Book Review

Lucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind

A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind by Loung Ung, 388 page. This book is the sequel to her first book, “First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers” which I have not read, but plan to do so.

In her first book, Loung tells how she survived in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge; this book deals with her assimilation in America and the life of her brothers and namely her sister left behind in Cambodia. She alternates the chapters between her life in America and her sister’s life in Cambodia during the same time period. While Loung is worried about school, friends, chores (such as helping with dinner and housecleaning); her sister, two years older, is traveling to a pond to collect water, cooking and cleaning for a huge family, getting married and taking care of her own children and surviving raids by roaming bands of Khmer Rouge. For me, the most telling part of the book is that Loung must always have food on her person (including hiding food in her room) and actually becomes physically ill if she does not have food stored away, even if she has just eaten a meal.

This book reminded me that no matter how bad things in this country may seem, we are very privileged to be Americans and through no effort on our part, we were born here and could have just as easily been born in a country experiencing genocide or civil war (Rwanda, Zimbabwe, the Balkins). Although I realize that there must a balance between allowing only a certain number of immigrants to move to the US versus totally open borders, I am always reminded of the quote, “There but for the grace of God go I”.