Customer Reviews

The Pink Lotus

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Nghia M. Vo, the author, really loves his people, and in this very
moving and personal account of the Vietnamese experience, the reader
is treated to a rare glimpse of a very special world. It is a world
of deep family ties, a reverence for education and the strength of a
simple, hard working people who have suffered unspeakable
hardships. It is the story of a young man studying to be a doctor, his
escape to the United States after the war and his view of America. It
is also the story of the people he meets along the way.

The
structure of the book takes the reader back and forth from Vietnam to
a variety of regions in America. By the details he chooses in his
descriptions of the lush foliage and climates of New England,
Tennessee and Indiana, his love for this country comes through
too.

Some of the stories of the Vietnamese people are harrowing.
There is the communist takeover and the prison camps that most South
Vietnamese men had to endure for 2 to 10 years. There is the plight
of the poor people who fled in small boats only to be pillaged again
and again by pirates. There is the story of families rounded up in
the middle of the night, forced into trucks and then
"resettled" in a mosquito infested forest with no tools or
food.

Nghia Vo is now a surgeon and the book is filled with keen
observations about medical practice in Vietnam and in various
hospitals and research facilities in the United States. We share his
joys in a satisfying career and his sadness at the death of his wife
and his mother.

As English is not Dr. Vo's native language, there
are grammatical errors throughout the book. But it doesn't really
matter because his voice and his philosophy of life come through loud
and clear.

I heartily recommend this book as a way to expand our
understanding of the legacy of Vietnam from a particularly Vietnamese
point of view. And I thank Dr. Vo for writing it.