A Vietnames refugee to the U.S. who was a young student in Saigon when the war ended tells movingly of surviving a Marxist re-education camp and escaping Vietnam by boat. His adventures in the U.S. included earning a bachelor's degree at Bennington College and learning the rhythms of English well enough to write this haunting, oddly pastoral memoir.” —Time
“An unlikely, powerful blending of lyricism with straightforward descriptions of cruelty . . . A rare record of one Southeast Asian among the anonymous millions who lived to tell the tale.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Tragic, sometimes thrilling, but terrifying life of a young Vietnamese whose woes abroad have nonetheless landed him in the U.S., where he graduated from Bennington and in 1992 received an MFA from Brown . . . Huynh's 12 childhood years on the Mekong Delta went by like a dream compared with the hell that befell his family of 17 children when the Tet offensive exploded on New Year's 1968. Then, between the black-pajamaed Viet Cong psychopaths threatening the Huynhs and the American choppers shooting up the delta, Jade and his family found themselves swimming from one wave of horror to the next—through bursting bullets, mined roads, and sharpened stakes—while attempting to reach a second family dwelling in Vinh Binh City. Once there, they had nothing, while the war went on 'like a chronic disease.' Eventually, Jade lost six brothers and sisters as well as other family members. At 18, he was attending Saigon University when the city fell to the invaders, and he soon found himself facing indoctrination, then being sent to a labor camp simply for being a student. There, he was given explosively dangerous work clearing mines, was tortured and lived among men tortured incessantly, starved, ate lizards, rats, and crickets to stay alive, watched men murdered by proselytizers for Ho Chi Minh, buried the dead, built dikes for rice fields, and hoped for a Cambodian invasion in which he might escape during the confusion. After three years, he escapeed and ended up in a refugee camp. A lost brother, a pilot whom he thought dead, turned out to be alive in Mississippi, sent money, and told him to relocate in the States. He learned English flipping Big Macs at McDonald's, and at last began his U.S. education. Amid nature's lbeauty, hope survives an incredible bloodbath.” —Kirkus Reviews
“South Wind Changing testifies to the bewildered anguish of the victims of war and to Huynh's survival and escape to America. In his search for a new place in this new world (so intimately involved with the destruction of the old), Huynh encounters discrimination, indifference, and—at last—kindness and a second chance. The end of his story is this story by the fine writer that Huynh has become.” —Elle
In 1975 Huynh, a country boy from the Mekong Delta, was about to begin his studies at Saigon University when he was arrested by the conquering communists (the charge: he was an intellectual) and sent to a labor camp. Huynh's engaging memoir turns on developments that seemed miraculous to him--and will to the reader, too. First, he befriended an ailing guard and created for himself an opportunity to escape. Joining the ``boat people'' of Vietnam, he ended up in a refugee camp in Thailand after a series of ordeals that included an ugly confrontation with pirates. Next, he made his way to the U.S., where he worked at a series of low-paying jobs and dealt with culture shock. Virtually homeless with two brothers and a nephew in his charge, Huynh wandered the country until he found himself in Bennington, Vt., where he felt welcome and secure. There he worked as a part-time janitor. Another miracle provides the wonderfully satisfying conclusion to his memoir: Huynh received a scholarship to Bennington College in 1984 and has recently earned a Masters in Fine Arts from Brown University. His simple but powerful story is given added poignance by Huynh's recollections of the family, the life and the land he had to leave. (Feb.)
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Tragic, sometimes thrilling but terrifying life of a young Vietnamese whose woes abroad have nonetheless landed him in the US, where he graduated from Bennington and in 1992 received an MFA from Brown. "Jade" Ngoc Quang Huynh's 12 childhood years on the Mekong Delta went by like a dream compared with the hell that befell his family of 17 children when the Tet offensive exploded on New Year's 1968. Then, between the black-pajamaed Viet Cong psychopaths threatening the Huynhs and the American choppers shooting up the delta, Jade and his family found themselves swimming from one wave of horror to the next—through bursting bullets, mined roads, and sharpened stakes—while attempting to reach a second family dwelling in Vinh Binh City. Once there, they had nothing, while the war went on "like a chronic disease." Eventually, Jade lost six brothers and sisters as well as other family members. At 18, he was attending Saigon University when the city fell to the invaders, and he soon found himself facing indoctrination, then being sent to a labor camp simply for being a student. There, he was given explosively dangerous work clearing mines, was tortured and lived among men tortured incessantly, starved, ate lizards, rats, and crickets to stay alive, watched men murdered by proselytizers for Ho Chi Minh, buried the dead, built dikes for rice fields, and hoped for a Cambodian invasion in which he might escape during the confusion. After three years, he escapeed and ended up in a refugee camp. A lost brother, a pilot whom he thought dead, turned out to be alive in Mississippi, sent money, and told him to relocate in the States. He learned English flipping Big Macs at McDonald's, and atlast began his US education. Amid nature's beauty, hope survives an incredible bloodbath.
