Leaving the House of Ghosts: Cambodian Refugees in the American Midwest

by Sarah Streed

Overview

On April 17, 1975, after five years of civil war, the Khmer Rouge guerrillas invaded Cambodia's major cities and forced the residents on a mass exodus to the countryside. Their leader, Pol Pot, established a government based on terror to bring about his dream of an agrarian society where work was done by hand--without what he believed to be corruptive influences. By the time the Vietnamese captured Phnom Penh and ended this brutal experiment in communism in 1979, an estimated two million Cambodians were dead and hundreds of thousands had begun to flee the country for refugee camps in Thailand.

Survivors of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge now living in the Midwest tell their stories in this work. Many of them were children during that time, unable to comprehend exactly what was happening and why, but now able to reveal the trauma they experienced.

Noeun Nor and Sinn Lok recollect being wrenched from their families and put into labor camps around the age of five. Prum Nath talks about her mother encouraging her to eat the last grains of her family's rice. Sokhary You remembers giving birth on a mountain without a doctor or hospital and using rusty scissors to cut the umbilical cord.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786413546
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	09/09/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	223
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Sarah Streed has written for various journals and reviews and has taught writing, most recently at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She currently lives in Stoughton, Wisconsin.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments    
Introduction    

1 The Cambodian Autogenocide and Its Aftermath    
2 The Race for Survival: The Story of Noeun Nor    
3 The Weaker Brother    
4 Tricked Twice: The Story of Sinn Lok    
5 Crappie Fishing on Galpin Lake    
6 Coming to a Third Country: The Story of Prum Nath    
7 Why Do Some Survive?    
8 A Land of Opportunity: The Story of Sam and Sokhary You    
9 That Ordinary Monster, Pol Pot    
10 Boat People: The Story of Sokkhom Ngep    
11 The Next Generation    
12 The Price of Success: The Story of Samantha Samreth    
13 Housewarming    
14 Born to Lead: The Story of Sarith Ou    
15 To Go Forward    
16 Against All Odds: The Story of Sophea Mouth    
17 Coming Full Circle    

Cambodia: A Chronology    
Bibliography    
Index    

What People are Saying About This

David Chandler

Profoundly moving.... The stories that these men and women have to tell are a heartbreaking mixture of loss, trauma and resilience.... Streed has produced an elegant work.
—a former U.S. Foreign Service Officer in Cambodia, is a noted historian and scholar of Cambodia

Editorial Reviews

a thoughtful mixture of memoir, history, and sociology...a vivid portrait of the lives of Cambodian refugees...worth reading”—Mekong Network; “Profoundly moving.... The stories that these men and women have to tell are a heartbreaking mixture of loss, trauma and resilience.... Streed has produced an elegant work.”—David Chandler, a former U.S. Foreign Service Officer in Cambodia, is a noted historian and scholar of Cambodia.

From the Publisher

"Profoundly moving.... The stories that these men and women have to tell are a heartbreaking mixture of loss, trauma and resilience.... Streed has produced an elegant work."

a former U.S. Foreign Service Officer in Cambodia, is a noted historian and scholar of Cambodia - David Chandler

a thoughtful mixture of memoir, history, and sociology...a vivid portrait of the lives of Cambodian refugees...worth reading

Mekong Network

A number of the Cambodians fleeing the terror of Pol Pot wound up in the American Midwest. The author interviewed some of them on their recollections of the Cambodian Civil War, their flight from Cambodia, and their arrivals in the United States; and she presents their stories here. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews