Haing S. Ngor (1940–1996)

Chilling, engaging, honest and tragic from beginning to end. Haing Ngor's life couldn't have been imagined and written as fiction if someone had sat down and tried to make it up. As you read, you keep having to remind yourself that it actually happened.

It's written simply and, at times, poignantly, a style which lends itself well to a story which needs no embellishment.

I rarely rate books as "superb." This time I did.

I think I can sum up the lessons of this book with a Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal cartoon.



For the first half or so, I thought I had a handle on it. I've read [b:Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China|1848|Wild Swans Three Daughters of China|Jung Chang|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1158959961s/1848.jpg|2969000], which details what the Chinese suffered through under Mao and the Cultural Revolution; since the Khmer Rouge borrowed a lot of ideas from Mao, this was a story I was familiar show more with.

Then it got bad.

When you've just read 200 pages of people being harnessed like oxen to ploughs and whipped on until they drop dead of starvation, and then the author feels the need to tell you that what's about to happen to him is so bad you may want to just skip this chapter altogether...no matter what you imagine might be coming, it's worse than that.

There are three segments Ngor warns about.

This book is fucking rough. show less

This is the most interesting biography I have ever read. Very deep and Ngor's story is stranger than fiction. I liked the movie the "Killing Fields" and Ngor won an academy award for his performance, an even greater feat once you understand his journey through this book. Unfortunetly, Ngor was murdered (sadly ironicly) in Los Angeles for the locket that he wore with his deceased wife's picture in it (she was a victim of the violence in Cambodia). I highly recomend this book, coupled with show more watching the "Killing Fields." show less

This is a harrowing account of his own experiences under the Khmer Rouge by the actor who played Dith Pran in "The Killing Fields". The narration is intelligent and lucid and ultimately very moving indeed.