Rating: 
Summary: A spirited woman's frightening narrative
Review: I first heard of this book one afternoon while surfing the cable channels. On one of the channels was an attractive Asian woman speaking to a group of people. Curious, I tuned in and learned she was a Cambodian talking to a group of people in a Milwaukee bookstore about her experiences in Cambodia during the 1970s. As a speaker she was gifted, extremely articulate, and spoke English with barely a whisper of an accent. This was Loung Ung. I was immediately compelled to order her book. The first part of the book recounts her comfortable early childhood but then the reader is quickly moved into a world of madness when her family is forced to leave their home in a mass migration away from the city. The family is forced to move from place to place until the members are killed or separated from the others. Loung, not even yet 10 years of age, finds herself completely alone. Usually starving and sick, she manages to be reunited with surviving family members. The emotions evoked by the narration in this book are often overwhelming. I found I had to stop reading during scenes where the author, in the first person present tense, is able to relate so effectively the thoughts of a young girl who is in the midst of the most horrible experiences. The scene where she walks for hours to visit the hut where her mother and baby sister are staying only to find it empty is gut-wrenching. I recommend this book to those who enjoy reading personal accounts of world events. Also, to those who want to read of survival and the triumph of the human spirit, this book is special.
Rating:
Summary: Brave writer, excellent writing...
Review: I don't know what people below are complaining about - I loved the writing style here - it was so spunky; amazing that she didn't forget what it's like to be a little girl. I barely noticed any editing problems, either, and usually I do. I thought the book was beautifully presented. She has amazing recall and I don't doubt her memories because the story rings far too true. The dream sequences are sad beyond imagining. I had a hard time reading for any duration because it wasjust too horrific. Nevertheless, I kept wanting more. A brilliant effort and hopefully one that many will read so that we don't forget. (I, too, would love a sequel about Vermont.)
Rating:
Summary: Write another one, Loung Ung!
Review: First, let's get the nitpicks out of the way. Like other reviewers, I was bothered by the poor editing of this memoir, with its verb tense switches and simple errors in usage. However, I was most disappointed that Loung Ung ended her story with her boarding the plane for America. I had fallen for this spunky, strong-willed little girl and wanted to read about her experiences in her new home in Vermont. Please, Ms Ung, write a new chapter to your story! Tell us how you adapted to Vermont and your new American lifestyle. Your epilogue only hints and teases at the new life you found here and many of your readers are bound to want more! Tell us more about your crusade to banish landmines and about your visits to various American cities as you speak about Cambodia's past and future. We'll be looking forward to it! As for this volume, it is as most reviewers have said--an uplifting story of survival in the most horrific of circumstances. Five-year-old Loung's curiosity and perseverance are truly wonderful to behold as she watches her comfortable world destroyed by the Khmer forces. The "dream" or "imagination" passages in which Loung describes the possible ways in which two of her sisters, her mother and her father all died are to me the most heart-rending of the entire book. It doesn't matter that they may not necessarily describe the actual events. What's important is that they describe the events as they were imagined by a child, a child who should never have had to imagine such things. To Loung, the deaths were the overriding fact and the created details of them were her child's way of visualizing her loved ones' last moments, not in a morbid way, but in a sympathetic way. Another aspect of the story that struck me was the strength of the desire to reach America and the deprivation and dangers many Cambodians were willing to risk to enjoy the life most US citizens take for granted. Simply incredible--and still important today as the US government and people struggle with immigration concerns and as the gap between the "haves" and the "have nots" of the world grows ever wider. This is an amazing story, an inspiring story, and an unforgettable story that will affect you long after you have read the final sentences.
Rating:
Summary: priceless account of a costly genocide
Review: When I was a child in parochial school, we used to pray for "the starving children in Cambodia" every day. Now I finally know exactly who we were praying for. Before this book was published, I wasn't able to find any first-person accounts of the genocide in Cambodia. Having finally read one, I can see why. Just reading it could be emotionally scarring. The actual experience is not something that most of Cambodia's survivors would want to relive in the telling. Ung's unflinching account describes what we can only hope is the absolute nadir of human experience. These are the outrages endured by nation that was decimated twice over by squads of angry bullies, a crazed dictator, bitter classism and racial hatred, and senseless starvation. "First They Killed My Father" is not for the squeamish, the pessimistic, or the tender-hearted. In fact, my greatest fear concerning books of this type is that some people are so overwhelmed by the horror of the Killing Fields and the Holocaust that they will not be able to comprehend it as fact, that their emotional health will require them to deny that such things are possible, and that consequently, they will hesitate or fail to act when they have the chance to prevent such things from happening in the future. Some disappointments (really only worth deducting half a star, which Amazon doesn't allow): 1. Poor editing. Frequently the tense shifts in mid-paragraph from past to present, or from present to past, in describing a single incident. There are also numerous places where homonyms were used that should have been caught by an editor; "peddling" for "pedaling," for example, and "sown" for "sewn." 2. Very little follow-up on what happened to Luong after coming to the US. I wanted to know how she was able to heal her psyche after all she had endured as a child, for example, and what it was like for this little girl to become socialized in her new country. But perhaps this was too personal. 3. The title is misleading. I knew Luong was going to lose at least one sister, but I assumed that this would not happen until after her father was killed. Unpleasant surprises are fine in drama, but this was real life. I was upset enough without Keav's death taking me by surprise. Update: Since originally writing this review, it has come to my attention that this book is controversial, and most of the Cambodian-American community objects to it, for reasons that are enumerated by other reviewers here. Whether Luong's account is overblown or not, I found it a valuable reading experience.
Rating: 
Summary: An Unqualified 5 y.o. Adult-Child Narrator
Review: This is one of those very difficult book to review because it has so many facets: craft, history, extremely early childhood memories, lost and grief. The subject is engaging, but the style and literary effort are not. While I find the latter parts of the book interesting because of the humanity, or lack thereof, of Ung's experiences as a child in a labor camp, I feel somewhat distracted by her narrative voice in the first third of the book. Writting about extremely early childhood memories is a very difficult task (Ung is a five-year-old at the beginning of the book, and a ten-year-old at the end). And her voice is somewhat cumbersome throughout the book. She has what is best described as an adult-child narrative voice, which, of course, at times can be profoundly philosophical or sentimental to the point of being syrupy. I find it important to keep this in mind when reading her description of her father, a former government spy and police chief, as a very kind and loving man--very much an angel on every account. Naturally given the state of Southeast Asia at the time (I am well versed in SE Asia history and culture, having worked, travelled and worked in the region for over fifteen years), this is highly unlikely for anyone with such a resume. Also she describes her family as being middle class. This is false. Although the middle class is almost non-existent in Cambodia at the time, no middle class family can have three cars, several motorcycles and maids like Ung's family. So what we have here actually is a conflict in narration. We expect the "adult-child" narrator describing her experience with the "assumed" depth and judgment of an adult; however, Ung uses another approach, one completely devoid of the honesty and impartially of an adult. Yet, this is not to say that the suffering Ung and her family endured in the labor camps were real. Indeed, it was real, perhaps, even more real than any writer can fully describe. This is a good book, an important book; however, I feel that the author and her editor did not fully "qualify" the narrative voice. After all, this is being sold as "non-fiction", "real accounts" and "survivor's tale". What Ung doesn't remember or know, she fabricates and speculates in dream sequences. But, frankly, how many of us remember anything from when we were five years old, much less with any depth. In the end, if the editors had paid less attention to the market force and urge Ung to write more honestly or at least to qualify her memories, this would have been an unshakeable work. For 5-stars memoirs, I highly recommend Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt and Catfish and Mandala by Andrew X. Pham.
Rating:
Summary: Riveting autobiography about a courageous child.
Review: The attrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge, which resulted in large-scale genocide of the Cambodian people, have not received the attention that they warrant from the Western press. This book describes the horrors of the Khmer Rouge's brutal rule, from the view of a woman who was only a five-year-old girl at the time the Khmer Rouge invaded Phnom Phen. As young as she was, the author showed incredible courage and determination. I have always wondered why some people survive in such horrid conditions; this book provides some insight into the will-to-live, and refusal to give up which kept this woman alive. The descriptions of her family's suffering are graphic, but no more than necessary to provide the reader with an authentic feeling about the torture, starvation and other maltreatment by the Khmer Rouge, as led by the "invisible" but revered and feared leader, Pol Pot. By the way, a complementary book about this epoch which I recommend, told by a woman who was a few years older, is "When Broken Glass Floats."
Rating: 
Summary: Harrowing account of the triumph of the human spirit...
Review: "First They Killed My Father" is a valuable memoir of a child's view of genocide. It is also a wonderful tribute to those members of the Ung family who died during Pol Pot's homocidal regime. However, what I found most fascinating was the way it turned the average American's perceptions on their head. Luong Ung's parents seem to have been remarkable people. Her father, with no connections whatsoever, worked his way into the highest echelons of Cambodia in the pre-Pol Pot era. Simply thru hard work & honesty he went from being a poor ex-Buddhist monk to one of the upper level security people in government circles. Loung's mother had the courage to elope with this remarkable man while he was still dirt poor, defying her family & society. Then while raising 9 children, each parent was so loving that each child felt they were "the favorite". Unusually for an Asian woman's memoir, there is no feeling of the girls' being second class family members, or unwelcome mouths to feed who have to earn their way. The undying love & devotion both parents inspired in their children is truly touching to read about. As the story unfolds, told in Loung's "you are here" style (all present tense thru a child's eye) you are present as she grows from a spoiled 5 year-old into a self-reliant independant 10 year old. The change from trust & selfishness to self-determination is well presented. In our rich Western culture we often need to be reminded that children are capable of much more than we allow them in our effort to infantilise them. During the course of "First They Killed My Father" 12 year old Kim takes full responsibility for keeping his mother & 3 sisters alive & fed. When Pol Pot's regime falls, it is Kim who takes the responsibility of uniting the remaining siblings. Meanwhile Loung takes care of her older but more passive sister Chou, making all decisions & doing all the talking. At an age where Western girls are getting their first Barbie's, Loung was being taught how to use a sickle or machete to kill if no rifle was available. At the end of the book, when Loung gets to Vietnam (in 1979) it is ironic that to her eyes this is a colorful, free, prosperous country while we in the US consider it a dreary, famine-ridden example of Communist repression! It is always refreshing to have preconceptions thrown on their heads, & Loung Ung does this many times in her excellent book. This is a powerful memoir that brought me to tears more than once. It is too bad it is not longer (Ung's editor is thanked in "The Afterward" for making the book so short; personally I'd like to wring her neck!) but you certainly won't regret the time you spend with "First They Killed My Father".
Rating:
Summary: Bravery Written All Over It!
Review: Loung Ung's "First They Killed My Father" is a detailed account of a child's experience under Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Though it takes you through some of the terrible tragedies that occured in Cambodia, Loung brings strength and hope to the times they when almost seem obsolete. This is one book I had a problem putting down. Hope you enjoy is as much as I did.
Rating:
Summary: Impossible to put down
Review: The chilling story of the Cambodian purges led by the Kmer Rouge was impossible to put down. Ms. Ung tells her story without resorting to being overly violent even thogh the killings were in the millions. Her brilliance is in humanizing the violent struggle through a family we grow to care about deeply. She avoids the political side of the Cambodian civil war and focusses on an ordinary family turned from a happy middle class life to one of survival and loss. I read this in one day because I needed to know what happenned to this family. Poor little Loung Ung led a terrible few years but lives to remind us that our American lives of comfort are not to be taken for granted. I recently read a similar book on Rwanda and was similarly touched by how much suffering still can go on in our supposedly modern, humane world. Clearly, wanton slaughter in other countries makes me appreciate the simple freedoms of safety and security we have. Read this story and you will not complain about the simple things that aggravate us in America.
Rating:
Summary: Opened my Eyes
Review: Heard the author over the radio reviewing her book. It caught my interest where I normally would have not read a book like this. This book will stay with me as a reminder of how terrible the war was.
| 
