Hearts of Sorrow: Vietnamese-American Lives - Softcover

Freeman, James M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0804718903 ISBN 13: 9780804718905

Publisher: Stanford University Press, 1991

Synopsis

The first-person narratives in this book provide a glimpse into the personal lives of fourteen Vietnamese-Americans who were devastated by war and the refugee experience but who were able to create new lives in a new cultural environment.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Fourteen Vietnamese refugees--a former ARVN officer, a Buddhist nun, fisherman, auto mechanic, etc.--speak here about their struggles to survive under the Hanoi and Saigon governments, their flights from Communist oppression and their difficulties adjusting to life in the U.S. Their experiences in America are brought into sharp focus as they discuss such matters as anti-Vietnamese bigotry and the deterioration of Vietnamese family values. Freeman, anthropology professor at San Jose State in California, stresses that "America is much better off for having brought the Vietnamese here," and suggests that never in our history has such a large block of disadvantaged immigrants succeeded in "turning around their lives to become economically self-sufficient contributors to the community in which they lived." The statements of the participants in this oral project are nonetheless heavy with longing and regret, and bewilderment over American ways.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review:

'Though they reflect a much larger tragedy, the specificity and exactness of detail in these narratives give the book its force ... Hearts of Sorrow adds necessary and eloquent testimony to the tragic record of Vietnam's long war ... The book and the stories it contains, impossible to read without one's own heart beginning to ache, bring suffering into the foreground, where it belongs.' The Washington Post

About this edition

• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0804718903
• ISBN 13: 9780804718905
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 464