Tomorrow I'm Dead

by Bun Yom

After three years as a Killing Field slave, seventeen-year-old Bun Yom escaped from the Khmer Rouge and became a "Freedom Fighter." Using his wisdom, courage and unprecedented compassion, Bun rescued thousands of cambodian people and soon became the Cambodian Freedom Army's greatest soldier. This is his story.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, War, Biography, Autobiography, Historical

258 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 30, 2010

Reviews

[Poppy || Monster Lover · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wasn’t the best writing, but the story is moving.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aside from the writing style, (one must keep in mind that English was not his first language) Yom's story of survival and heroism is laudable. He provides a raw and vivid account of his experiences under the Khmer Rouge regime. Through his storytelling, one cannot help but notice how humble and kind he had been under dire circumstances that could have turned any other person from their sense of humanity. Yom had nothing to live for when he believed his entire family may have perished, so he dedicated his life to saving innocent people until his last breath. His mentality going into each rescue mission was "Tomorrow I'm Dead" anyways. He made a point to not kill the captured enemies. Rather, he showed his humanity time and again by treating them with kindness and changing their hearts. Yom also shares the mental strains and difficult decisions he faced, and the times when he became numb to horrifying realities such as pulling up pieces of dead bodies in the river or being killed by Khmer Rouge soldiers if refused and did otherwise.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars! I have read/listened to several books by Khmer Rouge . Although this was good, it wasn't as good as Mother and the Tiger or First They Killed My Father. It is remarkable how some people can persevere and survive through some of the worse situations.

[Steve Scott · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a horribly over-rated audiobook, with a 4 1/2 star rating on Audible.

The author isn’t a native English speaker and his prose, in narration, sounds like a fifth grade book report. There are four editing mistakes that stood out. In three of them the narrator flubs lines (hey, it happens) and gives a “popping” sound with his lips before re-reading the line in order to indicate on the track where the editor needs to crop the mistake. No cropping was done.

There are demonstrably false “facts” that the author makes claims for. He supposedly was trained in using an AK47 rifle, but doesn’t know the correct cyclic rate of fire for it (overstates it by more than ten times); doesn’t know its magazine capacity (lists it as double the actual amount); claimed he carried an “AK47 pistol” in his pocket when crossing the border into Thailand (such a thing as described doesn’t exist); he states he held three jobs simultaneously and slept only one hour a night when holding them; and claims he ran ten miles in a half hour because of a magic tattoo on his knee.

That’s enough to convince me not to trust this account.

[Kim Mcevoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this on audio. The translation to English is not amazing. But I felt it only added to the experience. I appreciated that it was not repetitive. It wasn’t drawn out. A truly horrific way to grow up. I want to read more about the history and political culture of this region and time. Spoiler. It was endearing that once he knew he wasn’t an orphan he lost his ability and desire to fight. He was all about saving people. And when the war turned from saving to fighting which occurred about the time his mother found him. How remarkable. What a beautiful character he has that his family and reuniting with them was so powerful

[Robert Kenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m always a sucker for a good survival story, and this book provided a firsthand account of some atrocities that many in the west have never heard about before. Some people have complained that it was “poorly written,” but I don’t entirely agree. It was written in a matter-of-fact style, without elaborate descriptions or long philosophical musings, but sometimes that’s refreshing. The author was clear and concise in his telling, and that’s more than can be said of many writers.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is very staccato and awkward which wasn't helped by the reader. Understanding that it was written by a Cambodian makes that part easy to forgive but still a little odd to listen to.
Overall the book was good. I had to take breaks from it because of the reality of the violence and horror that it tells about. I'm glad to have a little knowledge of this conflict I've heard of but know so little about.

[Bryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a hard sort of book to "like." It is, however, a story that clearly needs to be told. While it is in the not too distant past, this genocide is rarely mentioned, and needs to receive far more attention than it does. It does give a good job relaying the horror of this time period by someone that lived through it.

[Britt, Book Habitue · Rating 3 out of 5]

A compelling, if not well written, memoir of survival.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

He was a better freedom fighter than writer. But still, crazy story.

[pierre bovington · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great story of the "killing fields"
I loved this story. A 17 year old, separated from his parents as the Khmer Rouge advanced through Cambodia. He survives through a positive attitude, sometimes pure luck the genocide of Pol Pot's teenage "soldiers".
In the first-person account, Bun Yom talks through the horrors of forced labour in unimaginable conditions.
We in the West simply do not comprehend hunger, real hunger, not the " I could eat a horse" after a skipped breakfast.
I recommend this wonderful book.

[Arianna Bruneau · Rating 1 out of 5]

That was even more boring than the last one.

[Ann Hartman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part of the charm but also part of the lack of stars for this book come from the writing style - written in the victim/storytellers own hand and voice. Very quick and heart/wrenching read.

[Bob Sanchez · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1975, insanity descended upon the Cambodian people in the form of the Khmer Rouge (Red Cambodians). They forced everyone out of cities and into the countryside, slaughtering anyone who lagged behind. They forced people to work endless hours under backbreaking conditions, starving them in the meantime. Families were separated. Innocent people were shot or clubbed to death for the most trivial infractions or for no reason at all. It was utter disaster for over a million people, comparable perhaps to a Holocaust without the mechanization.

Young Bun Yom lost many friends and acquaintances in what became widely and accurately described as the killing fields, but he survived with a combination of intelligence, toughness, and a heavy dose of luck. In time he escaped to join a resistance movement to fight for the freedom of other captives. His leadership skills showed through time and again, right up to the time he was safely reunited with his family in a Thai refugee camp.

This fine book bears witness to a shameful event in human history. We should all know about it, and we should never forget.

Although he learned English as an adult, he has written a compelling story that readers will find remarkable.

[JoAnn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a horrifying eyewitness look into Pol Pot's infamous Cambodian Killing Fields. I remember hearing about this while in high school shortly after the film "The Killing Fields" was released. I had seen promotions for the movie on television which were frightening enough, so I was surprised to find through this special lecture the terrible movie was not fiction.
While the author's style is hardly polished and can be awkward at times, his simple language adds to the realism of his story and serves to remind the reader that the narrator was a teenaged boy throughout most of these events. Thankfully, he was wise beyond his years, because that wisdom saved his life on many occasions and led him to be willing to lay his life on the line for others as a freedom fighter. I do not believe a ghost writer, translator, etc., could have told Bun's story as effectively as Bun Yom chose to do himself in English.

[Reggie Martell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a taut, spartan and devastatingly frank personal narrative of one extraordinary tale of survival during the Khmer Rouge's takeover and genocidal reign in Cambodia. It is modest in scope fiercely disciplined, refusing to venture beyond the horizon of it's remarkable author and his experiences. If you seek explanation of who or what precipitated this epoch in Cambodian history, you wont find it in this book. Bun Yom was a savvy and intelligent young man when an army of children soldiers came to his village pointing guns and giving orders, but he didn't know why they were there or what they wanted, and during his time in the killing fields thoughts of political rational were pushed to a distant periphery as the main thrust of his mental energies bent toward keeping himself alive for another hour.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not well written, but the story itself makes it worth reading. This is the biography of a young man who was enslaved by the Khmer Rouge at age 15 in the Killing Fields, escaped the Khmer Rouge to become a Cambodian Freedom Fighter, eventually (and amazingly) reunited with members of his family and emigrated to the USA. His story is a miracle of survival. He wrote the book himself in his own words, which are simple and not polished. It would be wonderful if an experienced writer like Laura Hillenbrand would flesh out his story.

[Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an incredible story about a young man imprisoned in the Cambodian killing fields, something I knew nothing about before reading this book. The story is horrific, the ending is inspiring, but I sure wish that Bun Yom had written this in his native language and let somebody translate it into English. The writing is really terrible...maybe even worse than my students' writing level at Georgia State.

[Lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing story - amazing. I didn't know anything about Cambodia or the killing fields - and I obviously know only a little after reading Yom's account. He is an amazing survivor. I highly recommend this book.

[Mike Maitland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really taught me how lost a race can become, and how some people survive terrible things.

[Mtatin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent account of the killing fields in Cambodia without being soul-crushingly depressing.

[Jesse Field · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of the Cambodian 'killing fields' comes to visceral life in this gripping account by a survivor. It's a tight, personal narrative of a young boy taken prisoner, starved, forced to labor, forced to bury his fellow countrymen in enormous mass graves, and it's as exciting as any super-warrior origin stories, even though it only hints at the political dysfunction that led to this mess. (Walter Isaacson's biography of Kissinger oddly enough is a better source on that, though exactly why a group of anti-imperialist rebels turned so cruel remains a bit of a mystery to me.)

We need a good Asian martial-arts actor like Bruce Lee again to play Bun in the movie version of this epic action story. Bun escapes the killing fields to join the Cambodian Freedom Army, and then is re-united with his family in refugee camps in Thailand. I am reminded of Kao Kalia Yang's The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir. That book has shocking scenes of war violence in the wake of America's failed effort to contain the Viet Kong, but Bun's account has a whole second act where he becomes captain of an A-team force against the Khmer Rouge, rescuing genocide victims and duking it out using guerilla-style tactics in a hot and fetid jungle. We learn about the AK-47 and a very nasty weapon called the type 69 'Bouncing Betty' mine.

Bun left the Cambodian Freedom Army when he realized his family was still alive. After a stint in several refugee camps, helping his mother distribute aid from the UN, Bun is re-located with other members of his family to the USA. He suppresses his very serious PTSD symptoms with a drive to work that any conservative, anti-welfare state voices would love. The last act of the book is for this reason an unexpected counter-balance to any notion that banning refugees is a moral action, or one that makes our country safer.

The book suffers from a hagiographic tendency perhaps natural to such an intense memoir of survival and overcoming. Bun claims never to have killed and to love human life, but he did lay down 'type 69' mines, and I find unlikely his claim that he never shot to kill with his AK-47. The idea that war makes you tough and hard work can help you deal with trauma makes sense, but left under-explored is just what it is that builds the character of people like Bun, who seem bursting with the qualities of ambition, energy, and sheer dauntlessness that so enthrall the modern middle-class reader.