Saturday, March 27, 2010
HI FRIENDS
So, after 15 days of doing nothing related to school, I decided to take a crack at First They Killed My Father. Seventy pages in and I'm glad to report that I'm enjoying this way more than Bookseller and I think most of my fellow bloggers would agree that this is infinitely better than the former. So far, Loung Ung succeeds in her goal to depict the voice of her 5 year old self despite her narration occurring some 25 years later. I think she succeeds for two major reasons. First, she provides no "present day" interjections. She appears to be recounting these events as best as she can remember and doesn't inject any flowery self-reflection that she obviously wouldn't be able to recall word-for-word after 25 years into her prose. Second, she describes her emotions as simply as possible; it's highly unlikely that a 5 year old would be experience the same complex emotions that she writes her parents and older siblings as having. Above all, Ung describes her personal experiences as a microcosm of the tumultuous events that surround her. She doesn't try to make her family's experiences sound more unique or tragic than any other. Overall, Ung's successful use of language create the aforementioned aura of the book which makes for an entertaining and pathos-heavy read (and I mean pathos-heavy in the best and nicest way possible).
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I do agree with you in that I think Ung's 5-year old narrative voice is well done and highly effective. However, I think she does experience "the same complex emotions" as the rest of her family -she's just not sure what they mean or where they're coming from. For me, one of the most effective aspects of the book is that the narrator is confused and angry most of the time. The fact that she is going through such a terrible struggle with little to none understanding of why anything is happening lends a real sense of chaos to the whole situation, and stays true to her experiences. A five year old doesn't sugar coat or modify anything, and because she's so impressionable her reactions and thoughts really depict accurately the atmosphere of war-time Cambodia.
ReplyDeleteLike Elese said before, I am blown away with not only Loung Ung's courage during the unspeakable hardships she was forced to endure during the Cambodian genocide, but her honesty in recalling these horrific events. The pain she describes caused by her flashbacks while visiting her mother after being sent away to an orphanage camp, makes me wonder how tough it must have been for Ung to write this book and to relive everything, in detail, her family's suffering.
ReplyDeleteAs Sarah and Alexa touched upon before, the narrative style that Ung chooses to use definitely adds a certain directness to the book. At the same time, although the sentences are simply structured to evoke a child-like feel, Ung is able to slip in little hints that give her a mature and adult-like persona. These hints are usually bigger words that no five year old would know or even attempt to use.
I started First They Killed My Father somewhat dreading it. It seemed to be more of the same as Bookseller of Kabul (and by that I mean an extraordinarily depressing, albeit very well-meaning memoir which chronicles a foreign injustice from an intimate perspective), however I have been pleasantly surprised by what I have read. What struck me about the book initially, similar to what has been mentioned already is how effective Ung is at detailing this tragic period through the eyes of a young child. We talked in class about how when Maya Angelou attempted something similar, it felt cloying due to how we could feel her present day perspective overriding the narrative. However, as Alexa noted, Ung makes it powerful in a way that does not feel cheap by maintaining this universal, naive perspective throughout her prose when it fits. She does not shoehorn in present-day introspection (granted I'm only 68 pages in), she merely details these atrocities from this heartbreakingly innocent perspective, and that does the job for her. One of the things that really frustrated about Bookseller was how Seierstad kept inserting herself and her opinions into the text, and here Ung veers away from anything like that. Any opinions in the book pertain to the moment at hand, and in that sense they feel more appropriate, and the book feels more effective.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with what others have said about Ung's narrative voice. I find it to be an effective and fascinating fusion of an advanced vocabulary while reflecting the maturity and emotions of a 5-year-old. Though sometimes naive, Ung's narration is so spot-on in its portrayal of a child that the reader feels directly transported into the actions as they occur. Undoubtedly, Ung made a conscious decision to narrate the book in this matter, rather than by simply recounting her memories as an adult, and her choice makes the book far more effective. Further, Ung's choice of narrating through the child's view makes the depiction of the events far more accurate. An adult recounting their memories will add in bias, or emphasize a singular event over others in order to further some agenda (political or otherwise). By confining herself to the perspective of a 5-year-old, Ung eschews all this bias and serves the reader a far more effective, unadulterated account of the events in Cambodia.
ReplyDeleteIm not very far in the book, but already i enjoy it a lot more than Bookseller of Kabul. I agree with the comments above and i definitely think Ung's 5 year old narrative voice is done very well. i like that nothing is sugar coated and the confusion she feels is very real. However i find myself becoming frustrated with how many questions she asks and how much of a nuisance she can be. i have to constantly remind myself she is a five year old. Overall, the book is very descriptive and i really feel as though im living this tragedy. The innocent perspective makes this even more heart-wrenching, but makes it feel very real. I also like, as mentioned before, that Ung does not insert herself into the text but simply continues with the 5 year old perspective. Overall, im enjoying the book very much so far and i am excited to read more.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what everyone has been saying about Ung's narration. It is seriously hard to believe that a 5 year old is essentially narrating the book, but then again Ung is no ordinary 5 year old and was put through experiences that not even adults can handle. The truthful style of describing what she sees, as she sees it, gives the horrific experiences such power over the reader. I found myself tearing up quite a few times while reading...definitely a page-turner.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was really great how even though, like Alexa said, the actual story telling is occurring some 25 years into the future, it is still told without any over thinking, which could have caused Ung to "go back in time" in her memories and change how she felt when she was a child. Like Lauren says, Ung does ask a lot of questions, but I didn't find them annoying. I often eagerly awaited the answer, or was fascinated to watch her struggle to make sense of them herself.
I haven't completely finished the book but so far I agree with most other people's amazement at the hardships that Loung faced. I thought that the plot was riveting and also enjoyed the voice that Loung used to narrate. I agree with Lauren that the character annoys me and sometimes I wish I could tell her to stop asking so many questions, but when this actually makes the narration more believable and interesting. I also could sometimes feel Loung's older self being injected back into the writing at some points but generally I am really impressed by the voice that she uses. I am really enjoying Loung's writing so far and am excited to finish the book.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the first couple of pages of the book, I became apprehensive to read more. I saw how Ung was attempting to write as her five year old self when she is now a grown woman. However, as I began to read more, I came to find this as a positive aspect of the book. Although I feared writing as though she was in her 5 year old body would take away from the book, it actually added to the telling of the story. I found her raw and candid outlook appealing, and the tone has kept me captivated throughout the book's entirety. As she has chosen this approach though, one can always wonder how much a five year old can really remember. How reliable is the narration of an adult woman, voicing her story through a 5 year old girl. Nonetheless, Ung gets her story across to the reader, one that I found fascinating yet heart-wrenching at the same time. It is hard to believe that any young girl would have to endure so much, and Ung does an excellent job of informing the audience while keeping them engaged.
ReplyDeleteAfter 16 days of hibernation and vegetation I picked up the book. I only did not even know the title of the book and had the faintest idea of what it could be about. When I started reading I found myself relieved that it was about the Cambodian Genocide because of the fact that I wrote a 10 page research paper on the subject in 8th grade. However, I soon regretted my relief of knowledge of the topic because I remembered the graphic research I conducted. While I can’t say I know what Loung was going through, it gave me a different perspective on the book. I enjoy the language of the story and am in awe of the fact Loung uses her 5 year old viewpoint, but I can’t help but feel I am in a history class again conducting research on genocide. I do not mind the feeling, but I would rather try and analyze the language—as we have been doing all semester. Regardless- hands down better than Bookseller.
ReplyDeleteI'm mostly done with this book, and I have to say, it's hard not to appreciate how Ung uses her own experiences and narrative voice to color the tragedy and horror that she experiences first hand. Firstly, I'm just glad that we're reading about a subject that is new and unknown to many students in our class; as interesting as the modern day struggles of Afghan women are, it's refreshing to explore a different topic. For the majority of the time that I read the book, I totally forgot about the outside context of the book and totally believed in Ung's young narrator in the book. This book reminds me, in fact, of Night, by Elie Weisel. Both narrators undergo a tragic separation at one point in the book, and have to transform from a relatively pampered and easy lifestyle to one of extreme, tortuous hardship. The criticism that I have of this book is that I feel it would have been more impactful as a shorter book. Night was only about 100 pages, but each of those pages was full of depth and description. While this book certainly has similar depth and emotional connections for the reader, it's diluted into a longer read that can feel tired and stationary at times. Overall, though, I enjoy the book, especially the content regarding the history of that Cambodian region.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I have not yet finished the book, I can see why this book was chosen for this course. The first thing that stood out to me after reading just the very first few pages was the author's manipulation of our emotions not only though concrete facts but through a very simplistic "five year old language" tone. Although I like this book a lot more than Bookseller, and I find the plot more interesting, the simplistic manner used throughout the beginning of this novel remind me somewhat of the tone in portions of Bookseller. Of course the narrators are of different ages, experiences, and backgrounds, but I noticed that some of the technique used to engage the reader is somewhat similar. I also agree with what the other Alexa said about the two reasons the author succeeds in using a five year old voice. Generally, when you read books written by an author recording events that happened many years ago, they use a voice, tone, and even ideas that belong to their present day self. By sticking to the five year old voice, the author does not divert our attention away from what's happening. Instead, we remain engaged, helping to make the book as fascinating as it is.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone else- I think the first story narration of a 5 year old girl makes the story much more interesting than Bookseller of Kabul. Personally, I know nothing about the Cambodian genocide unlike Amar so the story is very informative. However, sometimes I find that her innocence as a five year old girl and constant questions is a little annoying. One particularly moving quote from the book is “"Yesterday I was playing hopscotch with my friends. Today we are running from soldiers with guns." But all in all I am enjoying the book a lot and I am not dreading picking up the book as much.
ReplyDeleteI think part of the Ung's success in relating such horrifying events is her ability to use a child's voice. A more mature person could not help but reflect on every memory and even become overly sentimental, but the simplistic tone of a child leaves many feelings tacit. The reader is even more strongly affected by the pain inflicted upon a child, and her innocence, because of the unsaid, but implied hardships than one would feel for an adult. The tone is developed through elementary sentences and easily relatable emotions, like being homesick.
ReplyDeleteThe tone is also what separates this novel from The Bookseller of Kabul, where, though not as severe, people endure a constant struggle as well. However, I found that Kabul was not as successful in conveying the culture of its society because of the biased perspective. A child, relatively untainted by politics, more effectively tells the story in First They Killed My Father.
Even though I understand that the author tried to maintain a tone and narrative as truthful to her own perspective as possible, I feel like she should have told the stories of the family that stayed in Vietnam, because I feel like the story was extremely unresolved.
ReplyDeleteI'm not very far in the book, and I hate to say "I agree with everyone" but I do, specifically about the narrator's voice. Her youthful ignorance helps to fully illustrate the tragedies of the events in a way that an adult voice couldn't do. However, as Lauren said, her questioning can get "annoying" as its an issue of knowing something the character does not, and gets to be kind of like "WHEN will you understand?" All in all, though, despite the fact that I had to put the book down a couple of times it got so miserable to read (not like, bad writing, but it was just so sad), the child's voice was the greatest part of this book for me, as it was what grasped my attention and helped me to understand the issues presented the most.
ReplyDeleteAgreed with the vast majority of the bloggers. Her lack of understanding at times, although understandable, can be annoying. If she is such a great representation of a 5 year old's voice and does an outstanding job of retelling her events, I would've expected her to be semi-more informed; however, her in depth anaylsis without having concrete facts or knowledge is remarkable. Her somber, almost mourning tone, with a coupled sense of hope, does wonders for the success of the novel and portrays the true atrocities of this somewhat unheard of genocide, opening the reader's eyes to yet another one of history's horrific events.
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