The story deals with the fall of Saigon and the aftermath for several S. Vietnamese refugees, mostly members of the military or police who worked with U.S. military and CIA. The protagonist is a bastard, born to a teenage Vietnamese mother and a French priest father. As a result he is never accepted by the Vietnamese people and so is perhaps ripe for conversion to the Communist cause. He meets his two lifelong friends in high school, Man, who later becomes his handler, and Bon, a S. Vietnamese who works for the CIA. The Protagonist is known only as the Captain and many characters are also identified only by their role. In his public role, the Captain has served as the personal assistant to the General, who is head of the National Police, for years when Saigon falls. The Captain, the General, and Bon are among those on the last plane to get out of Saigon, arranged by Claude, their CIA contact. The description of the fall of the city to the N. Vietnamese communists is heartbreaking for it is a lethal betrayal of thousands of S. Vietnamese by the United States. Bon's wife and son are killed in the last few moments and the Captain has to literally drag him onto the plane. They are sent to refugee camps and finally settled in southern California in menial jobs.
But the large refugee community, outsiders in their new homes, never give up on returning to Vietnam, and the Captain is charged by Man to monitor any efforts to mount a resistance effort. The General continues to work with Claude and a sympathetic congressman to put together funds and re-train a group of soldiers who will go back and re-ignite the fight. Bon will be among the group that returns to Cambodia to organize other Vietnamese and take the fight to the communists. Although Man strongly warns the Captain about being among those who return, his advice is ignored for the Captain feels he must somehow protect Bon on this suicidal mission, and the final few chapters deal with the consequences. Yet another betrayal is underway, for the communists are not liberating their countrymen but killing them.
The author was born in Vietnam and raised in the United States. He was immersed in a refugee community that told and re-told their stories, so this is a unique perspective on that war. It was an eye-opener and a heart-breaker of a book. It is important to have this perspective because what we were told about the war was so much propaganda. As the Captain points out, "They [the Americans] owned the means of production, and therefore the means of representation, and the best that we could ever hope for was to get a word in edgewise before our anonymous deaths."
More detailed reviews are available here: The New York Times, The Guardian, Kirkus.
And an interview with the author by Terry Gross (NPR's "Fresh Air" program) is here: NPR
