My God this book is gorgeous! The second I started reading I could not put this down, which has honestly been something of a rarity for me recently. The illustrations were in a single word, breathtaking, and they told the story with more depth then would have been possible in words alone. I had never heard of a memoir being written in this way before and this book has convinced me that graphic novels can be a perfect avenue to tell a personal story and to tell it well.

However, this book is not all just beauty, I can't stress enough how important this novel is. Thi's story is the narrative that we all need to read about in America and around the world today. It is a story of one families journey from Vietnam to America, but it is also so much more. This book breathes out the true history of what it was like in those times for those living in Vietnam and it is done with grace. I felt utter horror at some of the atrocities that occurred during that time. In America, you get such a narrow view it is disgusting, but this, this can take that view widen and deepen it until you realize that there is so much more to it than you could ever hope to know. It creates a humility in the mind and a tenderness in the heart for those immigrants and refugees that out there in the world today. It is unapologetic in its truth. Something that garners my full respect.

This novel also has to do with being human. With dealing with family relationships and trying to find where your meant to be through the past that has colored your present and future for better or for worst. It is about mothers and the strength a woman has regardless what is happening around her to do what is necessary. It is also one of the most honest representations of pregnancy and the fears a mother may have prior, during, and after that I have ever read.

One of my favorite parts of this novel is how Thi writes about her father. In a way this book was an outlet through which she began to truly understand her father and as she spoke of her talks with him built up their relationship and released a fear. Her father is a voice that is troubled yet so full of strength. The things he had seen and the troubles he went through created a huge impact on me.

Thi's mother had the same importance with a totally different perspective on how life was like. Her privileged beginnings at a what was a prestigious French school with a father who loved her dearly painted a beautiful yet almost hard picture of who she was. On many points her mother inspired me. She is the embodiment of a strong woman, who does all she can for her family.

The one last gift this book gave to me was the reminder that no matter who you are, where you came from, or what your dreams, you have a family and a life that is human and at the core not so different from my own or anyone else's. Love is love no matter the form. Every person has a right to be here. All humans have a right to a place this world.

This is an important book! I honestly don’t know what to say to convince you to read it, but please: READ THIS ONE! Buy it. Read it. Re-read it. Give it to your friends and family. Give it to your kids. Let them understand how wrong what is happening in the USA and the world is.

The Best We Could Do tells the story of the author’s, Thi Bui, journey to the US as a refugee in the midst of the Vietnam War, as well as her journey to understanding her parents, and what they went through.

First of all, the art is just so beautiful! It’s one of the first things I “see” in a graphic novel, because if the art is not appealing to you, it’s kind of hard to get into it, right? Well, this one is just gorgeous! Then the story is told in a very cool way, as it relates what Thi is feeling in her present life, and relating it to her upbringing and her parents’ experiences.

I have to say that I’m not well versed in Vietnam’s history. I’m from Portugal, born in the 80’s, and while here we know of the Vietnam’s war and everything that happened, it was always mentioned in a very superficial way, because at that moment we had other issues here in this country, such as a dictatorship of our own to learn about. The point is, I wasn’t aware of some of the things that happened, and the dynamics of what happened in WW2 and after. But I learned a lot while reading this book, because not only did it taught me, but it made me curious enough to go look online for more information.

This is the main point of books for me, to expand our horizons. A book that makes you question, and learn, and curious for more? It’s something that everyone should read.

In a point in history when refugees are being demonized by ignorant people, it’s more important than ever to support this book. To learn from someone who was a refugee herself. To read a side than most of us won’t be able to completely understand, but we can empathise, and try to learn to do better. Right?

SO, GUYS, THIS BOOK WILL BE OUT SOON. BUY IT, REVIEW IT, SHARE THE WORD. TALK ABOUT IT. READ IT!

I absolutely fell in love with this graphic memoir. I cannot believe how masterfully simple and yet emotionally complex Thi Bui's writing is; she employs such an intense economy of language that I would never have suspected she would be able to convey so tangled an identity in so few words. She lays bare the very knotted thoughts of a young Vietnamese girl who never felt proud, never felt good enough for either of her cultures and who struggled to attain the wholeness that American society claims that it can provide.

One of the things that struck me the most about the narrative was the remaking of Thi’s picture of her parents. As a new mother, she is forced to confront the idea of her aging parents – eternally disappointed by their treatment as elders in the new American society they have been forced into – and the fact that they were once in her shoes. Thi bravely peels back the layers of their story and tries to find common points of reference, all at once suffering from the horrible feeling that her parents might have been better without her which, even as an adult, is a crippling fact to swallow.

The art in this graphic novel is at once escapist and terrifying, providing a glimpse into everything that has, and continues to, go wrong with our political systems, all without depicting the familiar scenes of wartime displacement that the media has relied on for years. War is not always about the horrific bombings and the mass casualties: it is sometimes about all of the tiny, bitter wounds that suffocate four generations. I couldn't believe that such quietly replicated domestic scenes could so completely convey the experience of "othering" that she manages to detail. With a mooted colour palette of blues and whites (difficult not to associate these with the clean vision of America that Vietnamese refugees were sold) and the rusted reds, golds and oranges of the Vietnamese soil, the story takes the real centre stage.

She has made this graphic novel so many different things at once that I am still struggling days and days later to capture my thoughts. A graphic novel that I would push into everyone’s hands and a must-read for anyone invested in own voices literature.

The Best We Could Do features artwork so beautiful and story so intimate that I couldn't put it down. Thi Bui takes the reader along for a journey as she explores her family history and her relationships with her parents. The story is told in a relatable manner, it's poignant and it's easy to connect to (at least it was to me).
The story revolves around a Vietnamese family that escapes the war and immigrates to the US in the 70s. It depicts the struggles of being forced out of your own country, the nostalgia, the stress of leaving everything you know behind. At a time like this, with everything that's going on in the US, in the rest of the world, I feel that books like this one, that put faces and stories behind the statistics, they are more important than ever. That's why I recommend this book to everyone, especially to people who live around immigrants or areas that are affected by the current refugee crisis.

4.5 stars

The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir tells more than just a single family's somber story; it opens the door to history in a fresh new way. It is raw, emotional, and honest. Thi works backwards to give a full account of how she came to be who and where she is in life. This means her powerful story actually begins with her parents' and grandparents' struggles and sacrifices long before she was even a thought in her parents' minds, let alone born. The difficulties they had to overcome in Vietnam as they fought for a life that was worth living. Wow. One draw back for me was the irregular keeping of time midway through. It was a bit distracting and made it somewhat difficult to keep up with when the author was giving her sibling's backstories.

This is a memoir unlike any I've ever read before. The author's brilliant decision to release this in illustrated form ups the impact so much. Her illustrations (drawings, sketches, watercolors?) are simply stunning. The details are striking, and even though she uses only 2 or 3 colors she manages to work the absence of color to her advantage. The colors that are there pop and the blank spaces show such incredible depth. It's truly beautiful. The air of melancholy that hangs over this family from the first page was palpable and yet their story was inspiring. Words aside, I could feel the author's intense emotions flowing off the pages and it really moved me.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy and opportunity.

This is a difficult story, but it is told beautifully through Thi Bui's words and illustrations. An important and memorable read.

Beautiful artwork with an honest, heartbreaking story. I loved this one.

While I wouldn't recommend this book for elementary students, I think this would be a great addition for middle school and high school classrooms and libraries. Not only does it add another voice to the history of the Vietnam War, but it's a voice that isn't usually heard. We teach history from the point of view of American soldiers but not often from the people caught in the crossfire. And history is always much more complex. There is always more to learn. The artwork is beautiful and muted, making it a little less graphic, but not downplaying the tragedy. The way she weaves in the story of her family into the war is what makes this a must read. I hope this encourages others to find out more about their own family history to better understand how they fit into the greater narrative.

This is a graphic novel about a family's immigration from vietnam. Thi Bui has become a mother now in America, and wants to understand her families history. She then learns about her parents past and her own childhood. I found it so powerful, emotional, and eye opening. I enjoyed it immensely and the artwork is amazing. Would recommend to anyone.

Empathetic, honest, and emotional. A gorgeously illustrated memoir of a woman who looks to the past to understand her parents and her complicated relationship with them. In 1978, Thi Bui's parents (Má & Bố)* fled South Vietnam with three young children and one on the way. The Best We Could Do tells the story of them growing up in Vietnam, raising a family in the midst of the Vietnam War, their harrowing nighttime escape by boat, and the difficulties of starting a new life in the United States. The tale begins and ends with the birth of Thi's first baby. After experiencing the overwhelming responsibility and protective instinct towards her newborn, she sees her parents from a completely different perspective.

Thi reveals some instances from growing up that widened the gap between parent and child and kept her from feeling safe and secure. Once her parents' backgrounds are revealed, these stories have a different sheen to them. We see how their pasts shaped who they are and influenced what lessons they felt were important to impart. Má & Bố had completely different childhoods. Their backgrounds were so different that I was really interested to see what circumstances brought them together. Má grew up in a wealthy household in the relative safety of South Vietnam, while Bố grew up in poverty in conflict-ridden North Vietnam. We get to see them grow up as young people with hopes and dreams, and then later as adults who have suffered immense heartache together.

The specifics of Vietnam's history with colonization and conflict are given for context, but more importantly, this book shows what it's like to live day-to-day in those conditions. War and its effects don't stop when foreign troops leave and the headlines cease. I appreciated a part where Thi tries to figure out her father’s allegiances after listening to another one of his contradictory stories because I was struggling with the same thing. It was a good reminder that things aren't always so easily simplified.


My two favorite types of graphic novels are historical fiction and memoirs with historical relevance--images add so much power to these type of narratives. The illustrations are lovingly rendered. So much of the artwork impacted me, but my favorites pages were her parents' wedding, a young Bố hiding underground, and the full spread of her father gazing up at Orion’s belt. Those pages felt like whole stories in themselves. On one page there are actual photographs that were taken when her family arrived at a refugee camp in Malaysia. The contrast between the family I'd come to care for through Thi's loving illustrations and the impersonal identification shots was striking. We see so many photos of refugees and immigrants on the news, it can be easy to forget that they all have a story.

In the introduction, Thi writes about a few of the titles she came up with before settling on The Best We Could Do. Just typing the title out makes my eyes well up with tears, so I’d say it was a perfect choice! It's the story of one family's journey from Vietnam and the obstacles they overcame, but it's also so much more. It's so relevant in a time where immigration and how it should be handled is on the forefront of so many people's minds. We see firsthand why someone might make the tough decision to leave behind everything to start a new life and the incredible sacrifices they must make to provide a better life for their families. Most everyone will be able to relate to some aspect of Thi's story: family, home, identity. What makes us who we are? What we pass on to the next generation? Why is it so unsettling when our view of our parents evolves? It only takes a couple of hours to read, but it's so powerful. When I finished reading, I immediately wanted to read it again. If you're on the fence, you can preview a few of the spreads via 'Look Inside' on Amazon, the publisher's page, or visit Thi Bui's art blog.

When I was in college, I took an oral history class. I was able to interview people that I thought I knew well, as those that I did not, and I found out quite a lot. One of those was my French teacher who told me how she escaped the Nazi's during the war, when she was a young girl. She had been my teacher for all four years of French, but she had never mentioned that in class.

I am reminded about this, becasue Thi Bui became the work on this memoir when she was interviewing her parents for an oral history project. But, from there, she was able to get even more of the story, both through research, and continuing to hear the stories.

What strikes me about her story, is how similar it is to other memoirs I have read, about getting displaced, and how you learn to live with it. Not as horrific as Maus, but still with that sense of something missing, and always being ready to flee, because you never know when you have to again. I am currently, at the time of this reading, reading about book about a woman interred in World War II because she was Japanese. She took keeps everything she needs to flee on her at all times. I heave heard stories of those who have had to flee, and how it never leaves you. You are always prepared because you can't trust the government to protect you.

Well, written, I hope others read it, and it becomes a standard in schools and libraires, because not only does it tell the story of one family, it tells the story of the Vietnam War, which is too recent for older people to know, because they lived through it.

And the last thing, that I thought was profound, was how much starvation there was. Thi's grandfather defects to the thhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1886731043 Viet Kong because they had food, and he was starving.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

While the illustrations were attractive, the story itself was very mediocre.

I normally love memoirs and thought the idea of an illustrated one was very interesting; unfortunately, there wasn't enough information (such as background on the culture and political turmoil) for me to fully follow the story. The text was flat - not nearly as charming as the illustrations.

One of the more heartfelt, engaging, complete works of nonfiction and memoir I've read recently. I'm not a typical memoir or graphic novel reader, but this book completely hooked me from the opening panels as Thi Bui embarks on her own journey of motherhood for the first time, and seeks to close the gap between herself and her parents by better understanding where she comes from and their own stories: her parents vastly different backgrounds and lives in Vietnam pre war, during the long, complex war pitting individuals and villages against each other as well as horrific losses from French and American involvement, and life as refugees in Malaysia and in the United States and how everyone truly did the best they could do to forge new lives, avoid hunger, and raise a family against difficult odds. The renderings and text flow remarkably together: from Thi's narration and illustration, one gets the sense that they could not be separated in order for the larger Bui tale to be told for her, and so the format is necessary and revelatory. This is truly a memoir that meditates on what it means to belong - to people, to a place - and raises great questions about who all of us are as children of our parents, how our views of our parents as people evolve, and how roles shift once again if we perpetuate the cycle and have children of our own. Tie in timeliness and relevance to a larger, social and political discussion of immigrants and refugees, and you have the makings of a major force in memoir today. I would heartily recommend this to most readers: if you don't care for graphic novels at all, perhaps this isn't for you, but if you're like me and just don't gravitate towards that format, you may be surprised with The Best We Could Do, as it's so authentic and interesting and searing, it transcends its individual parts and really might work for you.

I don’t know what qualifies as good art; either I like it or I don’t, I guess. I didn’t just like the art in this graphic memoir, I LOVED IT. I can’t even really review the artistic aspect of this properly, because I have no idea what I’m talking about, but every page was stunning and gorgeous and I didn’t want to look away. I kind of want to buy multiple copies of this just so I can rip out the pages and hang them on my walls. I mean, the colors alone! Come on!

The story itself is brilliantly handled. It unfolds at just the right pace. It’s the story of Bui’s parents and the story of a country at war. Bui tells her family’s story in an emotional, relatable way, while also depicting a clear and easy to understand history of Vietnam from the 1940s to the 1970s. There’s violence and danger and heartbreak in both stories, and she expertly weaves them together.

Somehow, even though Bui focuses a lot on being a Vietnamese refugee and becoming a mother—two things I have zero experience with—I so easily identified with her emotions. Bui’s writing is just as strong as her artwork, amazingly. (It’s not fair, why does Bui get to be so talented TWICE? I can’t draw a stick figure or write a coherent sentence, let alone create a masterpiece like this!)

Simply put, this was just very, very good. It’s definitely the best graphic memoir I’ve ever read, and I’ll go ahead and call it one of the best books of 2017. This is a must read, without a doubt.

Bui brilliantly and emotionally details her family history and their eventual journey to the United States as refugees, paralleling her own feelings on the birth of her son. I was riveted by the story of her parents, and the different worlds they grew up in. Bui provides a more nuanced picture to the wars in Vietnam - not the "go USA!" version nor the "go North Vietnam" version, but that of those impacted perhaps the most but recognized the least. I highly recommend this book to fans of graphic novels, and those interested in history, family and war.

This is what I expected: An intimate and poignant graphic novel portraying one family’s journey from war-torn Vietnam, from debut author Thi Bui. In the end those expectations came true, but it took quite a long time for that to be fulfilled. I almost thought it wouldn't happen.

Well this turned out to be better than it was in the beginning. As soon as the stories about Vietnam really took flight, and we saw their journey out of Vietnam it started to get better and better. Still I won't rate this high because I was bored for at least 1/3 of the story.

And really, one birth is more than enough for me, I don't need to see x numbers of gruesome labours. I know it was needed to tell the whole family history, but really. Eventually I started to think the births would just continue all the time.

Also everything was just so mixed together, I am sure it is supposed to make sense, but it was jarring for me to see how we went from present, past, past, present, semi-present, past again and then it stayed past. I know she is interviewing her parents, but still it was a bit jarring.

I didn't quite like the parents, with how they treated their kids (especially when they had boyfriends, I know different values and ideas, but really it just made me want to scream at my screen) nor did I quite approve of the dad's way of raising his kids, if you would call it that. There is something highly wrong if one of your kids hides in a closet for hours, holds his bowels so he doesn't have to poop/pee. And then the other kid is learning all about supernatural stuff and disturbing imagery. What?
Later on, during the Vietnam parts I did see that they were good parents and that thanks to all the things they went through they had their own stiff standards and were still solely focused on impressions and surviving, but those parts of the US had already coloured my view of them.

But I have to say that in the end it was still quite a beautiful memoir. It was sad, it was heartbreaking, it was lovely.

The illustrations were quite nice, and they fitted perfectly with the story. Plus I liked the colourscheme of white and orange.

However I just can't rate this one higher than 2.5 stars.