The Unwanted: A Memoir

I just finished Kien Nguyen's The Unwanted and have a hard time remembering when a book affected me so much. The story is told straight, with little reflective pondering or self-reflection, which I found unusual and even more distressing because of it. Most memoirs I have read are heavily doused in rationalizations about the author's life, indulgent in their explanations or at least lengthy in their self-interpretation. Nguyen's voice is much clearer, almost factual. In the recall of his childhood as an Amerasian child in the newly Communist Viet Nam of the 1970's, he spares details neither on the pettiness of bureaucracy, on brutal family betrayal, nor on his own actions. If anything, he glosses over his own psychological torment and emphasizes the physical and social torments he and his family endured, leaving the reader to judge for himself how these events should be interpreted. I am lucky to have visited Vietnam in the late 90's and stayed in households there while researching for a documentary being made about an extended family. There are hundreds of thousands of stories like Nguyen's, varying in degrees of severity. I have heard some of these myself and seen the evidence of ruined lives and a ruined country. Those who tried to escape, Amerasian and just plain tormented Vietnamese alike, endured tales of suffering that once heard, you hope with all your heart you will never have to hear again in this world. Human cruelty exists. In extremes. Courageous writers like Kien Nguyen play an enormously valuable role in reminding those with privilege especially that we all choose to make of that fact what we will.

I wanted to read this book because the author was born in the same city I was born in, Nha Trang. I was curious to find out what happened after the Vietnam War ended, especially since my family never talks about their own experiences there. After reading this memoir, I was deeply moved by its honest portrayal of the day-to-day life for the people who lived under the Communists. At first, I myself did not believe that these events actually happened. Only when I asked my own family, did it occur to me that the events in this memoir are a vivid painting of how it really was living in Vietnam in the years that followed the war. Because of this novel and my curiosity, my family has been pouring me with endless amounts of stories about their experiences, most of which are exactly what the author of The Unwanted talks about. Therefore, I highly recommend this book, particulary to those, like myself, who might be curious to know what happened in Vietnam after the war ended.

A friend of mine recommended this book to me. Once I started reading it, it's hard to put it down. The author (Kien Nguyen) wrote this with all of his heart. I am a Vietnamese-American currently live in Texas, I know how it was in Vietnam after the fall of Saigon in 1975, even though admittedly I had a more pleasant childhood than Kien.I strongly recommend this book to everyone. To Kien, if you happen to read this review, I know I could speak for many other Vietnameses currently live in the states: thank you for writing this remarkable story of your life in VN!

Most Americans have little idea of what happened in Vietnam after the last helicopter left the U.S. Embassy roof. This memoir--which is brutally painful to read at times--is by far the most detailed account of the chaos that tormented Vietnam in the first ten years of Communist rule that you'll find. Something tells me that a sequel chronicling how Nguyen evolved from 18-year-old immigrant to 33-year-old New York dentist would be just as fascinating. I hope he's writing it.

Unreservedly recommended. This is one of the few books in recent memory I was completely unable to put down until finished. The author tells the horrifying and fascinating story of his childhood in post-war Vietnam without sensationalism, and without flinching. Occasionally the language is a little awkward - I imagined the author remembering his childhood in the language he used then, and not finding exactly how to put it in English - but there is still something poetic in its simplicity. Thanks to Kien Nguyen for sharing his remarkable story of courage and resilience.