Three Funerals For My Father by Jolie Phuong Hoang

 

Publisher: Tidewater Press

On Sale Date:  October 2, 2021

Pages: 232

I reviewed a review copy from the publisher through Netgalley.com

Three Funerals For My Father by Jolie Phuong Hoang is a book told from two perspectives;

the author’s perspective and that of her father’s ghost. Jolie grew up in Vietnam, in a large and loving family where she was one of ten children, with the kindest parents you can imagine.

But their good life ended when the American war ended in 1975, and the communists took over Vietnam. The family was constantly harrassed and lived in constant fear of being sent to the dreaded new economic zone.

Desperate for safety, Jolie's father arranges three seperate escapes by a fishing boat. The first attempt to flee by boat sadly isn't a succes as they are discovered by the local authorities and very scary moments follow where the children on the boat are kept and investigated. The second attempt to flee by boat is more successful; six of his children, including author Jolie reach Indonesia and ultimately settle in Canada. But the third attempt to reach freedom is the heartbreaking drowning of father and his youngest daughter, as their boat sinks in the South Chinese Sea.

The book is not really a memoir, but it does tell the life story of the authors family, and that of hundreds of thousands Vietnamese boat people who where in similar situations. Jolie has chosen a very original narrative to include her father’s perspective and her own; her experience of the escape as a child, and she also writes about her emotional return to Vietnam as an adult in 2008. The story is heartbreaking, moving, emotional, and beautiful. This is a beautfully written non-fiction book that I truly recommend!