lovely poems based on some amazing family stories, especialy the series based on the true story of her parents being extras in Apoclypse Now when they were refugees from vietnam

A remarkable collection centered around Cathy Linh Che's parents' experience reenacting their trauma as Vietnam War refugees while cast as extras in the film Apocalypse Now. Such a unique and powerful approach to storytelling.

‘Becoming Ghost’ is told from a unique perspective. It's about the struggles of first generation Vietnamese Americans (the author’s parents) and she sometimes does it from her perspective. This fresh aspect that this technique brings to such a narrative really inspired me!

I found beauty in each and every poem.. The pain bleeding through the pages - it's heart-wrenching… But in these words, we find golden nuggets of hope, calming words in so much chaos. The author’s thoughts are amazingly crafted into verse. I absolutely loved this book!!

That was so intelligently done, the parallels made between apocalypse now and the walking dead to the experience of fleeing the Veitnam War as refugees was brilliant.

I loved this.

Thank you netgalley and Atria books for this copy in exchange for an honest review. Just stunning.

Becoming Ghost: Poetry by Cathy Linh Che
About Becoming Ghost: Becoming Ghost documents Cathy Linh Che’s parents’ experiences as refugees who escaped the Vietnam War and then were cast as extras in Francis Ford Coppola’s film Apocalypse Now, placing them at the margins of their own story.

This is one of my favorite poetry collections that I’ve ever read. I LOVED how Cathy Linh Che used elements of speculative fiction to explore how Apocalypse Now could have been different, family relationships and estrangement, immigration, and the impact of the Vietnam War (before, during, and after). I really enjoyed the themes of grief and forgiveness that were interwoven.

These poems were heartbreaking, beautiful, hopeful, and challenging!

CWs:
Graphic: War, Child abuse, Mental illness
Moderate: Genocide, Emotional abuse, Child death
Minor: Xenophobia

Thank you Atria Books and Washington Square Press and Netgalley for the ARC

This was a fantastic work of poetry. While the bookstore I work at doesn't sell poetry, I was really happy I got to read this collection and do think that many would relate to a lot of the different poems that there was to offer. It reminded me why I like poetry so much.

Please note that I do not rate poetry, memoirs or nonfiction.

I feel like I am not the right crowd for this poetry book. I had no relation to any of the references made in this collection. I was a bit lost at the back and forth of the point of views. I also felt like the collection was trying to be linear in timeline of events, but I was also left confused as to the timeline of events and what was real and implied.

The writing is beautiful and the poetry was heartfelt. I believe with the right audience this collection would be outstanding. I am just not that audience.

thank you to Atria for the advanced copy of this collection.

As someone who isn’t formally trained in poetry, I appreciate it for the intimate window it offers into a writer’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Becoming Ghost is exactly that: a collection filled with vulnerability and raw emotion. Each poem feels deeply personal, offering pieces of memory, grief, and survival. I had never encountered the “golden shovel” form before and took the time to research it while reading. Understanding this structure added an even deeper layer of meaning to the collection, making the experience even more powerful. I thoroughly enjoyed Becoming Ghost and am looking forward to reading more of Cathy Linh Che’s work.

National Poetry Month 2025 #3

Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day 2025 #5

I. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

We are not your entertainment. Stop using us.

The misogyny, while not surprising, is triggering.

Here for the Steven Yeun mention 🥵

You'd become less than
a feeling, the way every lover
I've known no longer hurts me.

I'm so sick of history
dragging behind me.
I don't want to be sad.

To love my father
is to love his wounds.

II. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

We'd survived a war
to be cast into the margins
of our own story.

To the viewer,
I was dead.
I felt dead.

Not that the first set of poems wasn't depressing, because it was, but this was depressing.

III. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I want to tell you a story
of my body. I did not believe
myself to be beautiful.

Well, that cut.

People are so rude to immigrants. When their families were once immigrants. Have a little respect.

If I had a penny for every time a white man said, "Ni hao," to me, I'd be rich.

My mother says, In Vietnam,
a life means so little.
What does a life mean in America?

Free Palestine

IV. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Plants don't run off
the way daughters do.

I wait to be reanimated.
Love is like that—
resurrecting you from the dead.

📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Washington Square Press

Heart wrenching beautifully written poetry .Each poem is mesmerizing tears at your thoughts your soul.Another brilliant book of poetry by Cathy Linh Che.#NetGalley #atria

Thanks to NetGalley & Atria for the ARC!

Cathy Linh Che’s "Becoming Ghost" is a sparse, severe, and startling collection of poetry about the author’s refugee parents playing extras in Francis Ford Coppola’s "Apocalypse Now."

The challenge with anti-war poetry is that the form often implicitly romanticizes violence—beautiful language wasted on ugly things. Che resists this impulse by using the barest lexicon possible, employing bluntness to razor-sharp effect. It’s simply impossible for an American reader to deny their complicity by hiding behind the protection of artistic interpretation.

Much of the book is spent upending saccharine, idealized refugee narratives. In “Los Angeles, Manila, Đà Nẵng,” the speaker explicitly rejects the language of metaphor when describing a woman “who will carry bricks for the rest of her life”—refugees are real people, and they deserve the dignity of being seen as just people.

In “In the kitchen, recounting,” we read what could be considered the book’s thesis:

"She asks for my story [private].
She asks for my story [public]."

"Becoming Ghost" constantly wrestles with who narrativizes a body under attack, often through polyvocal slippage. Does the public really deserve the truth? Are Americans even entitled to having someone shatter their myth of unquestioned goodness?


Despite these difficult, abstract questions, the intimate, familial focus of Che’s writing animates the whole collection. This is primarily for and about her parents.

"Apocalypse Now" looms over the book as an extension of the violence against Vietnamese people, with the speaker repeatedly noting how dehumanizing conditions on set were justified with financial restitution. The speaker’s parents collapse into tokens of violence—extras with their humanity made extraneous. What does one do with the knowledge that their parents were paid more to re-enact their own destruction than they were to work in the US? What does it mean that they were more valued as receptacles for violence?

Using the movie as detritus, Che plucks words from its script to form the foundation of poems that critique it and American violence. “Heart of Darkness” is a particularly pointed interrogation of the word “war” itself, as the speaker draws attention to how it neuters the reality of what’s really happening—genocide. By the time we see it named as such late in the collection, it feels like an unquestionable argument.

"Becoming Ghost" is nothing short of a masterpiece, and Cathy Linh Che demonstrates an incredible attention to the voices that speak when we recognize they don’t speak for us. I’m grateful and excited to revisit this one.

This was an evocative and powerful collection, drawing on multiple interwoven themes and unique forms. While it is not a novel-in-verse, BECOMING GHOST told a story from multiple angles, and I found myself reading it much more quickly than I usually do when working my way through a poetry collection. This is one I’ll go back to and study in greater detail.

A punch in the gut, slap in the face collection. Each poem hits something deep inside of you. It’s emotional and leaves you feeling mournful.
I found 4 or 5 poems slightly lacking, hence the 3 star rating, but I still very much enjoyed and will still be reading more from this author in the future.

Becoming Ghost is a collection of poems about the author’s parents’ experiences during the Vietnam War. I sometimes find it hard to analyze or interpret poetry, and this is one of those books for me. I read it in one sitting because the writing is beautiful, powerful, and emotional. There have been a few poems or lines that have really stayed in my mind. Though I did find it difficult with how the poems would change povs or perspectives.

I read the book in almost one sitting, mesmerized by her memories of her family in Vietnam and in the Phillippines where they were temporarily in a refugee camp, and in particular poems about her father, whose home movies played a large role in the family history.

Though written as poems, the book was easy to read, and very revealing about her thoughts about her family history and about the war in Vietnam, as well as the depiction of the war in Coppola's movie, Apocalypse Now.

This is a very melancholic collection about family and the violence that is out of our control but lingers across times and generations. The interesting story of their parents being extras in Coppola's film and being Vietnam War refugees... it's intense.

Thank you Atria for the early copy.

I don’t usually rate a piece of art that’s based on someone’s life, but a majority of mg issues with “Becoming Ghost” had to do with the formatting, not the “plot” or subject itself. I think I may have enjoyed it more if I had read “Split”, because I felt as if I was missing pieces the entire time despite repeatedly going back to reread. I was also confused when it came to the POV of each separate poem.

I wish the notes had been at the beginning of the contents instead of the end. By the time I reached this section, I didn’t want to go back and read them all over again.

If you’ve read “Split” I would recommend “Becoming Ghost”, otherwise I’d skip this one. But again, that’s just me. I’d recommend reading the other reviews as they are largely positive.

I really enjoyed this. I found viewing the Vietnam war and refugee experience through the lens of Apocalypse Now so fascinating. Since reading this, I’ve often just thought about some of the poems randomly throughout my normal day. It’s certainly a collection that will stick with me for a long time.

I was so pleased by the ease with which I connected to Cathy’s words. But wow, I was made to face my ignorance.
How had I never thought about the Vietnamese extras in movies on the Vietnam war? I know how, there’s not an equivalent for basic white girls so it was never on my radar, never something that organically popped into my head as a concern.
I’m not proud of that & am so grateful for this reality check. It’s art like this that can—and will—aid in the flourish of empathy and appreciation for marginalized groups, ideally leading to actual changes in behavior and perception.

The US is LUCKY to be made up of people from a plethora of different backgrounds, & this collection highlights that beautifully too.

If I’m being transparent, their pointing out gaps in my knowledge was what I enjoyed most of all. Should that be on the author to do? No, of course not. This is info I’d like to think I’d have questioned on my own eventually. But maybe I wouldn’t have?

I’m rambling, these topics can be a bit uncomfy. And I think that’s the point.
Get uncomfy. Sit in that feeling, familiarize yourself with it. Then do better.

Thank you bunches to Washington Square Press, Atria, Cathy Linh Che & NetGalley for both the digital and physical ARCs of this gorgeous collection, available 4/29.

3.5/5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and Washington Square Press for the ARC!

Becoming Ghost is a poetry collection discussing the author’s parents’ experiences as refugees from the Vietnam War.
I’ll be honest, this was a collection that I just didn’t understand. I was confused and lost through most of the book. It wasn’t a bad book, it just wasn’t for me.
For starters, I didn’t have context for approximately 80% of the book. I don’t know anything about Che or her family, apart from the information given in this book. And I’ve never seen Apocalypse Now, which is referenced several times throughout the collection (Che’s parents were extras in the film).
In addition, the POV changes between Che and her parents with reckless abandon and no indication of a POV change, so I was usually halfway through a poem before I figured out who was narrating (and there were times I didn’t even know who was narrating).
But I did enjoy the perspective of Che writing from the POV of her (estranged) parents. It was an interesting way to tell the story. Che also pointed out some interesting parallels between the Vietnam War and the Palestinian genocide as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.
This collection will be perfect for some readers. Unfortunately, it was not for me.

CW: child abuse (physical & emotional); PTSD; Vietnam War; genocide; child death; racism