The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! 😌
stefiemichelle's review
2.0
I'm disappointed. There was a lot of praise and good reviews for this, but I ended up hating Anne so much. I didn't feel any sympathy for her. I felt sympathy for the other characters, but I found Anne's love for Serey to be too obsessive and not passionate. However, the author did a great job in showing the characters' barriers between memory and history. The theme was good. I just didn't feel anything for the novel.
eososray's review
4.0
Told entirely from the woman's point of view and spanning the entire length of the romance, it brings into play cultural differences, parental interference's and genocide, to make a heartbreakingly sad story.
kimberleylynn74's review
4.0
Audiobook.
One woman's journey from teenager in Montreal, where she meets a Cambodian refugee at a music club one night, through their relationship, back to Cambodia and the realities of a country dealing with the aftermath of a genocide.
Told in flashbacks, this book gives a bit of Cambodian history but does not make genocide the focal point. It's there, omnipresent, sometimes in the background, sometimes clearly-stated and witnessed (such as going to visit the sites where some of the biggest events occurred).
One woman's journey from teenager in Montreal, where she meets a Cambodian refugee at a music club one night, through their relationship, back to Cambodia and the realities of a country dealing with the aftermath of a genocide.
Told in flashbacks, this book gives a bit of Cambodian history but does not make genocide the focal point. It's there, omnipresent, sometimes in the background, sometimes clearly-stated and witnessed (such as going to visit the sites where some of the biggest events occurred).
andrew61's review
4.0
Really good fiction allows the reader to explore worlds they may will never visit and periods of history that are hard to imagine. By creating well drawn characters and situations I find I am often immersed in those experiences. The story of Cambodia following the American evacuation from Saigon in 1975 is traumatic and the horrors of the Khmer rouge unimaginable so this book which is at heart a love story allowed me to understand to a degree the devastation caused by civil war to a sophisticated and ancient country. It is a fascinating period which I only recall previously visiting in the film 'The Killing field' many years ago however the dreadful nature of Pol Pot's regime is frightening as the book itself details how the population was massacred in pursuit of an agrarian economy to the extent that anyone who spoke a foreign language, read a book, or wore glasses might be executed and child soldiers would hide under houses to eavesdrop on family or neighbours conversations reporting back to authority. It's curious as I write how analogous to the post war impact on Iraq of an American war the situation seems, or the impact of Russian invasion of Afghanistan as in both conflicts lack of planning lead to extreme regimes emerging- 'lessons of history'!
Anyway back to the book- In late 1970's Canada a 16 year old girl of a part time university lecturer (the dad makes prosthetic limbs) visits a jazz club with her older student chaperone. The girl Anna meets Serey a Cambodian migrant and falls in love with him to her single father's displeasure. In 1979, with the fall of Pol Pot, Serey returns to Cambodia to find his family. Eleven years later Anna sees Serey on a TV picture and she travels to Cambodia to find him in a country still riven by civil war. I will not say anymore as the plot has many twists and turns but ultimately the effects of the war impact far beyond the years described in the book with a poignant finale.
I would recommend the book as a very accessible picture of a dreadful time. It has certainly made me want to explore the period and had me 'googling' the history as I was reading.
My only very slight issue was that the chronology was a bit out of kilter but it didn't detract from my 'enjoyment' of the book.
Anyway back to the book- In late 1970's Canada a 16 year old girl of a part time university lecturer (the dad makes prosthetic limbs) visits a jazz club with her older student chaperone. The girl Anna meets Serey a Cambodian migrant and falls in love with him to her single father's displeasure. In 1979, with the fall of Pol Pot, Serey returns to Cambodia to find his family. Eleven years later Anna sees Serey on a TV picture and she travels to Cambodia to find him in a country still riven by civil war. I will not say anymore as the plot has many twists and turns but ultimately the effects of the war impact far beyond the years described in the book with a poignant finale.
I would recommend the book as a very accessible picture of a dreadful time. It has certainly made me want to explore the period and had me 'googling' the history as I was reading.
My only very slight issue was that the chronology was a bit out of kilter but it didn't detract from my 'enjoyment' of the book.
jackiea's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
thebookishepicure's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
susannah8111's review
3.0
I would definitely recommend it to a friend. And the Echlins writing style was beautiful, like poetry, but my inner skeptic had some issues with the story itself. On the positive side, the stories of the side characters felt authentic, like they may have been based on real people. On the other, I just couldn't get past the western saviour/hubris of Anna as she thrust herself into deeply dangerous situations without any sense of the actual danger she was putting herself and those with her in.aube it shows how deep love can grind us. Maybe it shows the ignorance of western culture, believing we are immune to the atrocities of war and genocide. I see what she is doing here, it just rubbed me the wrong way.
chelseycatterall's review
4.0
What a hearbreaking story! I wasn't sure I liked the poetic narration at first, but when the action begins, it no longer matters. I couldn't put it down for the last quarter of the book. It was beautiful, haunting and so tragic.