Simple language captures what family members really say to each. She struggled to make it her own. We watch here the struggle to find a home. The author reads her own audiobook. Her emotions are vivid and they come through with intensity. You hear she is close to tears. Sometimes I had a hard time grasping a word, and sometimes I had to rewind. I found myself sitting with my ear close to the loudspeaker. Her voice is not loud; it is thin, treble and meek, yet no one but her should read this book!
Personally, I think her telling me of her life is better captured this way than through written lines. Listening to this is an emotional experience you will not forget. A Memoir of My Father. It is better to read The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir first; it will then be easier to understand the second. The second book skims over that found in the first book. They are not repeats.
I have given both five stars. View all 18 comments. Oct 19, Amy rated it it was amazing Shelves: Lovely, moving, highly recommended. Dec 31, Rock rated it really liked it. I've been flagellating trying to write a review of this story, I think because I want so badly to relate it to the multitude of political cultural historical events that it skirts, always affected by them but rarely addressing them. That is a credit to Ms. Yang, who establishes herself here as a powerfully lyrical writer, with both feet firm in what I as an ignoramus imagine to be the Hmong oral tradition.
Though these pages together are a memoir, the Latehomecomer is not Ms. Yang but rather h I've been flagellating trying to write a review of this story, I think because I want so badly to relate it to the multitude of political cultural historical events that it skirts, always affected by them but rarely addressing them. Yang but rather her grandmother, whose stories pepper the larger narrative of this book, adding flavor to the saga of a refugee family, already a spicy broth.
So we read not just the tale of a young family escaping through jungles thick with danger to starve in the squalor of a refugee camp and eventually transmogrify timidly into Minnesotans, but we delight in the legends of a pre-literate culture and weep with its brutal reality as experienced by this latehomecomer. And of course the veneration the author has for her grandmother reminded me of my own elders, who may not have raised their siblings or crossed oceans, but went through tribulations specific to their time and our place but I guess due to their age relative to mine are reminiscent of the titular character of this book.
Hmmm, maybe the tortured prose of this review is indicative of all that flagellation. Well damn it was a good book and I don't want to quit talking about it. When the United States withdrew from Vietnam, they left the Hmong people in dire straits. One third of them were killed during the war, one third were the victims of genocide by the North Vietnamese and the Pathet Lao soldiers.
Those that were alive fled to the jungles and tried to hide and eke out a sort of life. This is the story of Kao and her family, written and narrated by her and the characterization are very vivid and poignant. She herself, was born in Thailand, in a refugee camp, after h When the United States withdrew from Vietnam, they left the Hmong people in dire straits. She herself, was born in Thailand, in a refugee camp, after her parents had to flee the jungles and try to get Thailand.
Unbelievable the will and the strength these people showed again and again.
After many years, many different camps, they were relocated to the states, the camps in Thailand were shut down. This was the last time her whole family would be together. The adjustment period, trying to hold on to a culture, only wanting a home, a place they could call home. So much of their culture had been lost, it made it even more important to hold on to what was left. The cultural references were many, in Laos, a child did not go to school until they could raise their right hand over their head and touch their left ear.
One must always have something of the mother, so that she could be found after death. I came to admire these people, their culture, the love they have for family and their tenacity in the face of so many tragedies and difficulties. I am so glad this young woman, chose to write her story so that we would read and understand. I loved the pictures that were included in the book, it always seems more personal when one can see the faces of those one is reading about. View all 7 comments. Jan 15, Shomeret rated it liked it Shelves: I felt that Fadiman was portraying the Hmong as a mysterious puzzle to be solved.
This is the first book I have read from a Hmong perspective.
The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir - Kao Kalia Yang - Google Книги
It humanizes the Hmong and gives them more of a context. I place the Hmong in the context of other independent spirited mountain peoples with distinctive cultures such as the The only book I'd read about the Hmong previously was The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: I place the Hmong in the context of other independent spirited mountain peoples with distinctive cultures such as the 18th century Scottish Highlanders or the Kurds.
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The style of the author is closer to spoken English. As a result, the grammar is not completely correct. The library copy that I read contained corrections in pencil from a reader of the painfully correct school of grammar. Yes, it's true that the author was using "her" when she should have utilized "she" on many occasions, but "her" is more comfortable. As I listened to the corrected version of the sentence in my head, it sounded awkward. For better or for worse, common usage has changed. Nov 19, Rach rated it it was amazing.
I later found out it is required reading this year for the incoming class at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire. I learned a lot about the incredible struggles faced by the Hmong during and after the Secret War in Laos. The writer's voice is clear and lyrical. She is able to capture her experience as a child, born in a refugee camp, whose parents and grandparent underwent immense suffering while trying to find safety and stability for their children.
She also beautifully conveys her childhood experience in the Thai refugee camps and her family's resettlement in St Paul, Minnesota--how necessary her family bonds were for their survival and, as many immigrants know, how incredibly hard they worked to provide for their families. I couldn't put this book down and highly recommend it. Jan 15, Rachel rated it really liked it Shelves: I really enjoyed this book. Growing up around several Hmong people, I was shocked that I did not know the Hmong story.
I read this book and it whetted my appetite to learn more about the Hmong people. My favorite part in this book was when the family came to the United States and she writes how they took a bath with a strange smelling soap and I really enjoyed this book. My favorite part in this book was when the family came to the United States and she writes how they took a bath with a strange smelling soap and didn't smell like Thailand anymore.
It is such a bittersweet picture. As part of an immigration project I'm working on, I recently spent a lot of time interviewing members of the Hmong community in Minneapolis-St. For those who don't know, the Hmong are an ancient Chinese tribe that centuries ago moved mostly to Laos, where they fought for the Americans during the Vietnam War.
This of course put them in great jeopardy after the war ended, and thousands of Hmong fled to refugee camps in Thailand and then to the U. Kao Kalia Yang tells about this journey through her own family, particularly the role of her grandmother, who by the time she died a few years ago had direct descendants living in the U. The memoir is fascinating and generally well done, although there were times when I felt Yang's English as a second language was evident -- small grammatical or syntactical anomalies.
But she does a good job of evoking the people in her story, the deep-forested jungle of Laos, the barren crowding of the refugee camps, and the adjustment to a cold, foreign landscape in the Twin Cities. Probably most winning for me, though, were the stories told by various Hmong family members, both traditional ones and the way they expressed their own journeys through life.
Captured in this book is the common aspiration of many immigrants, to find a new home, to do better for their children, and in the Hmong's case, to escape a history full of death and fear. The Hmong traditionally believe that when someone dies, a spirit guide leads her back to her homeland, and the three day funeral has a ceremony in which her path is traced backwards through all the places she lived, as she journeys back to the bamboo platform on which she was born, where she "fell from the clouds" as a baby, as the Hmong believe, before reuniting with those who preceded her in death.
This was the most moving and powerful part of the book, but as a whole, The Late Homecomer gives voice and heart to a people still little known to many Americans. May 19, Claudia rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: Kao Kalia Yang's written words read just like her spoken words sound - eloquent, sparse, and powerful in their own quiet, poetic way. Kalia's book is the first novel published by a Hmong American woman, and as a creative non-fiction memoir of her family's migration from the hills of Laos to refugee camps in Thailand to the cities of Minnesota, it makes a beautiful addition to the long history of Hmong storytelling as well as a promising start to what is likely to be an incredible career for Kali Kao Kalia Yang's written words read just like her spoken words sound - eloquent, sparse, and powerful in their own quiet, poetic way.
Kalia's book is the first novel published by a Hmong American woman, and as a creative non-fiction memoir of her family's migration from the hills of Laos to refugee camps in Thailand to the cities of Minnesota, it makes a beautiful addition to the long history of Hmong storytelling as well as a promising start to what is likely to be an incredible career for Kalia and a long future for Hmong American writing.
Having had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with Kao Kalia several times, I can only say that this book more than meets my expectations, and I wish her the best of luck with it, although is is not really needed. This is an interesting memoir by a Hmong-American writer, about the experiences of a community that is opaque to many Americans.
The Hmong are an ethnic minority who moved from China to Laos centuries ago; the Chinese outlawing their written language is apparently the reason they lack one even today. It goes on to describe the difficulties of their adjustment, for her being too shy to speak English in school even once she learned it , but mostly for the family: If we saw them, they would see us. For the first year and a half, we wanted to be invisible. Everywhere we went beyond the McDonough Housing Project, we were looked at, and we felt exposed. We were dealing with a widespread realization that all Hmong people must do one of two things to survive in America: In the case of the noticeably young, the decision was made for us.
For those who were older, the case was also easy to figure.
Excerpt: 'The Latehomecomer'
Those marred by the war, impaired by the years of fighting, social security and disability were options. They knew they wanted a chance to work, but they did not know how to keep that chance safe, so on the streets, before the slanted brows of mostly white men, they held us close for security. Overall then, I found this memoir worthwhile, mostly for the opportunity to learn more about a community that was unfamiliar to me.
My introduction to Hmong people was when I first visited my daughter's family who had just moved to Wisconsin. There was a large, happy group of Asian people at the park. She told me they were Hmong. She said they were from Viet Nam. She was sort of right. They did live in Viet Nam, but really they are a race, a culture, a community without a country. My daughter has since made many friends with Hmong, one of whom recommended she read this book.
The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir
She did and recommended My introduction to Hmong people was when I first visited my daughter's family who had just moved to Wisconsin. She did and recommended it to me. It is the true story of an Hmong family who are hunted in the jungles of Viet Nam after they assisted us in the Vietnamese war until they escape to Thailand by swimming the Mekong River with a baby strapped to the mother and a small scrap of embroidery her mother had made tucked between she and the baby.
They live in a refuge camp there for six years, then a transition camp for a few months, then come to America. Hmong families were sent to California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. This large family was split- some sent to Minnesota, some to California. They struggle to survive, but express gratitude every day for the opportunity to live in America.
This is their story, as told by the second daughter of the youngest son of this large family. Her purpose is to preserve the history of the race and the culture, and specifically, her family's history- mostly her beloved grandmother's life story. The author's Kalia father instructs her on what to write when he learns she is writing the book with this powerful statement. He says,"It is very important that you tell this part of our story: Even in the very beginning, we knew that we were looking for a home.
Other people, in moments of sadness and despair, can look to a place in the world: We are not like that. I knew that our chance was here [America]. Our chance to share in a new place and a new home. This is so important to our story. You must think about it, and tell it the way it is.
Excerpts: Recommended Books
In fact, I read the book in a very personal way, as Kalia's parents started their family about the same time we started ours. As they were being married in a jungle, hoping they would survive and the ceremony would not be interrupted by the Vietnamese soldiers hunting them, mine was performed in a beautiful temple with a large gathering of friends and family. A few months after they had their first baby girl in a dirty hut, after being captured and held prisoner they were later able to escape.
I was having mine in a sterile hospital. My second daughter was born in the same month December as their second daughter- the author of the book. She was born in a filthy refuge camp in Thailand, delivered by her grandmother. My daughter was delivered by a doctor and was brought home in a large Christmas stocking to celebrate Christmas around a beautifully decorated tree. It was impossible to read this book without feeling gratitude for my blessings. I enjoyed being immersed in a culture very different from mine. I learned a lot. Though there are many differences, I can't help but see the many similarities as well.
The love of family, the desire to preserve one's personal and family history, and the desire to succeed and make a difference in the world are all so much a part of all. I conclude that we are more alike than different. We are all part of the human family, and though they don't understand it yet, children of the same God.
I wish I could share that message with these remarkable people. Yang, for so beautifully sharing and preserving your important story. Jul 10, Catherine rated it liked it Shelves: This is a beautiful memoir, deftly written, and the arc of three generations of women's lives gives a wonderful resiliency to the text. There are repeated images - walking; typing; struggling to speak - but within the disparate worlds of Laos, Thailand, and the United States each theme takes on a different resonance.
The author's focus on words - spoken, then written, and the relationship between the two in more than one language - is haunting, and I got chills when she wrote an essay in high sc This is a beautiful memoir, deftly written, and the arc of three generations of women's lives gives a wonderful resiliency to the text.
The author's focus on words - spoken, then written, and the relationship between the two in more than one language - is haunting, and I got chills when she wrote an essay in high school, typing with her index fingers through the night, the act recalling her mother's dream of marrying an educated man and learning to type with quick, agile fingers. I suspect this is a book that I'll be thinking of for a long time - it feels as if it's slipped slowly into my bloodstream and there's more within the pages than I understand right now.
But I'm grateful that it exists, that Kao Kalia Yang was able to capture the stories that so many Hmong lost in the jungles of war-torn Laos, and that her words challenge us to think about the precious stories we lose among the textbooks and history classes and newspaper headlines of a cheerfully amnesiac United States. Feb 10, Shana rated it it was amazing Shelves: Kao Kalia Yang tells her family's story from the jungles of Laos to the projects of St.
Paul and beyond with grace, humor, compassion and wonder. She retells her grandmother's stories with a respect that leads one to truly appreciate the ease of our lives. Yang struggled as a child with English, school, and double expectations. She has overcome obstacles most of us couldn't and has become a gifted storyteller, just like her grandmother. As I drive around St. Paul after finishing the book, I find m Kao Kalia Yang tells her family's story from the jungles of Laos to the projects of St. Thank you for such a personal glimpse into a story that lives all around me. View all 3 comments.
I worked with a Hmong guy for about a year and he told some stories about the fighting in Laos. He had a lot of kids. It is easy to imagine him as one of this woman's uncles. He had a similar history in St. Paul as her family. It was really interesting to read about her introduction to America, Minnesota and especially the St. Paul Public School system. The way she explains her grandmother, the central character of the story, is so slow, showing and not telling, leaving out over-wrought psycholog I worked with a Hmong guy for about a year and he told some stories about the fighting in Laos.
The way she explains her grandmother, the central character of the story, is so slow, showing and not telling, leaving out over-wrought psychological theories and family drama around this or that cousin who was screwing up. What is left is a beautiful account of her grandmother's life and Hmong culture from someone who grew up Hmong and got the ability to see it from enough of a distance to be able to write about it without ceasing to be a part of it. It is good to know about the struggles of the Hmong people. The author is about four years younger than me, so all of her family's efforts to survive have taken place while I was living a parallel comfortable life.
It is healthy to make this comparison and see that they have the same needs and desires and capabilities as my family. They just haven't been as fortunate. This book is beautifully written. All this was said in the things that were happening: I am fine, thank you. These were the Thai government's last gift to the Hmong for leaving their country, the American government's donation to a people who had passed exams stating they had fought under American leadership and influence during the Secret War in Laos from to All this was felt as she watched the preoccupied adults around her preparing for a new life, trying to end the yearning for an old one that she didn't know — she saw how their eyes searched the distance for the shadows of mountains or the wide, open sky for the monsoons, one last time before it was gone forever.
She had heard stories of how Hmong people did not have a country, how we always had to leave places behind. First China because the Chinese didn't want us on their land — how they took away our written language, and how they tried to turn us into slaves, and so we spoke our fears to our ancestors and made our way to Laos. When the French came to Laos, they climbed the high mountains and they saw the cool of the land. They wanted opium for tax money. We fought them, but lost. When they left they had learned that we would keep fighting, and they told the Americans so. The American pilots dropped first from the sky, injured and scared, into the Hmong villages on Phou Bia Mountain, and we helped them get better again in the depths of the jungle.
By the time their leaders came with guns, there were Hmong people who had seen enough Americans to trust in an idea of democracy: Those who believed took up guns. Those who were still only struggling with their lives saw guns pointed at them. The explosion of flesh, the falling down of heavy bodies to the ground, wet blood soaking the dark of the earth. The North Vietnamese soldiers and the communist Pathet Lao soldiers could not and would not tell the difference: Hmong was only skin deep.
When the Americans left Laos in , they took the most influential, the biggest believers and fighters for democracy with them, and they left my family and thousands of others behind to wait for a fight that would end for so many in death. A third of the Hmong died in the war with the Americans. Another third were slaughtered in its aftermath. From the clouds, the little girl's spirit watched her family escape into the Laotian jungle, run around in circles for four years, and then surface on the banks of the Mekong River in Thailand --starving survivors. Her spirit came to them in Ban Vinai Refugee Camp.
Then her spirit and her body left Thailand — just as the Hmong had left so many other countries. In the beginning, she did not have the words to say anything. Later, she didn't know what to say. Eventually, she would learn to say, "Hmong is an ethnic minority. We don't have a country.