Loung Ung considers herself a lucky child. That is
mainly because she escaped being killed by the Khmer Rouge in her native
Cambodia and then was able to emigrate to the United States when she was ten
years old.
Loung was born in
1970 to a Cambodian father and a Chinese mother in Phnom Penh. She didn’t seem
like a lucky child, though, in 1975 when the Khmer Rouge forced all the middle
class people, like her family, out of the capital city and into rural labor
camps. Over the next four years, her parents and one sister were killed by
ruthless Khmer Rouge soldiers, and another sister died of food poisoning.
“First They Killed
My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers” (2000) is Loung’s first book. It
is a personal account of her experiences during the Khmer Rouge years from 1975
to 1979. The book became a national bestseller, and in 2001 it was given the “Excellence
in Adult Non-fiction Literature” award by the Asian/Pacific American Librarians
Association.
Ung’s second book
is “Lucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left
Behind” (2005). It is one of two books I read in preparation for my visit to
Cambodia earlier this month, and it is quite impressive.
“Lucky Child” tells
about Loung’s going with her oldest brother and his wife to a refugee camp in
Thailand and then on to the U.S. With the sponsorship of Holy Family [Catholic]
Church in Essex Junction, Vermont, they were able to settle in that small town
and start a new life.
For about 2/3 of the
book, the odd-numbered chapters tell of Loung’s life in the U. S. from 1980
until 1993, and the even-numbered chapters tell what was happening to Chou, her
sister who is two years older, back in Cambodia. Then in the 27th
chapter she tells of her first visit back to Cambodia in 1995 and joyfully reuniting
with Chou and other family members after fifteen years.
“Cambodia’s Curse” (2011) is the other book I have
been reading over the past month. The author is Joel Brinkley, a journalist who
wrote for the New York Times for more than 20 years. His book vividly describes
the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot between 1975 and
1979, and afterward.
I had not known (or
remembered) that Cambodia was under direct control of the United Nations in
1991-92. According to Brinkley, this first and only example of the U.N. taking
charge of a country was a dismal failure. But according to Loung’s memoir, the
situation was considerably better after 1992, so it seems that the work of UNTAC
(the United Nations Transitional Authority of Cambodia) was effective.
After graduating
from Saint Michael’s College in
1993, Loung worked for years to help rid Cambodia (and other countries) of
landmines, which has been a terrible problem in that sad country. The village
chief who donated the land where New Hope Church was built (as I wrote about
here) stepped on a landmine years ago and now has an artificial leg.
Ung was, indeed, a
lucky child in many ways—and one of those ways was being born into a middle
class family. Most Cambodians did not have the opportunity to leave the country
as she did. She was also “lucky” in having the talent to write so well.
And I consider
myself “lucky” to have found Loung Ung’s captivating book “Lucky Child” and to have
learned so much about Cambodia from it. I think you, too, would be inspired by reading
this outstanding story of surviving and thriving.
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