Linda L. T. Baer

This is the story of one girl's life in Vietnam. She was born Nguyen Thi Loan in 1947 in North Vietnam and she lived through the wars in Vietnam - between the Vietnamese and the French in the 1940s-50s, then the civil war between the North and the South of the country when Vietnam was partitioned by the Allies after the second world war, then she is a young woman when America sent almost half a million soldiers to the country in the 1960s.

It's an incredible story, told in an easy to read style. We learn of her life as a young child in rural Vietnam. We learn of her simple lifestyle and family traditions. We see how the fighting affected her family and neighbours. We learn of the mass exodus and flight to the south which left thousands homeless and starving. We learn about her cousins and her brothers and sisters and the expectations on Linda as a girl.
We learn of how her family survived and the sacrifices they had to make.

There are deaths and incredible hardships but I have to say that I found it an uplifting story and the personal ending for Linda is amazing.

She has such a strong spirit and she grew up in situations which are almost impossible to contemplate, yet she survived and found her own way, by her own initiative, by luck and by courage.

This story tells of events from the humble perspective of an ordinary person. I found the details about daily life enthralling. There is no political agenda. It's a simple testimony. For that reason, it's an incredibly powerful story.… (más)

When Loan's father dies, her mother marries a rich, but domineering doctor. The doctor treats Loan very poorly, beating her for acting like a child. When the situation in North Vietnam worsens, the family travels to South Vietnam, completely changing their economic status. Poor, with barely enough to eat, Loan leaves home at 13 to work in Saigon. After several years of working odd jobs, her situation changes when American's enter Vietnam in numbers. She makes money selling goods on the black market and, drinking Saigon Tea. She is arrested numerous times for having insufficient money to bribe the police. After having a baby with an airman, he leaves, and she never sees him again.

This was quite a story. The life Loan lived was remarkable, it's quite miraculous that she survived. The book did seem choppy at times, Loan glossed over several periods of time. One chapter she was starving and in the next she had three maids and seemed to be much better off. Overall, well worth reading.… (más)