This looks like it is a must-read, if only for "Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice." Wonderful article by Michicko Katutani in NYT.
Nam Le, it seems, has written the story that had to be written. Growing up, after my father came home from the war, I marveled at the trials of the Vietnamese "Boat People," (as they were called by the evening news), and it was clear, to me, that many of these men and women and children must be heroes.
From my cushy little suburban perch, comfortably (albeit not without the trials of the middle-American high school student) ensconced in Northern Virginia, it seemed apparent that the world needed, one day, to truly remember and honor to these heroes, and the nightmares they lived through.
I have always hoped that someone would tell the story--the right way--and pay the appropriate tribute to those who escaped (or did not) the horrors of that sad, turbulent time, so that generations to come might rightfully pay homage to those who lived (or did not) through it all.
Seems that Nam Le has done just that. Seems that "Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice" is the story, told the right way. Seems like we should all begin to recognize that there are heroes in our midst.
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