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Loading... The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir (original 2008; edition 2017)by Kao Kalia Yang (Author)
Work InformationThe Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang (2008)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Read for the second time, this time for Book Club. Still A book so worth reading. I'd forgotten the Hmong role in our history in Vietnam and was taken up with Kao's storytelling. Her memoir is the story of her family's escape from war in Laos and their new beginning here. ( ) The 2017 Big Read for the Wichita Public Library. An excellent telling of Hmong history through the experiences of Yang's family. It's impossible to read The Latehomecomer without thinking of today's Syrian and particularly Rohinga refugees. If one of the purposes of literature is to develop empathy, The Latehomecomer should be on every American's required reading list. Memoirist Kao Kalia Yang tells the story of how her parents met in the jungles of Laos, escaped with their families to the camps of Thailand, and finally made their way over to the US to settle in St Paul, MInnesota. I am from the area and have had many interactions with Hmong people, but never really knew much about their history or culture. It was fascinating to read Yang's story, but disappointing how poorly she and her family were treated by people who proudly claim the label "Minnesota Nice". The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir is the first memoir written by a Hmong-American to be published with national distribution. Summary: In search of a place to call home, thousands of Hmong families made the journey from the war-torn jungles of Laos to the refugee camps of Thailand and onward to America. This is a first-hand account of that experience as well as a tribute to the spirit of the grandmother that held them all together. This would be a great book to use in Language Lit courses or American History. no reviews | add a review
Awards
Biography & Autobiography.
Sociology.
Nonfiction.
HTML: In search of a place to call home, thousands of Hmong families made the journey from the war-torn jungles of Laos to the overcrowded refugee camps of Thailand and onward to America. But lacking a written language of their own, the Hmong experience has been primarily recorded by others. Driven to tell her family's story after her grandmother's death, The Latehomecomer is Kao Kalia Yang's tribute to the remarkable woman whose spirit held them all together. It is also an eloquent, firsthand account of a people who have worked hard to make their voices heard. Beginning in the 1970s, as the Hmong were being massacred for their collaboration with the United States during the Vietnam War, Yang recounts the harrowing story of her family's captivity, the daring rescue undertaken by her father and uncles, and their narrow escape into Thailand where Yang was born in the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp. When she was six years old, Yang's family immigrated to America, and she evocatively captures the challenges of adapting to a new place and a new language. Through her words, the dreams, wisdom, and traditions passed down from her grandmother and shared by an entire community have finally found a voice. Together with her sister, Kao Kalia Yang is the founder of a company dedicated to helping immigrants with writing, translating, and business services. A graduate of Carleton College and Columbia University, Yang has recently screened The Place Where We Were Born, a film documenting the experiences of Hmong American refugees. Visit her website at www.kaokaliayang.com. .No library descriptions found. |
LibraryThing Early Reviewers AlumKao Kalia Yang's book The Latehomecomer - AUDIO EDITION was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)959.7043092History and Geography Asia Southeast Asia Vietnam 1949- 1961–1975 Vietnamese WarLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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