer Rouge believes one individual should not have what the rest of the country does not have. When one person secretly acquires more food than the others have there is an inequality of food distribution in the community. Since we are all supposed to be equal, if one person starves, then all should starve.

The narration is in present tense. I didn’t really like it. Luong noted that she tried it in past tense first but it didn’t feel immediate. Still, I would’ve preferred past tense.

Language: None
Sexual Content: Some descriptions of nudity and attempted rape
Violence: Executions, beatings, war crimes
Harm to Animals: (view spoiler)
Harm to Children: (view spoiler)
Other (Triggers): (view spoiler) ...more

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Jun 29, 2020 Megan rated it really liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I just finished this harrowing memoir of a young girl who survived the tragic upheaval, dislocation, forced marches, labor camps, deliberate starvation and warfare of the Cambodian Genocide.

From Wikipedia: The Cambodian genocide (Khmer: ហាយនភាពខ្មែរ or ការប្រល័យពូជសាសន៍ខ្មែរ, French: Génocide cambodgien) was carried out by Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Pol Pot, who radically pushed Cambodia towards communism. It resulted in the deaths of 1.5 to 2 million people from 1975 to 1979, nearly a ...more

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