 
|
|
Paperback
Publisher: Back Bay Books
ISBN13: 9780316284615
Condition: NEW
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
Kien Nguyen grew up an outsider in his native land. His once prosperous family, thrust into poverty at the dawn of a new political regime, lived among neighbors who treated them as an unwelcome remnant of the colonialist past. Kien himself, a child of mixed race (his father was American), was among the most unwanted. Told with a stark, poetic brilliance, Kien's account of his early years-from the fall of Saigon, when at age eight he watched the last U.S. Army helicopter leave without him and his family, to his eventual escape-is a work of profound emotional resonance, at once harrowing and inspiring. The Unwanted unforgettably records a universal human experience played out in extreme circumstances: the forging of an identity, a life.
| Customer Reviews: |
|
| |
| Great book to read over the Thanksgiving Holiday |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
 |
|
I finished the book on the night of Thanksgiving. What an incredible story of a child growing up in the post-war Vietnam era. It's the kind of book you just don't want to put down. It also makes you thankful for all of your blessings and to be thankful that you never experienced the pure hell that he endured through his first 18 years of life. I hope he's enjoyed his life since then in America!
|
| Great book |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
|
|
I really strongly don't like reading, but I recommend this book. It kept my attention. Once you get passed the first 10 pages its's ggod.Started intersting and ended interesting. Real story. It reminds me of finding fish. If you like the Antwan Fisher Story you will like this. Get this book!!
|
| Wonderful and Have to Read |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
|
|
My sister-in-law introduced me the book. She said that I would enjoy it. It took me few years later before I did get a chance to read it. I usually read spiritual books. To my surprise, my sister-in-law was right. It is a wonderful book with so much details about the country and people. The story reminded me about my father-in-law stories about politics in Vietnam and made me realized how lucky my family has been to come to America.
|
| Fantastic book |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
|
|
I loved this book. I read it over the weekend and simply couldn't put it down. What a remarkable man under extraordinary circumstances. I found myself not worthy of this true gift he shared with me.
thank you.
|
| An eye-opening look at post-war Vietnam; Excellent! |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
|
|
This book is a revelation in its unflinching look at the awful life of an Amerasian boy left behind by his American father after the fall of Saigon. Kien Nguyen is one of two "half-breed" sons his mother bore, and feels the stigma and lives the horror of that awful stigma for the first 17-plus years of his life under the repressive Communist regime that takes power after the American's ignominious pullout from that war-torn country. Shamed, beaten, starved and tortured, his life is a literal hell on earth, but he is ultimately saved by the steadfast love of his grandparents and a mother who gradually matures into a more mature and selfless person from her own ordeal. Nguyen continued doggedly to go to school despite his poverty and the terrible predjudice he encountered, and because of this, he finally managed to obtain emigration papers to the U.S. for himself and his family. I couldn't help but think of another Vietnamese refugee memoir, Quang X. Pham's A Sense of Duty. Although the stories are quite distinctly different, they would make interesting companion pieces to be taught in a course on refugee/emigrant literature. In a word, this book is excellent. - Tim Bazzett, author of Soldier Boy: At Play in the ASA
|
|
