Rating: 
Summary: Impossible to put down
Review: The chilling story of the Cambodian purges led by the Kmer Rouge was impossible to put down. Ms. Ung tells her story without resorting to being overly violent even thogh the killings were in the millions. Her brilliance is in humanizing the violent struggle through a family we grow to care about deeply. She avoids the political side of the Cambodian civil war and focusses on an ordinary family turned from a happy middle class life to one of survival and loss. I read this in one day because I needed to know what happenned to this family. Poor little Loung Ung led a terrible few years but lives to remind us that our American lives of comfort are not to be taken for granted. I recently read a similar book on Rwanda and was similarly touched by how much suffering still can go on in our supposedly modern, humane world. Clearly, wanton slaughter in other countries makes me appreciate the simple freedoms of safety and security we have. Read this story and you will not complain about the simple things that aggravate us in America.
Rating:
Summary: Hell on earth through the eyes of a child
Review: "First they killed My father" is Loung Ung's Horror filled account of her childhood stolen from her by Pol Pot's regime which ranks behind only Hitlers for it's brutality and inhumanity. It is also a story of a family's love and sacrafice for one another. A father and mother's love for thier children a sister's love for each other but most of all a little girls love for her father.Think of Anne Frank Meets the "killing fields" and you only begin to get an idea of what this book is about. Loung's writing is at once so simple and yet so vivid you can almost feel the shock, disgust and horror of a little girl living in what can only be discribed as hell on earth. You can feel the confusion and fear in a little girls mind as her life of cars, TV's, phones and movies is ripped away from her and replaced with starvation, murder, bombs, gun fire and death. PA what are communist she asks, and why do they hate us? Her Father's answer is simple and direct they are destoyers. This book is truly a must read for everyone, least we forget and let history repeat it's self.
Rating:
Summary: Moved me so much on the human spirit
Review: As I'm now travelling in the Southeast Asia I would want to read some books about this area. I found Ms Luong Ung's book in a bookstore in Nha Trang of Vietnam (original copy!). Once I started to read it I had to stop for some time to get some fresh air before I could finish it. The book was so greatly written but the story was so horrible, it's impossible to be unmoved by the knowledge that this is not a fiction but a real life story that happened at the time of my generation. I felt the sorrow when Ms Luong's father, and later her mother, were taken away by the Khmer Rough, I felt the happiness when she finally started a new life in America. I was born in Aug 1977 and it's somehow quite difficult to imagine that when I was well brought up in a peaceful place (in Hong Kong), then a girl and other children of my generation living very near to me would force to serve for the children army and suffer from great miseries and unspeakable carnage. This book definitely tells us how lucky we are, how precious a life can be, and how one politician's stupid idea would ruin so many lives and families. Thanks Ms Loung for writing such a great book to share her experience with all of us, it must have taken you great courage to tell us your story, which moved me so much on the human spirit.
Rating:
Summary: Unable to put down this book
Review: This horrifying real-life story is told in a simple way by Loung Ung. It's unbelievable that a little girl of 5 years old can endure so much and yet succeed and stand up to the horror of the Khmer Rouge goverment. There are not as many literatures on the horror of communist Pol Pot's dictatorship as they do on China. Loung Ung's father was a government official before the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia. Ung's family had to flee from Phnom Penh as all previous government officials will be killed and the book showed how much of poverty and hunger that their family had to suffer. The way Ung described the way children and adults were killed was terrifying and how even if people were not killed by the army, they would die of hunger, food-poisoning, etc. This book is very easy to understand as the author said it the way she saw it. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about Cambodia, their culture and the genocide that was commited by the Khmer Rouge.
Rating:
Summary: Survivor in Time
Review: Loung Ung is a heroine simply because she survived. She describes her life living in Cambodia during the Pol Pot Regime's invasion. Starting at age five, she vividly recounts her thoughts and feelings from day to day. The story takes you on a journey through a time of betrayal, murder, disease, sadness, and courage. The phrase "life is not always fair" took on a whole different meaning to me after reading this book. I realized that my life was not bad at all in comparison. To begin with, I have food to eat and a bed to sleep in. This book opened my eyes into a time period of history that I hadn't known existed. the author spares no details as she tells the horror of her life story and all the events that happened in it. The book is definantly not a feel good, happy story, but something you read to learn and reflect upon as you come to see of one persons sheer determination to live. Loung Ung wrote this story to help her heal from her past. As a reader I was very glad she took the time.
Rating:
Summary: My new favorite book
Review: This is an absolutely wonderful book. I wish that I hadn't read it yet so I could go back and read it again for the first time. It is a haunting recount of the transition of Cambodia's government by Pol Pot and the Khmer rouge and an amazing story of the people who were able to survive it. Fantastic writing that keeps you glued to every page. THis book really makes you realize the lack our hardship in your own life.
Rating:
Summary: An Essential Reading
Review: Forget Britney....And do you tend to complain of your life's miseries because you are not Britney? This is the kind of literature that makes you a different person, if you read it. You won't be the same, I promise. You'd appreciate the simplest of things in life...a drop of water, a grain of rice, a grain of sugar...and love and support from the family. It should be on a reading list for every students.
Rating:
Summary: First They Killed My Father
Review: This book written by Loung Ung is one of the most facinating books I've ever read. It made me feel ignorant not knowing about any of this happening just 30 years ago. This is a must read book. If you are interested in what Hitler did to the Jews then this might interest you as well.
Rating:
Summary: You must read this book
Review: This book is a must read for anyone. Period. If you are even considering this book, I urge you to read it. It will change you. It's not easy to stomach, but you will not be able to put it down. You race through it hoping that the next page or the next chapter will bring you some relief from the nightmare that these characters live in, but you get none and you realize how infinitely small your discomfort is relative to the hell that milions of people lived through (or died in) during that time in Cambodia. And throughout, you can not believe the strength of these people and their ability to survive. You will feel the absolute strength of the love of this family and you will think at times that it is almost powerful enough to change their fates. You are rooting for them every step of the way and hoping for a different outcome than the one whose first step is stated in the title. It is an absolutely essential read.
Rating:
Summary: Must read
Review: Long Ung's book stays with you long after you put it down. The horror of the events that transpire are surpassed only by the realization that her story was an example of not just ones suffering but millions during this time, and throughout history. This book is very much worth reading.
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