The Broken Country

When I used to volunteer with refugee resettlement, the preference was still to send people to homogeneous third-tier region centers so they wouldn't form ethnic enclaves, but there was a "lessons learned from Vietnam" understanding as well, that dropping traumatized people into a place without ESL, counseling, mentorship and continuing socialization and support would create new problems, even into a third generation of people. Rekdal centers her work on a violent 2012 incident-- Kiet Thanh Ly, a Vietnamese-American, attacked people in the parking lot of a grocery store in Salt Lake City, choosing white men and yelling about the Vietnam War, which he was too young to know as anything by recollections from his emigrant family. Rekdal draws a web of connections, epigenetic trauma, the breakdown of traditional cultures by a refugee experience that eliminates or disempowers men, the disconnection of ex-pat communities, especially those who lost what they remember as a better life, the physical experience of trauma, the armed bystander who ended the situation without pulling the trigger but who remains haunted by the violence, the ways that the three waves of Vietnamese refugees received different treatment based on their class and connections, local Utahans angry that the Vietnamese were ungrateful after being "rescued" by Americans, the experience of the two victims of Ly's attack, whose own traumatic memories have badly disrupted their lives and their families, and the power of the narrative of trauma to affect people who hear it (Dr. Rivers at Craiglockhart is usually my example of this). Momentarily, a jerkass will comment that plenty of other people emigrated after trauma with no support, and they turned out just fine after the pogrom, or the potato famine, or the failed revolution--but did they? and what similar social structures are making their descendants's lives more difficult?

I was captivated by this gripping, astute non-fiction exploration of the far reaching repercussions of the Vietnam War! This book was truly a revelation and should be read by every human.

With her keen poet's ear and an unflinching eye, Rekdal takes us on an unexpected--and unexpectedly moving--tour. A thoughtful, brave, and wholly original book.

I received a free electronic copy of this work from Netgalley, Paisley Rekdal, and University of Georgia Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

This was my first exposure to the works of Paisley Rekdal, but certainly will not be the last. She writes a tight story with precise attention to detail and brings us to understand the nuances behind these events. We follow several incidents involving Vietnamese immigrants to conclusion with an understanding of the pain behind the facts. We see the way our world is now colored by repercussions of the Vietnam War through our soldiers, both those who came home and those who couldn't, the families of those vets, and Vietnam immigrants and the descendents of those immigrants. These are spots on our copybooks that will take generations to work through.

A thoughtful analysis of both PTSD and the wider issue of war trauma