the most excruciating tale I have ever read about war. When Heaven and Earth Changed Places is Le Ly Hayslip's experience growing up in Vietnam's countryside just before the Second Indochina War (Vietnam War) began. as if growing up during war characterized by guerrilla warfare wasn't enough, Le Ly's village rests on the border between South and North Vietnam. thus, Le Ly's village as well her little mind are in a constant tug-o-war between Republican and Viet Cong soldiers. Le Ly was beaten multiple times by Republican and Viet Cong soldiers, captured and interrogated multiple times by Republican soldiers, was raped multiple times, faced numerous instances of sexual harassment, was worshiped and then later banished by the Viet Cong, lost her father to suicide, saw people dismembered and killed, lost her older brother to a land mine, faced starvation, disease and extreme poverty and had her own child all before she was 20 years old. the list of inhumane things Le Ly experiences before she leaves Vietnam in the later 1970s goes on, unfortunately. perhaps the central message of Le Ly's memoir is that war is so ugly, it slowly numbs those stuck inside the war making them unflinching in the face of war itself. Le Ly becomes immune to what would normally be horrendous things - little boys being thrown down a well along with a live grenade, for example - and uses her energy to survive, as her father instructs. Le Ly is lead by these instructions from the Vietnamese countryside to Saigon where she takes various servant, club hostess, and merchant jobs. despite being either beaten or abandoned by various American soldiers, Le Ly eventually finds her way out of Vietnam though not without pleasing the corrupt systems that interweave themselves throughout Saigon.

there were several things I liked about this book, in particular. first, the book is not anti-American. rather, the book is written for ALL people who suffered from the Second Indochina War. second, Le Ly's tale recounts the Buddhist traditions that constitute village life in Vietnam. Le Ly offers clear descriptions of various Buddhist wedding and funeral practices as well as other Buddhist superstitions that are quite different from the western worldview. finally, the book switches between Le Ly recounting her life growing up in war-infested Vietnam and Le Ly returning to Vietnam for a visit in the early 1980s. the book ends with Le Ly founding the East Meets West Foundation, an organization that donates to rural towns in Southeast Asia in hopes of providing basic healthcare needs and so on.

A Vietnamese girl grows up through all of the wars that wash over Vietnam. She becomes a "boat person" to the US, then returns to Vietnam as an adult. Fascinating, beautifully written and a real lesson in what happened in Vietnam.

This is a well-done 'war book' told from the perspective of a young Vietnamese farm girl whose family is sympathetic to the Viet Cong. It was not overly dramatic or violent, which was a very good thing. A lack of graphic descriptions of wartime horrors was very much appreciated, though there are plenty that take place in the book. Being non-fiction it was believable and real and characters had real flaws and personalities you could see in your own family. I was not as interested in the story of the return, and kind of wished the memoir and the reunion were done separately rather than woven together.

A remarkable, fascinating autobiography by a Vietnamese woman. Le Ly was a peasant girl in a rice-paddy village near Danang, and she lived precariously throughout the Vietnam war. It is all there--Viet-Cong terror, escape to the city, life on the fringes of the US army, also poverty, temptation, violent death and rape, as well as insights into Vietnam's culture, centering on Buddhist traditions and warm extended families.

It is strong stuff, made just a bit more palatable by the way Le Ly intertwines two stories--her growing up in Vietnam up to her emigration in 1970 to the US, as a war bride; and her return visit in 1986. It helps to know that the story ended well, that not only did the author survive the war, but so also did most of her family and friends.

A second book, co-authored with her son Jimmy, covers her life in the US in the intervening period, a life that was far from tranquil. "Child of War, Woman of Peace" is well written and full of unexpected twists, and is well worth reading (you might even read it first, as I did), but it is a different story, as different as America is from Vietnam. A recent film tried to combine both books into a condensed story and failed--maybe because in no way can such a rich and detailed tale be distilled to a movie lasting a mere two hours. Books still hold the edge.

Through Le Ly's eyes we see how the war appeared to the Vietnamese themselves. If you ever wondered which side the Vietnamese people themselves supported, this book will provide a lot of food for thought, but no pat answers. At times the reader suspects there is much more to the story, that Le Ly chose withhold some details or has subtly softened what she told. With ties and loyalties to both the US and Vietnam, she could not offend the authorities in either place, the more so because of her personal mission of peace, about which the reader learns in the epilogue (and to greater extent, in "Child of War").

And one senses here how loyalties in Vietnam were split, too. The Viet Cong represented the fight for independence against colonial France and the native pride of a nation, but their indiscriminate terror in the countryside claimed innocent lives and destroyed families and villages. The "republicans" which fought them were corrupt and no strangers to cruelty, either. It is anyone's guess how the Vietnam war may have turned out if America could have found honest and dedicated allies, and if its emissaries had shown better discipline. History gives no second chances, only a few lessons: considering the steep price paid for those lessons, we better pay attention.