Customer Reviews

Stay Alive, My Son

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I am rarely moved to tears when reading a book, yet Pin Kathy's recounting of his horrendous experiences and ultimate survival is an exception. The agony of his having to abandon his son and losing his wife in the forest while trying to escape from Cambodia are the worst of numerous agonizing events. The book is a very personal account of one man and the destruction of his family however, Pin Yathay's narration also achieves his primary goal of allowing the reader to understand what life or more often death was like for all under Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge rule. This reign of terror is an extreme example of what happens when a nation's political structure so weakens that unbridled ignorance destroys all enlightenment. It is also a warning that progress can never be taken for granted. Few who read this book will ever forget it.

Pin Yathay's amazing account of his ordeal under the Khmer Rouge is truly unforgettable and deeply moving. He was a successful engineer who had gone to college in Montreal and had a big happy family in April of 1975 when everything about his world changed forever. At first he and other members of the family didn't believe that anything was going to happen with the new rulers in power (after all, he had supported the Khmer Rouge against the opposition leader Lon Nol and believed they would give Cambodians a better life). Even when they were forced to evacuate Phnom Penh soon after the takeover of power, he didn't believe that anything horrible would happen to them. Most of the people forced onto the road believed that this would merely be a temporary evacuation and that before long, once the political situation became stable, they would be allowed to return home and be put to good use working for the new regime.

It wasn't long before the true intentions of the Khmer Rouge became known. In their ruthless fanatical quest to purgue the nation of anything smacking of the old regime, they took away anything deemed to be "imperialist," even something like the registration for a car, a pair of glasses, or certain types of clothing. Their hatred of all things "imperialist" was so irrational and fanatical that they would even throw away or destroy things like cars or foreign money, things that could have been very useful to them in their position of power or quest to supposedly reform the country. Although Thay hid his true background from them, fearing execution or imprisonment if they knew how high-ranking he'd really been, he and his family were still deemed "New People" (as opposed to the "Ancients," or peasants, who were left alone because they hadn't lived or worked like "imperialists"), and therefore sent from work camp to work camp in the forests and jungles, made to work the land and do other backbreaking hard labor. Hunger, disease, and fatigue soon began to take their toll on the people in these work camps, and before long only he, his wife Any, and one of his sons were left. He and his wife made the incredibly difficult decision to leave their surviving child Nawath behind in a hospital, in the care of an older woman who promised to look after him, so that they might escape and live, and then one day be able to return to Cambodia to look for him.

The account of Thay's arduous trek through the jungle and into Thailand is incredibly powerful and compelling, a true testament to the will to survive. After he was left alone, he knew he had an obligation to all of his lost loved ones to live, to testify to the world about what was happening in Cambodia, so that their deaths would not have been in vain. It gave him the courage and strength to live even after he ran out of lighter fluid and food supplies and had to resort to eating the raw meat of animals such as tortoises and bats, and to escape again after being recaptured by some Khmer Rouge near the border. And all along the way, the dying words of his father, ordering him to stay alive, urged him on even when succumbing to the elements or his hunger and fatigue might have been a welcome relief. This book is both excellent history and a moving story of survival against the odds, and, when it comes to books about this era in Cambodian history and this particular genocide of the 20th century, is as good a place to start as any.

Pin Yathay has so much to be angry about, yet his account of his suffering, and those of his family,during the years the Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia, is a true testimony to his undeniable courage. No bitterness or fury emanates from these pages; rather we are made aware of the incredible spirit of this man. A man who has lost everything and everyone he cared about, and who determined that through his survival,they would all live once more. Be glad he lived to tell his story. You will so much more appreciate your own.

This tragic biography traces the story of an educated man and his family in Phnom Penh. Subjected to the indescribable barbaric cruelty that the Khmer Rouge inflicted on its own countrymen, the writer provides the reader with their sense of hopelessness that gripped their nation less than 30 years ago. His hardship and ultimate triumph is the very definition of human survival and the will to survive. Anyone wanting to gain a better understanding of the plight of the Cambodian people under the Khmer Roughe MUST read this book. I can guarantee that when you finish reading this book you will undoubtedly take a moment to think about humanity itself.

If you do not know about what happened in Cambodia in the 70's this is a must read (and if you thought you don't care then you are sadly mistaken). Pin Yathay has made his personal experiences into a book that you can't put down. The atrocities that happened in the name of the Khmer Rouge go beyond what most people would imagine possible - a sound reminder of what can happened when those with extreme ideas are left unchecked.

Amazing recount of a cruel journey no human being should "ever" have to ordeal! I learned so many things from Thay - about spirituality, love, and critical thinking. God Bless him and his family, both past and present. He is an angel sent to us to remind us of the freedom America affords all human beings -- and the power we may have to make a difference in the lives of any oppressed people. I pictured myself on my knees and holding Thay in my arms when he finally reached it to Thailand. I kissed his head and said "I love you". I cried many times while reading this book!

I found this work to be a well-written first-person account of the worst time in Cambodia. The book is a harrowing detail of the author's flight from Cambodia, and the narrative is straight-forward and easy to follow. I'm not sure one 'enjoys' a work that details such suffering, but the author does the world a service by bearing witness to the worst aspects of human nature and group-think.

I purchased this book from a survivor of the khmer rouge, standing on a street corner in Seim Reap, Cambodia. He was a victim of past disease and crippled by unknown atrocities. I had no idea at the time about the true past of Cambodia, and after reading this book, now look back at my trip with a new understanding of what they have been through. One of the most powerful stories of the struggle for human rights I have ever read.

Another valuable account of life during the communist 'reign of terror' in Cambodia.

Pin Yathay's biography is a unique dramatic and shocking report on the Red Khmer regime in the 1970s in Cambodia.
It contains an excellent first-hand account of the disorderly evacuation of Phnom Penh after the Red Khmer victory in the civil war. After the evacuation, the whole country was turned into an experiment of totalitarian economy (no money, no private property, spying on everybody). The main ideological aim was equality at any cost, not freedom, except naturally for the members of Angkar (the Organization) themselves.
The whole system resulted in murderous labour camps with hundreds of thousands of deaths from hunger, exhaustion, torture and summary executions of 'enemies' of the system. A terrible shame for humanity and for the ideologically pure left.

The escape to Thailand reads like a nail-biting but bitter thriller. It was a real and, for some family members, deadly escape, not fiction.

Apart from its uncontested historical value, this book should be read as a warning against the madness of pure ideologists, who, once in power, accept without the slightest remorse millions of human casualties in order to implement their maniacal policies.

For a more political (national and international), economical and social analysis of the Cambodian history and the Red Khmer regime, I recommend the works of David P. Chandler and Ben Kiernan, as well as William Shawcross's 'Sideshow'.