The Twentieth Century was one of slaughter. Perhaps one of the most efficient murder mechanisms was employed by Cambodia, which killed up to a third of its own population in four years. Vaddey Ratner's In the Shadow of the Banyan is a fictionalized account of the author's experience as a child under the Khmer Rouge.
Seven-year-old Raami's father is a poet as well as a member of the aristocracy, and he is her favored parent. He is also the first to go after the family is driven out of Phnom Penh. In fact, almost all of Raami's family is murdered. However, it is obvious that Raami has inherited her father's gift for poetry, or her narrative would be unbearable. Raami notices everything, especially the natural world, and puts it into exquisite prose. Her child's ability to live in the moment help keep this book from being a long slog through the unspeakable: there are moments of great humanity and beauty. As conditions worsen, first slowly, then more rapidly as the book continues, Raami loses the ability to talk since memory, let alone the stories that have sustained her, are forbidden by the Organization, as the Khmer Rouge called themselves. I admit, I cried near the end of this book. Perhaps others will cry sooner, but the final letter that Raami's father leaves her, and her reflections on it, really got me. In the end however, we discover a lesson of the Twentieth Century: some people can suvive anything their fellow humans can inflict.
There have been several memoirs written about life under the Khmer Rouge, but here are two:
First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung. Also part of the pre-Khmer Rouge elite, Ung was sent to a camp to train as a child soldier.
When Broken Glass Floats by Chanrithy Him. The title is taken from a Cambodian proverb about evil triumphing over good. Him's family battles oppression through kindnesss and loyalty to each other.
And, of course, I couldn't leave out our former One Book, One Chicago title:
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. A girl survives under the Nazis through her relationships with books.
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