Under the Naga Tail sheds light on the suffering of the Cambodian people under the Khmer Rouge and in their attempts to escape the country. Mae Bunseng Taing and his family endure removal from their homes, labor camps, starvation, and mistreatment and abandonment as unwanted refugees. The authors wrote and published this book with the intention of keeping this history alive and preventing the horrors and losses suffered by the Cambodians or their resilience from fading from memory. In this goal, they succeeded, showing the continuous death, torture, and cruelty in stark detail. Mae Taing's devotion to his father and struggle to keep them together and alive was told in a particularly heart-wrenching way.
However, despite serving an important purpose in sharing a first-hand account of a survivor of the Cambodian genocide, I have to say that I didn't find this book to be especially well-written. The dialog was awkward at times and the narration felt flat.
However, despite serving an important purpose in sharing a first-hand account of a survivor of the Cambodian genocide, I have to say that I didn't find this book to be especially well-written. The dialog was awkward at times and the narration felt flat.