Thi Bui
In this graphic memoir, Bui is the writer and illustrator as well as the narrator and protagonist. The story details the life of Bui and her family in Vietnam as the end war is coming to a close and the subsequent danger they faced as a result of being South Vietnamese citizens once the North claims victory. This danger ultimately makes remaining in the country untenable and forces the family to claim membership among the refugees known as “boat people” who come to America seeking to start new lives.
Má
Thi’s mother’s becomes the tale’s central symbol of the sacrifices people—especially women—are expected to make for the sake of family. Her ambitions to become a doctor are undermined by marriage to a husband she does not expect to survive tuberculosis but does and the baby which forces that marriage dying as infant.
Bố
Thi’s father’s bout with tuberculosis is just one of the many episodes which afflict his tormented childhood. A criminal conspiracy within his family, famine, and a village massacre are all events which he manages to survive physically, but which will continue to haunt him psychologically for the rest of his life. Nevertheless, the author writes and draws with obvious pride when recreating the event which raises her father at least briefly from victim to hero: force to take over command of the refugee boat when the actual captain is incapacitated, Bố spectacularly rises to the occasion against the turbulent ocean waves.
The General
One of the most infamous events of the Vietnam War produced one of the most iconic photos of the 20th century, and it is recreated here for the purpose of lending context which still escapes many who are familiar with it. The photograph is known as “Saigon Execution” and shows a South Vietnam general holding a gun to the head of a Viet Cong prisoner from the North just second before pulling the trigger in an execution which was also captured on film by a new camera. It is widely thought that this photo did much to turn American sentiment even more strongly against support of the war due to the face that this grisly violent action was taken by member of “our side” in the war. The memoir reveals what happened in both the aftermath of the photo and the event which stimulated it: the general shot the man to retaliate for his killing an entire family and the photo had the effect of ruining the rest of his life.
