Meanwhile, the culture of local communities was destroyed and replaced with the simple desire to survive famine. Evacuated from Phnom Penh and and shunted from villages to labor camps, her close-knit family of 12 was decimated: both parents were murdered, and five of her siblings starved or died from treatable illnesses. (According to a Cambodian proverb, "broken glass floats" when the world is unbalanced.) Armed with a nearly photographic memory, Him forcefully expresses the utter horror of life under the revolutionary regime. However, thanks to her loving and open-minded family, her outlook remained positive-until 1975, when the Khmer Rouge seized control and turned her world upside down. Born in Cambodia in 1965, Him lived from the age of three with the fear of war overflowing from neighboring Vietnam and suffered through the U.S.'s bombing of her native land.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |