Memory Is Another Country: Women of the Vietnamese Diaspora

Nguyen (history, University of Melbourne) sought out women of the Vietnamese diaspora to record the memories of their lives and the experience of war and exile. The interviewees all currently live in Australia but Nguyen augments the accounts with quotations from the memoirs of those who went to other countries. She also sets the context for the memories, starting with those of her own family. One of the strengths of this collection is that the women all had different experiences that they reacted to differently. Therefore, while loss, devastation and grief can't be escaped as a common theme, the women do not blend into archetypes. The chapters begin with loss, symbolized by the family photographs that were lost or destroyed. The difference in the recollections of two sisters who shared the same traumas is particularly interesting. Other chapters focus on female soldiers, war memories, intermarriage outside the culture, both before and after leaving Viet Nam and the reactions of those who returned to visit as well as those who refused to do so. The "living history" that this book represents is a beautifully realized portrait of ordinary women who were forced into extraordinary lives. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Nathalie Huynh Chau Nguyen holds an ARC Australian Research Fellowship at the Australian Centre, School of Historical Studies, University of Melbourne. She was shortlisted for the 2007 NSW Premier's Literary Award forVoyage of Hope: Vietnamese Australian Women's Narratives (2005).