4.5 Sterne.

Dieses Buch habe ich für eine Weltreise-Challenge gelesen.

Ich kannte mich zuvor überhaupt nicht mit der Geschichte Kambodschas aus und war dementsprechend schockiert, über den Genozid der 1970er Jahre dieses Landes zu erfahren.
Die Erzählung ist sehr einnehmend aus Kindersicht der Autorin geschrieben, und war für mich emotional manchmal nur schwer zu ertragen. Von Völkermord, Zwangsarbeit, bis hin zu sexuellem Missbrauch und Tod ist wirklich alles dabei, was nicht nur die Autorin und ihre Familie, sondern das die Bevölkerung von Kambodscha damals ertragen musste.
Anders als in einigen Rezensionen kritisch erwähnt, hat mich der Schreibstil überhaupt nicht gestört, sondern sogar eher dazu geführt, dass ich manchmal den Eindruck hatte, das Geschehen hautnah mitzuerleben - mit all seinen schrecklichen Facetten.

Ich hätte mir allerdings gewünscht, dass man ein paar wenige historische Hintergründe zu den Motiven der roten Khmer erfährt. Für mich war nicht ganz klar, welches Ziel sie verfolgen und warum sie Millionen ihrer eigenen Landsleute entweder ermorden, oder unter schrecklichen Umständen infolge Krankheiten oder Hunger sterben lassen. Es gibt dafür natürlich absolut keine Rechtfertigung, und dennoch hätte es mir geholfen, ihre Taten aus ihrer Sicht besser einzuordnen.

Alles in allem aber eine sehr empfehlenswerte Erzählung, die ich vermutlich nicht mehr so schnell vergessen werde.

On Monday I finished reading First They Killed My Father which is the autobiographical story of a young girl's experiences during the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.  I've read a lot of books like this and I usually find them uplifting but this book just made me sad.  In Rwanda, you see people's incredible resilience and determination to overcome the prejudices of the past.  When I read the story of the boy solider, A Long Way Gone, I was heartened by the knowledge that he had escaped that life and become a strong and motivational person.

The problem is that I cannot derive anything positive at all from what happened in Cambodia. For four years the Khmer Rouge government systematically worked, starved and tortured to death 20% of the population. The reason that I picked up this book in the first place is that they have started genocide trials in Cambodia now and I wanted to understand why. I have collected a couple of links over at my other blog to make a start at understanding what happened.

This excellent and tender book details the experiences of a 5-year-old girl as she experiences starvation and the loss of her family members. She acknowledges at the start of the book that her brothers and sister helped her with the book and this accounts for the strong recall of conversations and events. This is a book rich in details about both the cosmopolitan life in Phnom Penh in the early 70s and the desperate futility of the Khmer Rouge regime.

I would unequivocally recommend this book to everyone that I know. I think everyone should read it to understand both what happened and the necessity behind bringing the Khmer Rouge members to trial. It is a really easy book to read and you will find it quite difficult to put down.  But yes... in the end it is a very sad story.  I have the most uneasy feeling that in 30 years time, we will be reading similar stories about Darfur and we'll be left wondering why we didn't do anything about it.

This is a very difficult book to read. It is not eloquently written, but how do you write about the Khmer Rouge and what they did to the Cambodian people April 1975-1980 eloquently? One traumatic event after the other, from the first to the last page. Reading it I simply wanted to get to the end. I am not about to questions any of that written here……. I do think this book should be read. How do you rate a book like this?

Not ashamed to say I cried a couple of times. Raw and emotional. An essential read.

A heartbreaking memoir detailing the horrors of the Cambodian genocide and Khmer Rouge takeover. Loung's story spans over 4 years, from her sheltered life in Phnom Penh before the invasion, to her leaving Thailand for America. I urge anyone and everyone to read this (or listen to the audiobook, I kind of wish I had because I'm sure I was mispronouncing a lot of words in my head).

This book ripped my heart out, as expected. Told from a child's perspective, this is the terrifying and heartwrenching story of the Khmer Rouge takeover of Cambodia in the late seventies. Loung Ung was only five years old when she was forced to leave her home and most of her belongings and flee the city with her family.

The author takes through you the years of starvation, murder, abuse, and torture as she remembers experiencing them from the ages of five to eight years old. She is unflinchingly honest, which means you also see the not-so-great aspects of a young girl who was relatively spoiled and sheltered before the occupation--selfishness, whining, cruelty to her sister and others, and general brattiness. On one hand, you can't blame her, but on the other, she definitely made the experience tougher for some of her family, and her harsh assessments of her poor sister ("She's so weak. I can't imagine how she survived the war.") were hard to read at times.

But sometimes that wilfulness and self-confidence was what saved her. I wanted to cheer when she savagely fought off her would-be rapist, screaming "Die! Die! Die!"

I really don't understand these regimes. On one hand, their vision was to create an agrarian utopia where everyone would be equal and prosperous. Great...so to do that, you starve, torture and kill everyone? How does that work, exactly? Pol Pot and his henchmen even turned on their own by the end and murdered the people who had always supported and/or fought for them. If they hadn't attacked the Vietnamese enough to spark a retaliation, they might have wiped out the entire country.

It's believed that around two million people lost their lives during this genocide (estimates vary between 1.5-5 million). As horrible as the author's story is, the poor souls who ended up in the "reeducation camps" or the prisons had it much worse. To get a true picture of how horrifically evil this regime was, I highly recommend reading books with a broader perspective as well as Luong's powerful memoir.

One thing that was really surprising, given how big her publisher is, was the lack of editing. There were so many typos and other errors in the book, including simple things like "peak" instead of "peek." This is no fault of the author's, but the editing team did a sloppy job with this one.

“A long time ago Pa told me that April is a very lucky month. In the Cambodian culture, New Year always falls in April, which means that all the children born before New Year become a year older. In the Cambodian calendar year, Kim is now eleven, Chou is nine, I am six, and Geak is four. In Cambodia, people don't celebrate the day on which they were born until they've lived past their fiftieth year. Then families and friends gather to feast on sumptuous food and honour the person's longevity. Pa told me that in other countries, people become a year older only after having passed the exact day and month that they came into the world. On this day every year, friends and families gather to celebrate with food and presents”
- First they killed my father - A daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung
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Have you ever read stories that seems connected with others despite it was written in 2 different books. I have read one short story written by Thai Author about the Cambodian Girl that fled her country due to Khmer Rouge Regime and befriended Thai Boy when she find refuge in Thailand. This book, on the other hand, did have a chapter which the author managed to escape to Thailand before eventually left to USA. It’s not much but my brain insisted on making that connection. Before i rambling nonsensically, let’s just get on with this review. The story of growing up under the brutality of The Angkar and Senseless Pol Pot Regime was told in the POV of a 5 years Old Girl. She barely seems to understand what has transpired around her little world. What she knew is she can never go back to what it was before. She will never be pampered by her father again as he was taken by Khmer Rouge Soldiers and never returned after that. Her Mother was killed right after that and the author was shifted from one camp to another - as her strength and skills were not enough to contribute to the glorious of her country’s future envisioned by Pol Pot. She was also bullied for her skin color as she was a minority - Being a Cambodian Chinese, she has fair skin compared to Pure Khmer that has a brown skin. Her features did put herself on target of being ridiculed by her fellow ‘comrades’. She lost her sister to dysentery as there’s no medicine to be given and no one can prescribed treatment. The Angkar has killed majority of the intellectuals including doctors. Aside from the intellectuals, the capitalists also were not being spared. Despite managed to conceal his identity as a businessman once the regime takeover, the author’s father were being persecuted right away once he got exposed. Some died, some survived, some were traumatised, some wish this never happened at all - such were the sentiments carried by Cambodians when they recalled the dark past of their country. Reading this book while slowly witnessing how anger, pain, despair transformed an innocent child to someone wanted to murder Pol Pot so badly that she prayed to God to let her do it is brutal. That colorful persona of a child instantly vanished. From being indulged lovingly by her family, she was almost being raped by the Youns Soldiers. These Vietnamese soldiers was supposed to protect them but ended up abusing their power. She also went from a city girl to a servant girl that went to live with some villagers family just for a protection and some food. Overall, this book did offer new perspective of what occurred during pol pot regime - How children were being indoctrinated as they were sent off to different camps, the supposed community approach of sharing were not truthful - exploitation between classes still happened despite saying all of them are equals and the fear of boogeyman by the Angkar (first they killed the parents, then they scared that there will be revolt by the kids, so they ended up killing the kids too)

4 stars. This is an event in history that I never knew about. In 1975 The Khmer Rouge overthrew the government and over the next 4 years killed an estimated 2,000,000 Cambodians by murder, torture, and starvation. Loung was age 5 when this began with her family consisting of Ma, Pa and 6 brothers and sisters ranging in age of 3 to 18. Loung tells this heart-breaking story through the eyes of a 5 year-old who is trying to understand what is happening and why. This is a story of her amazing survival when all hope seemed to be lost.
I admire the author as she was true to herself... she didn't always paint herself in the best light. Her struggles were real, and the fact that she was able to survive is just amazing. I was also age 5 in 1975 so this was even more impactful to me. As I remember how wonderful my life was at that age and how it could all be taken away at a moments notice. Her family was extremely brave and strong. I really enjoyed reading this story and I plan to read the next book by the author. I wish her and her family all the best.

Wow. What else can I say that hasn't already been sad about this incredible story of war, love and above all else survival. I couldn't put this book down and was hooked from page one. My heart goes out to everyone involved and effected by the atrocities caused at the hands of the Khmer Rouge regime.

A memoir by Loung Ung who was a small child in Cambodia in Pol Pot's Khmer Rough. She tells her story from being a five-year-old living a wonderful life to overnight being sent to work camps, starvation, loss of family members. This took place when I was in middle school, and I was totally oblivious to things happening in other parts of the world. What an eye-opener to read of the struggle to live day by day, hour by hour. I pulled up her website and read more about her life and the spokeperson she is now, and I have her second book on hold at the library.

What follows is an update that I wrote yesterday after completing half of the book. Apparently my common sense was not working and no alarm bells were ringing that all was not what it seems. That this was not all nonfiction but alas a lot of fiction and even lies! But one day later I know better.

t17 feb 2016 (51%)
I'm 51% done with First They Killed My: and I must say it is very well written which i did not expect. The author managed to pull me in and that is what is my desire. To be pulled in. ;) — 23 hours, 40 min ago

Today february 18 2016:

Nearly finished with First they killed my Father. Not sure how to rate this because at first I really liked it but then my common sense started to tell me this is fiction,alarm bells were going off even though I wanted to just enjoy the story but as a true crime reader I hate it when something is presented as non fiction while it is fiction because the things they write about they could not have possibly known so they just made things up.

Now that is the case in this book and it is sad in a way that this book that is so overly dramatic and sensationalised and apparently even has lies in it is the one that is doing so well.
There was no need for her to pretend she knew how all her siblings died and writing about it in detail . The book would have been good enough without all the dramatisation.  She told us how her sister died in exact details, what she felt and did the same to the others later telling us she has a gift. I have to search the book for how she called it. Found it...extrasensory perception.

What happened was so terrible so cruel so nasty there was no need to make it even worse.

Anyway it started to annoy me so this morning I looked up the 1 star reviews on amazon and most were from Cambodians who were appalled that there were so many lies in this book. More than I even realised.

That being said I was reading a bit this morning and I suddenly felt a tear rolling on my cheek. I really wondered how did that tear come up but then more followed and I really wondered what had made me cry and i checked what I had read last.

The line about her mum being killed just 2 months before it all ended was so sad.

I have no clue what rating to give this book. If you read it and just accept everything as a truth I am sure you can give this a 5 star rating.

Now I have been searching to get a bit more information about this book. She was interviewed apparently about all the misinformation and she said she knew some things were wrong but did not want to change it because those were the views she had as a child.
I can understand that although I do wonder how can she remember so much and in detail.

Now I can't give this book a bad rating either because even though she adds how her family was killed (and do we not all fantasize how it happened, she doesn't say that is exactly what happened.

Well I am going to finish the last 50 pages or so. This book has rattled me that is obvious. :)

Update Feb 21 2016. She did make me want to read more so now I am reading book 2. (which is also so full of detail that nobody would be able to remember 20 years later but hey I am enjoying it so I will add it to my fiction shelves as well. ;)

This book broke my heart into pieces...

I read this book for the Diversity in All Forms! book club. If you would like to participate in the discussion here is the link: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

"One of seven children of a high-ranking government official, Loung Ung lived a privileged life in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh until the age of five. Then, in April 1975, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army stormed into the city, forcing Ung's family to flee and, eventually, to disperse. Loung was trained as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans, her siblings were sent to labor camps, and those who survived the horrors would not be reunited until the Khmer Rouge was destroyed."