The Eaves of Heaven: A Life in Three Wars

摘要

Andrew Pham adds "on behalf of my father, Thong Van Pham," after his own name on the title pages of this book, and in fact, The Eaves of Heaven is written as a memoir from Thong's first-person viewpoint. The three wars are presumably the Japanese invasion of Vietnam, the resistance to French occupation, and the U.S.-led war between North and South Vietnam, but this is really a story of almost continuous war, including the murderous rivalries between Vietnamese factions, communist and other, even during the Japanese occupation. Thong (through his son) reports idyllic memories of boyhood as the son of a wealthy Northern landowner, until the aftershocks of the Japanese invasion and the resistance against the French drive the remaining family first to Hanoi and then south as refugees in Saigon, where Thong gets enough education to become a schoolteacher, with love and marriage following. But conscription into the army leads to harrowing combat experiences and, following the American withdrawal from Saigon, imprisonment by the new government.