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A review by liralen
Such a Lovely Little War: Saigon 1961-63 by Marcelino Truong
3.0
Fascinating for the perspective. Truong's mother was French and his father a Vietnamese diplomat who was posted to Saigon near the beginning of the Vietnam War. As such, Truong's perspective is one that I haven't heard much of in terms of the war: Vietnamese, but removed from the action of the war by both privilege and age.
Age is something of a disadvantage terms of the retelling, because Truong was so young at the time that much of the context was beyond him at the time and has clearly been filled in by much later research. This isn't a problem in and of itself (The Best We Could Do also relies heavily on research, and I loved how that was done), but in this case it slowed down the story quite a bit for me—more of a disconnect between Truong's family's story and the broader political story. Still really interesting but less compelling a read than I'd hoped.
Age is something of a disadvantage terms of the retelling, because Truong was so young at the time that much of the context was beyond him at the time and has clearly been filled in by much later research. This isn't a problem in and of itself (The Best We Could Do also relies heavily on research, and I loved how that was done), but in this case it slowed down the story quite a bit for me—more of a disconnect between Truong's family's story and the broader political story. Still really interesting but less compelling a read than I'd hoped.