Rating: 
Summary: A War That's Not Over
Review: "Le Ly Hayslip had always been in-between south and north, east and west, peace and war, Vietnam and America. It has been her life and fate to be in-between Heaven and Earth." When Heaven and Earth Changed Places is a story of a woman from a small village in Vietnam called Ky La. The author, Le Ly Hayslip, is just another victim of the Vietnam War. The brutality of the war created separation in her family, destruction of an individual, and distrust among formerly warm-hearted neighbors. She was born the youngest of six children in a close-knit Buddhist family. Throughout her childhood, the peace breaks into pieces due to the war. Le Ly, as a little girl, serves the Viet Cong fighters, and she is honored for courageously surviving tortures in prison when captured by the government. The book focuses on the individual¡¯s emotional and physical outcomes caused by the war. If one wants to know the reality of what the effects of the war are, this book is definitely recommended. As an Asian, I was attracted to the story of the life of this Vietnamese woman. As I read, I found there was something very extraordinary about her life that stirred my emotions. To the public, this story is well known through the movie, "Heaven and Earth." As the movie was enjoyed by numerous moviegoers, the book will be appreciated by people of all ages, especially those who are interested in the Vietnam War.
Rating:
Summary: A War That's Not Over
Review: "Le Ly Hayslip had always been in-between south and north, east and west, peace and war, Vietnam and America. It has been her life and fate to be in-between Heaven and Earth." When Heaven and Earth Changed Places is a story of a woman from a small village in Vietnam called Ky La. The author, Le Ly Hayslip, is just another victim of the Vietnam War. The brutality of the war created separation in her family, destruction of an individual, and distrust among formerly warm-hearted neighbors. She was born the youngest of six children in a close-knit Buddhist family. Throughout her childhood, the peace breaks into pieces due to the war. Le Ly, as a little girl, serves the Viet Cong fighters, and she is honored for courageously surviving tortures in prison when captured by the government. The book focuses on the individual¡¯s emotional and physical outcomes caused by the war. If one wants to know the reality of what the effects of the war are, this book is definitely recommended. As an Asian, I was attracted to the story of the life of this Vietnamese woman. As I read, I found there was something very extraordinary about her life that stirred my emotions. To the public, this story is well known through the movie, "Heaven and Earth." As the movie was enjoyed by numerous moviegoers, the book will be appreciated by people of all ages, especially those who are interested in the Vietnam War.
Rating:
Summary: You do not understand the Vietnam war...
Review: ...unless you've read this book. Hayslip is insightful, honest even about her own tragedies and mistakes, and beyond blaming or hating anyone. One of her desires is to help Vietnam war veterans find peace in their own hearts, and I think her book can help. I cannot believe how good this book is, and I strongly recommend it. I read 20 books this summer, and this was easily the best one!
Rating:
Summary: "an excruciatingly painful memoir..."
Review: A heart gripping true life sagaWhen Heaven and Earth Changed Places, written by Le Ly Hayslip is a haunting memoir of a girl on the verge of womanhood in a world turned upside down. It describes her journey from war-torn Vietnam to the United States, recounting how she endured imprisonment, torture, rape, near-starvation, and the deaths of members of her family. Phung Thi Le Ly Hayslip was born in a small farming village called Ky La in 1949. Le Ly was the youngest of six children in a close-knit Buddhist family. Her country of Vietnam has been plagued by war for many years. First the Chinese, then the Japanese, and since the 19th Century the French have dominated her land. Her small village is far from these foreign rulers, life continued as it has for many generations. Peaceful rice-farmers following the teachings of their Lord Buddha. Protected by Ong Troi, Father Heaven, and Met Dat, Mother Earth. It is in the middle these peaceful people live - Trio va Dat - Between Heaven and Earth. But in 1953 war came to their peaceful little village, the war against the French. Then in 1963 another war woke their sleepy little village, but this war would tear at the country's heart. A civil war that would change life in this part of the world forever. The Vietcong came and tore families apart, putting brother against brother, and father against son, all for the sake of freedom, or that's how it seemed to them. But the price was greater then anyone ever could imagine. Le Ly worked for the Viet Cong as a girl. Not only did she suffer under the Republicans, the party in control of South Vietnam, but later she was unjustly accused of being a traitor by the Viet Cong. The book tells us how Le Ly is being drug into the forest and raped, left in shame and forced to leave her much loved village. She went to Saigon with her mother and secured a position as a nanny in a rich family. However, she became pregnant with her master and was forced to leave her new home when her master's wife found out. Faced with this new hurdle in her life, Le Ly and her mother returned to Danang where she became a black-marketer. Through these experiences she learned to trust Americans. Her experiences throughout the war were regularly filled with terror, pain, suffering, and horror. But in the midst of all the tragedy there's a sense of hope and love of family that's stronger than the hate. The book is flashing back and forth between the war and 1986, when she returns to see her family. The reason why I chose this book was that I had seen the film and found it very exciting. It was so tragic and at the same time it was so beautiful. Often when a book is dramatised the film never becomes as good as the book. Therefore I chose to read ms Hayslips book. I was surprised. After having read the first three chapters I had to stop reading. It was just too much. The film had nearly made me cry. And now I couldn't stop a tear falling down my cheek... "When Heaven and Earth Changed Places" is a powerful book about the struggles of a family in the midst of a country in war and despair. It's a moving, touching and riveting book, very eloquently written. The book has a very lyrical and poetic language. For me, a person born many years after the Vietnam war and who only has heard of it through history books, this was a book which told me what the war was really like. It's an excruciatingly painful memoir that reveals the soul and suffering of a people torn by war.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing story of a little girl and grown woman.
Review: I am 16 years old, and I do not like to read. But I started reading this book for a research project of mine. I am blown away by the 2 story's in this book. (The author as a little girl, and as a grown woman revisiting her home). I recommend this to anyone interested in the life of a vietnamese child during the war, or to anyone who loves asian culture.
Rating: 
Summary: A gripping saga of human survival and spiritual victory.
Review: I confess that as a Viet Nam War vet, and someone who is recently married to a Vietnamese national from the Mekong Delta, I have a fascination with any account of an experience from that place and time. I immediately became engulfed in Le Ly's story, but what the book has left in me is an astonishment of her great spiritual character. Not only has she forgiven those who committed atrocities against her, but she has matured from her Buddhist roots and the lessons taught to her by her father into a great, compassionate woman. Le Ly tells her story honestly and with the vision of someone who is able to see both the good and evil in those who wronged her. This book gives those of us who served in the war a better understanding of the forces at work in another continuing, on-going chapter in the history of human suffering and tragedy.
Rating:
Summary: A well written memoir of the horrors of war.
Review: I find it quite interesting the one reader who slams Le Ly is also the only reader in all of these posts who neglected to leave a name or email address. Also the following statement was included "The Viet Congs lied, tortured, and killed numerous innocent people to get what they want." Hmmmm that sounds like the exact same things the Americans did! Also the following statement is made "It's pathetic how low she would go to make a buck off the same capitalist system that she and the communists despised do much that they had to engage in a war that turned many people's lives upside down, to drive the Americans out" That's kinda funny accusing the Vietnamese of starting a war because it's likely there never would have been a war had Americans stayed in America. The Vietcong were no more worse human beings than the Americans they were fighting against. The Vietcong were true patriots no different than American patriots and visitors to Vietnam today will find many ex-Vietcong are friendly and civil to American visitors. A good book with one more account of how innocent people are effected by the war.
Rating:
Summary: A fantastic read
Review: I loved this book. It was a fantastic read, and a wonderful story. It is well written, and very enjoyable. I think it is a powerful story of the real dammage that war inflicts on people, the real pain it causes, and Le Ly Hayslip's journey to fix it. I reccomend it to everyone.
Rating:
Summary: Truth about the Vietnam War
Review: I read this book because it was assigned for an English class. Half way through the book, I hated it because it was too brutal and unsettling for somebody who knew nothing about the Vietnam War. It's hard to believe how anyone could have experienced, and yet endured all that Le Ly went through. I didn't appreciate reading about the gory and cruel details that she experienced, but after reading half way through the book, I couldn't put it down either. In the end, I really learned something about the war that most of the younger generations today never learned.. and even if we did, it was probably from the grotesquely portrayed account by Hollywood films. This is a good book, and I have learned something truly valuable. I will never think of Vietnam war or Veterans day the same way I did before I read this book.
Rating:
Summary: A stirring and thought-provoking book
Review: I recently read "When Heaven and Earth Changed Places" at a friend's reccomendation. I was impressed at both the quality of writing and the overall storyline. I became so ingrossed in the book that I read the entire thing in one sitting! If you have any interest in the Vietnam War or simply in good literature, I gladly recommend it.
|
