When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge

Rating:
Summary: More than a testimony...
Review: When Broken Glass Floats is the true story of the tragic demise of a Cambodian family told through the eyes of an adolescent girl coming to age under the infamous Khmer Rouge regime. Immediately I was drawn into Chanrithy Him's ability to create a brief version of normalcy before the Khmer Rouge took over. How quickly the reader is transported from the stable love of a family into a place one could call hell. This is a story of a girl who's day to day struggle is to stay alive. And yet imbedded in the everyday battery that Chan writes about, are full fledged stories about discovering the sweet taste of grass, learning how to catch fish while simultaneously outsmarting slave drivers, and befriending a girl who's courage makes way for an escape. Chan endures illness and watches members of her family murdered, worked and starved to death. The narrator is both a heroine and a girl with wisdom that becomes a cornerstone in her survival. Chanrithy Him is a very fine writer. Her ability to conclude this book of unthinkable brutality with chronicles of a family run-post-war waffle stand, a personal yearning to learn English and a new found passion to live, demonstrate enormous grace we can all learn from.