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Cambodian Witness: An Autobiography of Someth May
by
Someth May
,
Someth
Hardcover
,
256 pages
Published
December 12th 1986
by Random House
(first published January 1st 1986)
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Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
59)
I don't normally read literature of witnessing because it often fails to provide a wider historical perspective to explain why things like the Cambodian auto-genocide happen. This memoir is similarly limited but if you read it in conjunction with a book like Philip Short's "Pol Pot", it becomes very illuminating. The author is a native Cambodian and his description of his childhood in the 1960s South-East Asia is wonderful. But the sheer absurdity of the Khmer Rouge would-be agrarian utopia, whi
...more
This writer is particularly gifted in writing a wonderfully detailed and balanced account of his experience under the Khymer Rouge in his homeland of Cambodia. May was from Phnom Penh originally and what balances the book is that May writes beautifully and in detail about what life what like for him and his family and most Cambodians in Phnom Penh before the Khymer Rouge arrived. That colorful and cherished world disappeared when young soldiers arrived and told them to leave the city before it w
...more
I agree to what I read in other peoples' reviews. I would like to add one event that shocked me (among so many others, probably more shocking in themselves): there is a description of a way to save the harvest by trying to kill all birds. By chasing the birds, throwing rocks at them etcetera. It doesn't work of course, with the birds gone, the insects have no natural enemy so the harvest is theirs. What shocked me, this almost exact same scene is described in Jung Chang's Wild Swans. What struck
...more
I got this book out of the library after talking to my neighbor, a woman who lived thru the period the book details. She was younger than the author, but remembers hunger, fear and suffering at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, Vietnamese and Thais. This book managed to give me a very good picture of what life was like and how people suffered without being so graphic that I couldn't get thru the book. If you want to learn about this period in Cambodia's history, I highly recommend this book.
I was s ...more
I was s ...more
My Dad suggested I read this. It sounds interesting. I will start it in the next couple of weeks.
Update:
It is such a well written novel. I am amazed with all the details Someth was able to remember from his childhood and young adulthood. It truly is an important book about the recent history of Cambodia. I had absolutely no idea that there was a war going on in the 80's that would lead to so much death. It reminded me a lot of the holocaust due to the families being separated from each other. Ma ...more
Update:
It is such a well written novel. I am amazed with all the details Someth was able to remember from his childhood and young adulthood. It truly is an important book about the recent history of Cambodia. I had absolutely no idea that there was a war going on in the 80's that would lead to so much death. It reminded me a lot of the holocaust due to the families being separated from each other. Ma ...more
I read this around the same time I read "
the spirit catches you and you fall down
" in the same time period and got a whole new appreciation for history. It was a fascinating book and I learned more about the Vietnam war and the regional conflicts/civil wars than I ever learned in school.
Mar 31, 2015
Philip
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
history
,
non-fiction
,
southeast-asia
,
autobiography
,
prisoner
,
80s
,
survival
,
obscure
I'm reluctant to say I "really liked" this book, since "enjoyment" has no place in this story. However, it is essential reading for anyone looking to understand the insanity that gripped Cambodia in the late '70's. It is far more frightening than the more famous "Life & Death in Shanghai," although it tells a similar tale.
I loved this book because it gave you a fuller picture of life before the Khmer Rouge took over. It was beautifully written, too. If you only have time to read one book about Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, this is the one I would pick for you.
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