Rating: 
Summary: A family history that also tells the history of Vietnam.
Review: The Sacred Willow is an excellent family biography and historical analysis of the origins of, and events surrounding, the Vietnam War. If you have shied away from histories of Vietnam as you are not interested in military history, I would highly recommend this work. This book is a social, rather than a military, history. Tracing the history of Vietnam from the era of the mandarins, through the French colonialization, through the communist insurgency, to the fall of Saigon and beyond, the author writes a history of her own family and in so doing, beautifully and subtly details the complexities and nuances of the origins of the Vietnam conflict and America's participation therein. The author's use of spare and straightforward prose enables the reader to look beyond the sheer horror of the war and its aftermath and reach a level of understanding as to how this tragic conflict could have occured.
Rating: 
Summary: Vast fascinating saga, but limited outlook
Review: This book is indeed what most critics say that it is: an ambitious, sprawling saga, paralleling the life and history of one family with the history of Vietnam in the last 130 years. And it does make fascinating reading. However, one other critic rightly made the point that this history is limited to the upper-middle-class, with very little on the rest - the farmers, the urban working class, the fighting soldiers, the intelligentsia. To which I will add: the view Mai Elliott gives of the sweeping events her family lived through was in fact rather comprehensive as long as it took place in the North, where she was born. Once the family moved South to Saigon, they pretty much kept to themselves and were out of the loop as far as decision-making was concerned (whereas ther father had been Governor of Haiphong and right there in the thick of things in the North). Being myself a Southerner Vietnamese, I do admit that, in general, the refugees from the North were not made warmly welcome. But some did reach out and eventually made friends, which the Duong family does not seem to have done. When they were still high officials in the North, the Duongs were influential and knew almost every aspect of what was going on. Once in the South, they were pretty much out of the loop, and Mai falls back on sweeping generalizations based on prejudices and hearsay, like "the Southern landowners were absently landlords who lived it up in Saigon, leaving their lands to caretakers". Being myself from a landowning family, I can vouch that that was far from true. Same thing about the South Vietnamese armed forces and the contempt in which they were supposedly held by their American allies. Would Tiger Woods' father have named him after a South Vietnamese Ranger if he despised him and his companions as cowards? She also fails to note that, very often, a South Vietnamese military operation would fail because Americans would not listen to their SVN counterparts, thinking they knew better. And Mai was so busy interviewing VC prisoners of war and trying to understand them that she never took the time to find out what the South Vietnamese working class, farmers, and fighting men, were like. Or why they stuck with a "corrupt" and "tyrannical" government, not to mention nasty imperialist Americans without rising up and going to the other side. Her account of the fall of Saigon and its aftermath is told solely from the point of view of her relatives who stayed there, or other former Northern refugees, and from a strictly "bleeding-heart liberal" perspective. General Loan is stigmatized when he shot a VC in public (he had heard that very day that the VCs had massacred a whole bunch of his relatives), but widespread cases of the so-called Liberation Army summarily shooting thieves in the street is related without so much as a metaphorically raised eybrow. There is no mention whatsoever of the South Vietnamese underground resistance that went on for over 10 years after Saigon fell, and only a grudging, one-sentence acknowledgement of "acts of heroism" by the South Vietnamese army and people. Her extensive bibliography is limited to North Vietnamese and American books, magazines and papers when she could have gained a different insight from books or articles by South Vietnamese or French writers and journalists, among others "The Vietnamese Gulag" by a South Vietnamese who stayed on after the "liberation" to help rebuild the country. I still recommend the book as an interesting work, giving a perspective that Americans in general have not seen - the "Vietnam War" viewed from the point of view of a Vietnamese family. But for that, Le Ly Hayslip's "When Heaven and Earth Changed Places" was closer to the people - and Mai Elliott's point of view is only that of a small part of Vietnam. But do read it anyway. You will still gain facts and insights you did not get before.
Rating: 
Summary: story of perseverance and optimism
Review: This family saga starts out slowly and methodically more than a century ago. The story of earlier generations seems distant, impersonal and embellished, as sagas are wont to get. But as the author progresses through time to the more recent past, the richness and reality of the story takes hold. If you are patient enough to wade through the first few chapters, you will find a fine and inspiring story of perseverance and optimism. As it is only one family?s experience, it should not be taken as the story of a nation. But in conversations I have had with friends and in-laws, it does seem quite typical, especially for Northern Catholics.Many have justifiably compared this book to Wild Swans, the multi-generational tale of a Chinese family. There are many parallels between the two. But there are fundamental differences that, in my mind, negate many of the similarities. First is that Wild Swans focuses mainly on the women in the family while Sacred Willow is more equitable in its coverage of women and men in the family. Perhaps more important to my political mind is that, in Wild Swans, the family joined the Party that persecuted them while in Sacred Willow, the family tried their best to keep the ruling forces at a safe distance. An earlier reviewer cites this distance as a flaw in the story. It certainly makes the tragedy of Sacred Willow less ironic, but the family seems all the worse for it.
Rating:
Summary: story of perseverance and optimism
Review: This family saga starts out slowly and methodically more than a century ago. The story of earlier generations seems distant, impersonal and embellished, as sagas are wont to get. But as the author progresses through time to the more recent past, the richness and reality of the story takes hold. If you are patient enough to wade through the first few chapters, you will find a fine and inspiring story of perseverance and optimism. As it is only one family?s experience, it should not be taken as the story of a nation. But in conversations I have had with friends and in-laws, it does seem quite typical, especially for Northern Catholics. Many have justifiably compared this book to Wild Swans, the multi-generational tale of a Chinese family. There are many parallels between the two. But there are fundamental differences that, in my mind, negate many of the similarities. First is that Wild Swans focuses mainly on the women in the family while Sacred Willow is more equitable in its coverage of women and men in the family. Perhaps more important to my political mind is that, in Wild Swans, the family joined the Party that persecuted them while in Sacred Willow, the family tried their best to keep the ruling forces at a safe distance. An earlier reviewer cites this distance as a flaw in the story. It certainly makes the tragedy of Sacred Willow less ironic, but the family seems all the worse for it.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating book
Review: This is a Vietnamese version of the "American Quilt" or even, "Magnolia". It told the story of a Vietnamese family spanning 4 generations. When I was a child growing up in the South East Asia region, I read & heard about the boat people from Vietnam every single day. I used to wonder why should they abandon their homeland & why should they take such a major risk. I also saw pictures & video clippings of a Vietnamese girl running naked from her village after a napalm attack, the mob gathered around the US Embassy hoping to catch the last flights out from Saigon, South Vietnamese Police Chief that shot point blank range towards a captured Viet Cong at the public place, a Buddhist monk burnt himself to death in protest of the South Vietnam Government, & so forth. I couldn't relate to those incidents then but this book enabled me to do so now. The stories of the author's family members came slowly but effectively thru tying them up with the historical happenings of that particular moment. Because her family was vast, & that they all shared different beliefs, we got to see Vietnam from different perspectives. Even though some reviewers reckoned that the book was rather one-sided, it still is a captivating to read, obviously a labour of love for the author. I definitely broadened up my knowledge about Vietnam & no longer stereotyped them as victims of the unscrupulous wars as depicted by Oliver Stone's movies or even Acropolyse Now. Rather, being their enterprising selves, they would always sought ways to sustain or improve their predicaments no matter which parts of this world that they are residing in. Highly recommended & an experience that's not to be missed.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating book
Review: This is a Vietnamese version of the "American Quilt" or even, "Magnolia". It told the story of a Vietnamese family spanning 4 generations. When I was a child growing up in the South East Asia region, I read & heard about the boat people from Vietnam every single day. I used to wonder why should they abandon their homeland & why should they take such a major risk. I also saw pictures & video clippings of a Vietnamese girl running naked from her village after a napalm attack, the mob gathered around the US Embassy hoping to catch the last flights out from Saigon, South Vietnamese Police Chief that shot point blank range towards a captured Viet Cong at the public place, a Buddhist monk burnt himself to death in protest of the South Vietnam Government, & so forth. I couldn't relate to those incidents then but this book enabled me to do so now. The stories of the author's family members came slowly but effectively thru tying them up with the historical happenings of that particular moment. Because her family was vast, & that they all shared different beliefs, we got to see Vietnam from different perspectives. Even though some reviewers reckoned that the book was rather one-sided, it still is a captivating to read, obviously a labour of love for the author. I definitely broadened up my knowledge about Vietnam & no longer stereotyped them as victims of the unscrupulous wars as depicted by Oliver Stone's movies or even Acropolyse Now. Rather, being their enterprising selves, they would always sought ways to sustain or improve their predicaments no matter which parts of this world that they are residing in. Highly recommended & an experience that's not to be missed.
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