First They Killed My Father: Three

The conclusion to this book is very relieving. As I getting closer towards the end of the book, every page I turned I felt that she, Luong, was inching closer and closer to safety. It was a very nice feeling to know that after everything she was forced to go through and the death of her loved ones, she would still remain safe with her family. The story started out with the Ung family being happy in Phnom Penh, but as the story progressed, she soon faced the reality that she had to say goodbye to Ma, Pa, Geak, and Keav. Even with the passing of some of her family, she still remained strong and looked toward light at the end of the tunnel. This amazing demonstration of willpower surprised me indeed, and Mr. Sutherland's guest as well.

The first sign of refuge is when the Youn invade Khmer Rouge camps and take many of the people living in the camps into their care. While the people are still unsure about the Youn, they still choose to follow them simply because they were against the Khmer Rouge, and the Youn were basically fighting their enemy. Despite some language barriers, the Youn and refugees still manage to live together quite easily. Luong however, was an unfortunate victim of attempted rape. The Youn tricked her into going to the woods for water, only to find that the man she trusted ended up trying to rape her. She luckily got away in time.

After a few more events, Luong and her brother Khuoy decide to move away from Cambodia entirely to find a better life. They planned it intricately so that the siblings that were staying still had support from overseas. This particular book ends when she gets to America, but she still trails some mystery.

Her sequel to the book, Lucky Child, continues where this book left off. It tells the story of how she copes with assimilating a whole new culture. I plan on reading this sequel on my leisure time in the near future.

Book Review 1: First They Killed My Father

First They Killed My Father by Luong Ung is a memoir documenting the experiences that the author had being in Khmer Rouge control. When the Khmer Rouge invaded Cambodia, many families were put through a trial testing their willpower. The Ung family was one of these families and this book shows how the whole family dealt with living in conditions that were very.. chaotic and unjust. This book is a great example of a memoir and throughout the book you'll be wondering: Will they make it to the end?

How would you describe the author's style of writing? What's your opinion of the style?

Luong writes in a way that captivates the reader. She recollects her memories to create a vivid image of the environment she was in. To me, it's interesting how clear her memories are to the point where she could describe the city streets in full detail. Taken from the first paragraph of the book, "Already at 6 A.M. people in Phnom Penh are rushing and bumping into each other on dusty.. streets." You can already tell how much she emphasizes the environment she lives in. She also dives deep into her mind and the mind of others, telling us what her young self thought about whatever she was facing.

Although sometimes she would come out of this style of writing and go into a third-person omniscient like way of telling her stories. I could only guess that she wrote these parts to be what her imagination would be like. When she goes into this style of writing, we know for sure that she is not witnessing the event first-hand. So one could assume that she is telling us what she had imagined to happen. Even so, it still allows readers to get a good grasp of what happened to so and so just in case they were wondering. And she does quite a good job of it.

Her style really appeals to me. It drew me in and kept me in. Needless to say I will be excited when I get the time to pick up the sequel to this book.

What was the author's purpose(s) in writing this book, and how can you tell? How well was this purpose achieved?

You could tell her purpose was to educate the people who were unaware or curious to know how bad the conditions were when the Khmer Rouge took over. Since this book is a memoir, the purpose of the book comes off pretty clear. The events mentioned in this book portray a harsh and ruthless takeover; she writes how she and her family lived with it and describing glimpses of other families when she could. Ung clearly lets you know that her story is not at all unique in the author's note of the book, "Though these events constitute my experience, my story mirrors that of millions of Cambodians. If you had been living in Cambodia during this period, this would be your story too."

Her purpose came across pretty well. Picking up the book knowing that it's a memoir alone can already give you hints as to what the author's purpose would be. Depending on the topic of the memoir, different purposes could be targeted. It could be just a memoir written to show a reader how the author lived their life or whatever. But with this book, she wanted to tell readers who were interested in how life was like when you're being totally controlled by a ruthless group of individuals. And she did it well.

The intensity of the detail she expresses helps get her point across by a lot. By going into detail, she makes you feel as if you were her. As if you were the one who was seeing what she was seeing. She doesn't make you feel like a reader, but rather she puts you in her own shoes so you could have as much of a first-hand experience as you possibly can. Doing this makes her purpose very clear to me.

For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell?

This book is intended for whoever is interested in what life was like during the Khmer Rouge. Like I said before, this book is a memoir of just that and it aims to educate the uneducated. The reader will be shown how ONE family dealt with an overwhelming ordeal, but the author insists that this book would be basically telling the story of every other family. This book was hard for her to write, seeing how she probably had to look back at her hardest times when she was living under Khmer control.

In the back of the book, she explains how hard it was for her to write the book. "With the narrative style and point of view selected, I sat down and wrote the first three chapters.. in the past tense. But it did not feel authentic. I knew I was protecting myself by writing in the past tense." She realizes how difficult it still is for her to write about her experiences. But she manages to get through that and continue writing a great book.

Also in the back of the book, a little section entitled "Letters from Cambodian Readers" also hint the fact at who this book was for. Along with the uneducated, this book was also meant for people who shared the same experience as Luong Ung and want to hear their stories too. It shows that even though the general idea of the book is the same for everyone else that went through the tough times, there are still individual details that one has entitled to them and themselves only.

First They Killed My Father: Two

The second part of the book continues as Luong and her family live in the harsh conditions of the Khmer Rouge. Already 2/3rds into the the story, you can imagine the hardships that Luong and her family have to overcome. They have to deal with having to 'migrate' from camp to camp in order to hide the true identity of her family, because if the Khmer Rouge ever find out that Pa worked for the government, or that they were city people, their existence would cease to be present. Along with that, they have to deal with the cruel treatment of the Khmer Rouge. But the Khmer Rouge deny this cruel treatment but instead excuse it as proper behavior in order to respect the Angkar. These hardships and more truly make it hard for Luong and her family to get by.

One chapter that caught my attention especially, is the chapter Keav. In this chapter, which continues where the story of Keav left off, Luong, out of nowhere, changes the point of view in her writing. The text become italics and begin to narrate in a third-person omniscient point of view. This sort of confused me at first but I gradually began figuring out what Luong was trying to show readers. The sudden change in point of view is a nice addition to the already interesting writing, but it no doubt took me by surprise.

In general, Luong doesn't fail to keep me motivated to keep on reading. Her stories are indeed interesting and I always wonder how she would get out of the sticky situations she gets in. I hope her writing and stories stay consistent to the aspects that made me love this book in the first place. I can't wait to finish this book. Enjoy the rest of the read, guys!

First They Killed My Father: One

What can I say, the moment I started reading the book I couldn't stop. Every night I would read for a good hour or two, get through a lot of pages. The way author Luong Ung illustrates her experiences as a child in the book allow me to create vivid images in my head. Only adding to the fact of how well she describes her environment. I have taken a nice liking to memoirs, especially after reading Night. Reading about other people's hardships make me aware of how lucky I am to live such an easy life compared to those who suffered.

As the book starts, Luong describes her luxurious life as a middle-class child in Phnom Penh. Her life was better than most of the people in her city, but she was a troublesome child. Her mother would always scold her but her father would back her up, often complimenting her actions instead of punishing them. She describes her large family one by one, using as much detail as she can so the reader can create their own image of the person. Luong assures us that she takes a higher liking to her father compared to her mother. It's a shame that this story of living a good life ends so fast. By the third chapter, things already start getting bad.

The transition to the jolly and happy-go-lucky feel of the book to a cold, ruthless feeling comes quick. The smoothness of the transition is pretty astounding too. I wonder why she chose not to go into much detail about her childhood at the beginning of the book. Maybe it's because she was so young? I don't know for sure, but that's plausible. She describes the situation the Khmer Rouge put her in as a "What will they do next?" kind of way, which leaves a somewhat mysterious feeling around the book. It always has you thinking of what'll come up next.