M.

Eko Aji Ferrianto 15111517

Loung Ung’s

First They Killed my Father:

A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers
A Book Report by M. Eko Aji Ferrianto

I. Information about the Book

1.1 The Book
First They Killed my Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers is a true life
story of war crimes and despairing life, a small girl’s uneasy struggle and her wonderful
spirit as she survived the Cambodian genocide under Pol Pot’s brutal regime. Boosted
by the dreadful bravery of one brother, the courage and sacrifices of the rest of her
family and sustained by her sister’s gentle kindness amid brutality. Loung Ung brave
herself to create a book of her misery childhood. First They Killed my Father: A
Daughter of Cambodia Remembers is her life story during the Khmer Rouge regime.
This book is a successful, rated 4.31 from 5 stars in Bookreads.com, a biggest book
information database. Written in English on 238 pages, first published in 2000 by
Harper Collin publisher with ISBN number 0-06-093138-8, since then it has 46
editions. This book was adapted to a Netflix film in 2017 with the same title First They
Killed my Father. Directed and produced by Angelina Jolie. The film adaptation
received several nomination awards including Golden Globe Awards for the Best
Foreign Language Film and Satellite Awards for the Best Foreign Language Film.

1.2 The Author

Loung Ung was born in Phnom Penh April 17, 1970, Cambodia. She has seven
siblings, and she is the sixth of seven children and the third of four girls from her
parents Seng Im Ung and Ay Choung Ung. Her actual birthdate is unknown because the
Khmer Rouge regime during its conroll over Cambodia has destroyed many of the birth
records of the populations of cities in Cambodia. After the regime fall, she escaped from
Cambodia as a survivor of what became known as "the Killing Fields" during the reign
of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime and she migrated to the United States and adjusting to
her new country. Today, Ung is married and lives with her husband in Shaker Heights, a
suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, USA. She is a human-rights activist and lecturer, she

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lectures extensively and appears regularly in media. She was the national spokesperson
for the Campaign for a Landmine-Free World, a program of Vietnam Veterans of
America Foundation, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for co-founding the
International Campaign to Ban Landmines. She also wrote two books which related her
life experiences from 1975 through 2003, Lucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia
Reunites and Lulu in the Sky as part of her book series of her life.

1.3 Reasons of Reviewing this Book

I chose this book to be reviewed because it contains historical facts that seen by
the writer directly, a historical event that happened not far from our country
neighborhood, nevertheless the reviewer realized that it just like never happened
because people are not talk or even mention about it, especially in reviewers
surrounding. This book contains a story of war crimes that reminds us to keep the unity
and how terrible things could happen if we are separated, like what was happened 40
years ago in Cambodia. And this book could be a lesson for us as Indonesian to respect
the unity that we already achieved by now.

II. Content of the Book

This book tells story of five years-old Loung Ung lived in Phnom Penh,
certainly one of seven kids of a high-ranking government official. She turned into a
wonderful girl who loved the open city markets, fried crickets, chicken fights, and
sassing her parents. though she was worried by her mother who thought she is a
troublemaker because her actions that she stomped around like a thirsty cow, yet her
beloved father knew Loung become a smart girl. While Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge army
won the civil war and took over of the country from Phnom Penh in April 1975, Ung’s
family escaped from their home and moved from village to village to cover their
identity, their education, their former life of pleasure. Eventually, her family isolated
themselves in order to survive. Loung joined a child soldier training in a work camp for
orphans, at the same time as other siblings were sent to labor camps. After the
Vietnamese military breached Cambodia, destroying the Khmer Rouge, Loung and her
surviving siblings were slowly reunited.

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2.1 Chapters Summary

1) Phnom Penh - The Ung Family
in the opening chapter, Loung describes her everyday lifestyles growing up in Phnom
Penh and the town she is raised in. Loung and her family are very privileged to own a
big home with a housekeeper and plenty of pleasant possession such as vehicles, and
fancy jewelry. In this chapter, she introduces her family members and their
personalities.
2) Takeover – Evacuation - Seven-Day Walk
Finally the citizens begin to realize that the soldiers are not there to celebrate. Ung’s
family begins to pack up and leave to avoid disaster the soldiers told them. As they
evacuate Phnom Penh, they leave behind their luxurious possessions and traveled for
many hours with their truck until it can no longer capable. In the dusty heat, they
continue on foot, only stopping to cook food and sleep.
3) Krang Truop - Waiting Station
After walking for many days, Loung and her family arrived at her Uncle's family in
Krang Truop. Loung have to adapt to basic comforts with no luxuries life. It becomes
clear in this chapter how much the Khmer Rouge control and the cruelties that people
make people to suffer.
4) Anlungthmor - Ro Leap - Labor Camps.
The family gets to the third village on the journey but they are not welcomed by the
villagers. They live in Ro Leap, and the life gets worse. Loung’s father arranges
marriages for his oldest sons to avoid them joining Khmer Rouge soldier.
5) New Years - Keav-Pa-Ma's Little Monkey
Keav’s friend from the same camp tells the family that Keav is sick, and wants to see
them. After leaving their home for two years, the Ungs family are living in Ro Leap and
still starving to death.
6) Leaving Home - Child Soldiers
The Vietnamese invading makes the Khmer Rouge worried. Mother says to her children
to go in opposite directions and to tell people that they are orphans. At the camp the
children are training to become young soldiers.
7) Gold For Chicken - The Last Gathering - The Walls Crumble

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Loung visits her mother during camp’s holiday. The new camp follows the same rules as
the other camps. Loung gets sick, and she has a feeling that something happened to her
mother.
8) The Youn Invasion - The First Foster Family - Flying Bullets
Ung meets Bong, wandering and telling the girls that the Vietnamese have finally
attacked. Vietnamese soldier approaches Chou, Loung, and Pithy when they are
collecting water. The Khmer Rouge hiding in the refugee camp, and everyone has
difficulty to differentiate who is Khmer due to their same black clothes as the refugees.
9) Khmer Rogue Attack - The Execution - Back to Bat Deng
The Khmer soldiers attack Pursat City in February 1979. Khmer soldier who captured
by Vietnamese were subject of refugee camp revenge with a public execution. Kim,
Chou, and Loung leave for their journey.
10) From Cambodia to Vietnam - Lam Sing Refugee Camp
Meng and Loung arrive in Phnom Penh and go to Vietnam, hiding under a plastic tarp
covered with fish. Every refugee needs a sponsoring family before they can leave
Thailand for America.
III. Critical Review
3.1 Positive Reviews
As a memoir book, I found it is interesting for me that this book was adapted to
a movie, directed by a famous actress, Angelina Jolie. No doubt this book has received
high rating and reviews in Goodreads. Ung poured her best memories of what happened
when the Red Khmer regime took over her city, she uses simple but meaningful words
and sentences which make readers join her to feel what happened at that time. The
author's choice of using the present tense narration through her childhood eyes worked
wonders for making you feel like you're a witness in the midst of the family's
experiences.

"In Penom Penh, it seems the more money you have, the more stairs you climb,"
(Page 8).
She describes things around her about her neighborhood before and after the Red
Khmer occupation. Moreover, the way she tells the story as she was a little girl at that
time invites readers to see how innocent she was; how she perceived the world around
her, what she saw and what she thought back then.

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"It is believed that men who wear their hair long must have something to
hide,"(page 17).
In her memoir, to keep her story moving it is necessary for her to insert the historical
facts, and the way she inserts them as dialogue from her father delivered to her. History
as would be explained to a small child doesn't include the political complexities that
make our world so confusing.
“The soldier walked around the neighborhood, knocking on all doors, telling to
leave. Those who refuse were shot dead right on their doorstep.” Pa shakes his
head.
“Why they are doing this pa?” Kim asks.
“Because they are destroyer of things”.(page 44)
For this, I was grateful to Ung. Her tale helped me establish some basic knowledge from
which I can expand with future reading.

3.2 Negative Reviews

Ung's suffering under the Khmer Rouge is long and both physically and
mentally painful. I learned a lot about the Cambodian Genocide (at least from the point
of view of a child). I felt a little lost and confused - like I was missing parts of the story
that became relevant later on. Part of this is because the story is being told from the
perspective of a 5-8 year old and, understandably, she does not comprehend everything
that's happening around her, but it could have benefited from more information
concerning the larger picture.

“Keav, why are the soldiers so mean to us?” I ask clingy more tightly to her.

“Shhh. They are called the Khmer Rouge. They are the Communists”

“What’s a Communnists?

“Well, it means… It’s hard to explain.Ask Pa later.” She wishpers. (page 38)

Choosing to tell her story the way she did had more drawbacks than benefits in my
opinion.

The writing was great in certain spots and then really bad in others. Enough to make me
question what the editors were thinking when they read it (words missing, words
repeated in the same sentence, bad sentence structure),

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“Pa, I’m leaving for America tomorrow. Eldest brother said America is very far
from Cambodia, very far from you…” The words is linger in the air. (page 331)

Though this only seemed to be an issue toward the end. This is a very difficult book to
read. It is not eloquently written, and her writing style makes the story predictable.

IV. Conclusions

As a non-fiction book, this book is a well-written memoir because is written in

first person from the author’s point of view (Doyen, 2007). This book is good reference
for people who want to read a historical genocide event which happened in Cambodia,
through perspective of a child makes us easier to understand the political complexities.
However, Ung was 5-8 years old in the story, making this story seems irrelevant
because she did not comprehend everything what is happening around her. The accuracy
of the Cambodian event might be true, but some parts of her action or around her are
still doubted, as a 5 years-old girl it must be hard to remember what exactly happening
at that time, in this case she might use some additional dramatic action (could be
hyperbole) to fill her memory gap (Lejeune, 1975).

I'm a bit disappointed. I was expecting to get more out of this memoir than I did. The
book is not long and she easily could have expanded on certain things and still kept the
book at a reasonable length. It has made me want to read and understand more about the
Cambodian Genocide, but part of that is because I was left lacking explanations.

V. References

Frey, Rebecca Joyce (2009). Genocide and International Justice. Facts On File.

Lejeune, Philippe (1975). Autobiographical Pact. Paris: Seuil.

Doyen, Barbara (2007). What is a Memoir? What Makes a Memoir Different from an
Autobiography or Biography?. http://www.barbaradoyen.com/writing-
nonfiction/what-is-a-memoir-what-makes-a-memoir-different-from-an-
autobiography-or-biography. Retrieved 5 March 2018.

"First They Killed My Father (Ung)". http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/14-non-

fiction/331-first-they-killed-my-father-ung. LitLovers. Retrieved 9 April 2015.