Customer Reviews

The Unwanted: A Memoir

5 star:		(65)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I wanted to read this book because the author was born in the same city I was born in, Nha Trang. I was curious to find out what happened after the Vietnam War ended, especially since my family never talks about their own experiences there. After reading this memoir, I was deeply moved by its honest portrayal of the day-to-day life for the people who lived under the Communists. At first, I myself did not believe that these events actually happened. Only when I asked my own family, did it occur to me that the events in this memoir are a vivid painting of how it really was living in Vietnam in the years that followed the war. Because of this novel and my curiosity, my family has been pouring me with endless amounts of stories about their experiences, most of which are exactly what the author of The Unwanted talks about. Therefore, I highly recommend this book, particulary to those, like myself, who might be curious to know what happened in Vietnam after the war ended.

I just finished Kien Nguyen's The Unwanted and have a hard time remembering when a book affected me so much. The story is told straight, with little reflective pondering or self-reflection, which I found unusual and even more distressing because of it. Most memoirs I have read are heavily doused in rationalizations about the author's life, indulgent in their explanations or at least lengthy in their self-interpretation. Nguyen's voice is much clearer, almost factual. In the recall of his childhood as an Amerasian child in the newly Communist Viet Nam of the 1970's, he spares details neither on the pettiness of bureaucracy, on brutal family betrayal, nor on his own actions. If anything, he glosses over his own psychological torment and emphasizes the physical and social torments he and his family endured, leaving the reader to judge for himself how these events should be interpreted.

I am lucky to have visited Vietnam in the late 90's and stayed in households there while researching for a documentary being made about an extended family. There are hundreds of thousands of stories like Nguyen's, varying in degrees of severity. I have heard some of these myself and seen the evidence of ruined lives and a ruined country. Those who tried to escape, Amerasian and just plain tormented Vietnamese alike, endured tales of suffering that once heard, you hope with all your heart you will never have to hear again in this world. Human cruelty exists. In extremes. Courageous writers like Kien Nguyen play an enormously valuable role in reminding those with privilege especially that we all choose to make of that fact what we will.

A friend of mine recommended this book to me. Once I started reading it, it's hard to put it down. The author (Kien Nguyen) wrote this with all of his heart. I am a Vietnamese-American currently live in Texas, I know how it was in Vietnam after the fall of Saigon in 1975, even though admittedly I had a more pleasant childhood than Kien.

I strongly recommend this book to everyone. To Kien, if you happen to read this review, I know I could speak for many other Vietnameses currently live in the states: thank you for writing this remarkable story of your life in VN!

Written in a spare and straightforward style that suits the horrific and lush backdrop of post-fall-of-Saigon war years, The Unwanted is Nguyen's story of his childhood as a hated Amerasian, the illegitimabe child of an American GI and a wealthy Vietnamese woman. Focusing on the decade after Saigon fell and ending with his emigration to the United States when he was 18, the author documents the crazy shifts in his life from one of privilege before the age of 8, to one of pathos and fear under the Communists, when the whole social order was reversed and his family was at risk of losing everything, including their lives. Now a dentist in the US, Nguyen initially penned his memoir as a self-healing attempt to overcome the many scars of his difficult childhood. It is fortunate for his readers that he decided to seek publication.

Once in awhile, a really good book that comes along to haunt me for days. This is the case with Kien Nguyen's memoir "The Unwanted." The book is very sad, dark, and disturbing from beginning to end. The only thing that prevents me from falling into an abyss of despair is a glimmer of hope in the final chapter of the book when his family was boarding an airplane to leave Vietnam. It is not an easy read. But it is a worthy read; it is one of the best books I have read about Vietnam. His book reminds me of Jung Chang's monumental work "The Wild Swans" and Nien Cheng's haunting memoir "Life and Death in Shanghai." It reminds me of an extraordinarily well-written and moving article on the Wall Street Journal published in 1999 to mark the 20 years anniversary of the fall of Pol Pot in Cambodia... The book also reminds me of my own experience last year walking through the prison cells and death chambers at the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp which was left intact as it was at the end of WWII... As I was standing there, I had flashbacks of my own experience in a Communist prison. All of these experiences force me think about the meanings of Fascism, Communism, human mistreatment, and human dignity. Kien Nguyen's memoir also reminds me of my own best friends in first grade - Amerasian twin brothers... Kien Nguyen's book has provided me an answer. Having been jailed at a prison in Kien Nguyen's hometown and having left Vietnam through the ODP program, I was particularly impressed with his accurate descriptions of the prison, the building, the people, and the troubles one had to go through in order to leave Vietnam. I have a great admiration for Kien who has the courage to write this book that really captures the essence of life in Vietnam during those years. His book is an excellent that will keep you awake at night turning the pages. I like it so much that I order one copy for my home library so in case later my children ask me about Vietnam... "The Unwanted" gets five stars and "Two Thumbs Up" recommendation from me!!!

It's very hard to believe that this incredibly riveting book was written by a dentist in New York, as therapy for his bad dreams about his childhood as an Amerasian growing up during the Vietnam War . . . What can I say about this true story? From page 1, it's mesmerizing. His writing is spare, yet beautifully descriptive. He walks us through incredible scenes of his childhood in a way that makes us believe that we are really there, seeing the war through his child's eyes. I'm buying copies of this book to give to my friends, relatives, and colleagues. I stayed up all night to read this book, and I cried.

Most Americans have little idea of what happened in Vietnam after the last helicopter left the U.S. Embassy roof. This memoir--which is brutally painful to read at times--is by far the most detailed account of the chaos that tormented Vietnam in the first ten years of Communist rule that you'll find. Something tells me that a sequel chronicling how Nguyen evolved from 18-year-old immigrant to 33-year-old New York dentist would be just as fascinating. I hope he's writing it.

Unreservedly recommended. This is one of the few books in recent memory I was completely unable to put down until finished. The author tells the horrifying and fascinating story of his childhood in post-war Vietnam without sensationalism, and without flinching. Occasionally the language is a little awkward - I imagined the author remembering his childhood in the language he used then, and not finding exactly how to put it in English - but there is still something poetic in its simplicity. Thanks to Kien Nguyen for sharing his remarkable story of courage and resilience.

I am also an Ameriasian, born in 1966. I cried while reading this book. I cried for Kien, for myself, and for other Ameriasians from VietNam. I understand exactly what he had gone through. Thanks to Kien for this incredible book. He wrote just what I've always wanted to write. I wonder if Kien ever find his dad. I have not. I wonder if his dad and my dad ever have a chance to read "The Unwanted". I wonder what they think of us. I wonder if they ever wanted to find their son and daughter.

Like many others who have left comments about this book, I too finished it in less than 24 hours. I found it difficult to put down.

I am finally thrilled to read a story such as this one. The struggle and journey to freedom for many Vietnamese refugees has not been documented enough. My family and I were fortunate to flee from Vietnam in 1975 during the fall of Saigon. My journey to freedom was less harrowing and uneventful than the author's. However, my other friends who fled the country during the second wave of the Vietnamese influx to the US in 1979 told me of bone-chilling tales of their trek to a far better life in the States.

The tragedies and misfortunes of some refugees who flee Vietnam in boats include harsh weather, a lack of food and water which ultimately leads to starvation, boat engine failures that cripples some boats to drift aimlessly in the Pacific and finally sea pirates and bandits who board these vessels to steal peoples' only possessions while raping some of the women and children. Indeed, these stories are true and more or less remain undocumented to the general public.

I am thrilled to know that stories like this one are now being told.