Dan’s Reviews > The Best We Could Do > Status Update

I like the play on language here with the word 'Me', which in (northern) Vietnam is a formal way of referring to a mother, but in English refers to one's own self. So she's both "Me (her mom)" and "me (herself, a mother)".

She's now experiencing the same desire to keep her kids safe and alive that her parents went through. And though what her parents endured was far more dramatic, the drive to protect one's kids comes from the same place.

Well if my neighbor's O2 tank exploded and stated an apartment fire I would probably not be so aware as to gather all my stuff the way they did - so in a way that refugee reflex is a pretty good and practical skill, even if it's genesis comes from a place of fear.

She describes it as her parents building their bubble around them - a place separate and safe but also the words denotes an isolation too.

Interesting how they are used to the government taking care of everything but when they get to America they have to take care of themselves. I can see how that would be a culture shock, but my goodness we Americans take the self-reliance thing way too far to the point where it just isolates everyone.

Poor Bo, he gets left behind and then when he does get to leave it's a disaster trying to get to America. I wonder how much it is his bad luck, or just lack of planning since Ma seems to be the one who has her head screwed on tighter?

I love that he thinks Chicago is ugly.

Different times in the late 70's when it was relatively easy to get into the US and stat a new life. Sad how in my lifetime the US has slowly been closing itself off more and more from the rest of the world.

The refugee camp where people remake their lives. I suppose on one hand that terrible experience because you have no home and no real identity, but also an exciting possibility since you can forge a new one, at least a new professional identity, even if you can't really change who you are; what you do can change.

Good 'ol Ma, when she's in the hospital everyone just sits around eating rice and butter, then when she gets out, even with no shoes, she gets a better tent, food, supplies, and everyone's paperwork put in order.

And I was wondering if we'd ever get a real photograph, and she has one here of her family right after they escaped in '78.

Being captain of a ship with a bunch of starving people and kids would be a nightmare - nobody would know what to do (and what not to do) and everybody would think they have a right to the ship's operation (like the engine or the water supply). Having been in the Navy, reading this section makes me laugh, cringe, and stressed out all at the same time - and yet I'm not the one fleeing for my life.