The eaves of heaven : a life in three wars / by Andrew X. Pham, on behalf of my father, Thong Van Pham.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pham, Andrew X., 1967-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pham, Thong Van.

Vietnamese Americans--Biography.

Vietnamese Americans.

Refugees--United States--Biography.

Refugees.

United States.

Vietnam--History--20th century.

Vietnam.

History.

Genre:

Biographies.

Biography.

History.

Physical Description:

301 pages ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Harmony Books, [2008]

Summary:

From Andrew X. Pham, the award-winning author of Catfish and Mandala, a son's searing memoir of his Vietnamese father's experiences over the course of three wars. Once wealthy landowners, Thong Van Pham's family was shattered by the tumultuous events of the twentieth century: the festering French occupation of Indochina, the Japanese invasion during World War II, and the Vietnam War. Told in dazzling chapters that alternate between events in the past and those closer to the present, The Eaves of Heaven brilliantly re-creates the trials of everyday life in Vietnam as endured by one man, from the fall of Hanoi and the collapse of French colonialism to the frenzied evacuation of Saigon. Pham offers a rare portal into a lost world as he chronicles Thong Van Pham's heartbreaks, triumphs, and bizarre reversals of fortune, whether as a South Vietnamese soldier pinned down by enemy fire, a prisoner of the North Vietnamese under brutal interrogation, or a refugee desperately trying to escape Vietnam after the last American helicopter has abandoned Saigon.--From publisher description.

Contents:

Author's note

Prologue: Ancestors

1: Leaving home

2: Father

3: Phan Thiet

4: Mother

5: Dalat days

6: Mid-autumn festival

7: Sea grubs

8: Saigon night

9: Cricket fight

10: Recruiter

11: Hoi and I

12: Draft

13: Orphan

14: Famine

15: Famine soup

16: Flood

17: Ambush

18: Last Magistrate

19: Democratic Republic of Vietnam

20: Trap

21: Algerian

22: Resistance fighter

23: Tet offensive

24: Executioner

25: Old friends

26: Champagne bottle

27: Slave

28: Lull of silence

29: Crossing the French line

30: Fall of Saigon

31: Widower

32: Capture

33: Peasant girl

34: Reeducation

35: Farewell, Hanoi

36: Release

Bibliography

Acknowledgments.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (page 299).

Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature - Adult Nonfiction, Honor, 2008-2009

Other Format:

Online version: Pham, Andrew X., 1967- Eaves of heaven.

ISBN:

9780307381200

030738120X

OCLC:

165083510

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description