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A review by ablotial
We Should Never Meet: Stories by Aimee Phan
3.0
Another really interesting read. It is a grouping of stories told from different points of views, or many different characters of different ages who had something to do with the war in Vietnam, and in particular were impacted by Operation BabyLift - an effort to get many orphans out of Vietnam during the war and to places like the United States where they would (hopefully) be adopted.
The story follows some of the children who came to the USA - one who was in and out of foster homes her whole life and abused, two who had loving families but had different reactions to them, one who became a theif. It also follows a Vietnamese girl turned Catholic nun, a young vietnamese mother who had been raped by an American soldier and dropped her baby off at an orphanage, and an American volunteer in a Vietnamese orphanage... and I think I'm forgetting someone, but you get the idea.
All of their stories are intertwined, and sometimes it isn't until far later when you figure out the relationships. The story was great - I learned a lot about Vietnam and the problems there during the war, and operation BabyLift, and really felt like I could relate to the characters and understand them, even though I have obviously never been in such a situation.
Some of the writing annoyed me a bit, which is why I didn't give the book a 4 rating.
The story follows some of the children who came to the USA - one who was in and out of foster homes her whole life and abused, two who had loving families but had different reactions to them, one who became a theif. It also follows a Vietnamese girl turned Catholic nun, a young vietnamese mother who had been raped by an American soldier and dropped her baby off at an orphanage, and an American volunteer in a Vietnamese orphanage... and I think I'm forgetting someone, but you get the idea.
All of their stories are intertwined, and sometimes it isn't until far later when you figure out the relationships. The story was great - I learned a lot about Vietnam and the problems there during the war, and operation BabyLift, and really felt like I could relate to the characters and understand them, even though I have obviously never been in such a situation.
Some of the writing annoyed me a bit, which is why I didn't give the book a 4 rating.