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A review by justabean_reads
Em by Kim Thúy
3.5
Following the lives of three interconnected Vietnamese children through the war and onto lives outside of Vietnam. This was a lot more war crime centric than Vi, including a graphic description of the Mỹ Lai massacre, which takes up much of the first section of the book, and which I was not expecting going in. (I haven't read Thúy's other books, though I hope to soon, so Vi's going to be my main point of comparison.)
Considering that Thúy's entire output is about the fallout from the Vietnamese-American war, it's no small thing to say I think this deals with it more directly than usual. It's part an exploration of how life and love are possible in even the most horrific and grinding circumstances, but probably more than that a hard-eyed overview of the scope of the war itself, starting with the colonial division of Southeast Asia in the 1800s and going through to the north's victory and a bit of its aftermath in Vietnam (but more so in regards to the fate of the boat people and refugees.) There's a lot of straight up info dumps, but they're less a history lesson, certainly not told in order, than an attempt to include the full context needed to understand what's going on with her characters. As with Vi, Thúy's writing is precise, minimalist, and very beautiful.
Considering that Thúy's entire output is about the fallout from the Vietnamese-American war, it's no small thing to say I think this deals with it more directly than usual. It's part an exploration of how life and love are possible in even the most horrific and grinding circumstances, but probably more than that a hard-eyed overview of the scope of the war itself, starting with the colonial division of Southeast Asia in the 1800s and going through to the north's victory and a bit of its aftermath in Vietnam (but more so in regards to the fate of the boat people and refugees.) There's a lot of straight up info dumps, but they're less a history lesson, certainly not told in order, than an attempt to include the full context needed to understand what's going on with her characters. As with Vi, Thúy's writing is precise, minimalist, and very beautiful.