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bittermelona's review
i cant believe it took me a month to finish this book but ok- i got so much critical thinking and knowledge of u.s. military imperialism, liberal empire, and the relationships between wars in southeast asia + refugee passages + what it means to live in "freedom" and to be indebted to an empire that uses you as a rhetorical/physical tool for its propagation. highlights: chapter two's discussion of beauty, and of the ways we talk about PTSD to absolve u.s. soldiers of their violence, ch.3's comparison of refugees and terrorists, and the ending, where mimi thi nguyen asks that we reimagine our so-called debt to the united states as actually a debt to remember the past, to not forgive violence, and to conceive of a better world, even if that world seems distant.
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