When the cities of Cambodia are evacuated in 1975, Chhav Ou is forced to keep his family, including his teenage son Chhalith, anonymous. If the Khmer Rouge discovers that Chhav Ou worked for the Americans at one time, all the family members will be murdered. Trapped in Battambang Province in northwest Cambodia, the family must become nobody at all. In the extraordinary memoir Spare Them? No Profit. Remove Them? No Loss, Chhalith Ou tells the story of how, at age thirteen, he is separated from his parents after the Khmer Rouge invades his city, and spends much of the next few years in the deepest part of the jungle where he clears land, harvests bamboo, and gathers rocks. While avoiding starvation by trapping animals and treating poisonous plants to make them edible, Ou must become a leader of men much older than he. Meanwhile, Chhalith’s parents, Chhav and Chanthorn, are laying the groundwork for one of the most harrowing escapes ever recorded. In this first-person account that provides a compelling glimpse into what it was like to live under Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime, Chhalith reveals the incredible bravery, inner strength, and perseverance it took to survive, despite insurmountable odds.
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Editorial Reviews
From the Inside Flap
When the cities of Cambodia are evacuated in 1975, Chhav Ou is forced to keep his family, including his teenage son Chhalith, anonymous. If the Khmer Rouge discovers that Chhav Ou worked for the Americans at one time, all the family members will be murdered. Trapped in Battambang Province in northwest Cambodia, the family must become nobody at all.
In the extraordinary memoir Spare Them? No Profit. Remove Them? No Loss, Chhalith Ou tells the story of how, at age thirteen, he is separated from his parents after the Khmer Rouge invades his city, and spends much of the next few years in the deepest part of the jungle where he clears land, harvests bamboo, and gathers rocks. While avoiding starvation by trapping animals and treating poisonous plants to make them edible, Ou must become a leader of men much older than he. Meanwhile, Chhalith's parents, Chhav and Chanthorn, are laying the groundwork for one of the most harrowing escapes ever recorded.
In this first-person account that provides a compelling glimpse into what it was like to live under Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime, Chhalith reveals the incredible bravery, inner strength, and perseverance it took to survive, despite insurmountable odds.
From the Back Cover
We were in the yard and could hear sporadic gunfire outside the city. This had become so common that we wondered what was happening if we didn't hear it. What did soldiers do when they didn't shoot at each other? My father came running through the gate, shouting, "We have to leave, now! Pack. Get your clothes together. We're leaving." My father was very upset and agitated. "I have the tickets," he said. "We can take a plane to Phnom Penn tonight and leave with the Americans." We were all stunned and afraid of what my father wanted to do. My mother refused to go. She said that we couldn't leave and take the children out of school. This was home. Where would we go? He grabbed her shoulders and shouted, "Phnom Penn is falling. Battambang will be next." He shook her slightly as he said, "Don't you understand? I will be killed! I worked for the Americans!"
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing resiliency and optimism,
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This review is from: Spare Them? No Profit. Remove Them? No Loss.: The True Story of a Young Teenager in Pol Pot's Cambodia (Paperback)
This book is the account of Chhalith Ou's teenage years spent in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. It reads like a conversation, or like a story told by one friend to another, which I believe is pretty much how the book was written. Despite his relative youth, Chhalith spent most of the four years documented in this account away from his family, working on projects ranging from rice farming to building dams. The life he describes is filled with danger and deprivation, and yet Chhalith's optimism and good nature shine through. In between recounting the story of those years, Chhalith shares the survival lessons he learned--making wild plants edible and catching small game to supplement his inadequate rations to keep himself alive--and his observations on human nature which, in the unpredictable and dangerous world ruled by the Khmer Rouge were just as necessary for his survival. I found it profoundly humbling to read the thoughts of a man who survived through an incredibly difficult, dangerous period of history; to hear the lessons he gleaned from the difficulties he faced and how those lessons help him in his daily life today. I enjoyed reading about Chhalith's experiences and I have great admiration for the man. When my children complain about how difficult their lives are, I will hand them this book and tell them to read it.Beyond privileged teens, this is a record that I suspect will be important for historians who are interested in the experiences of those living in Cambodia during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. It depicts the struggle, the suffering, and how people survived--or didn't. Although the narrative is a bit understated in depicting the danger, several scenes stick with me. To me the most gruesome scene was of a glade in the forest filled with scattered human remains from people who likely starved to death, together, and whose bodies were later scavenged by tigers and other jungle fauna. The image of a displaced community huddled together in their last moments is haunting, particularly given the politics that left them to die. Cambodia isn't a very large country and a lot of people died there during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. It's clear from Ou's stories that the bones and blood of murdered people lie under much of the countryside. Throughout history great evils have been perpetrated in the name of the greater good. Chhalith Ou's account depicts in an amazingly matter of fact way how evil the Khmer Rouge regime was, and how depraved those with even a small amount of power became in the dysfunctional communism practised in Cambodia, and yet shows how goodness and hope can still emerge and carry people through unbelievably tough situations. This book was provided through a first reads give away on Goodreads. Thank you to the authors for sharing this incredible story!
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