Thúy, K. (2012). Ru. Toronto, Canada: Vintage Canada.
Ru has been on my reading list since it appeared in the 2015 Canada Reads “battle of the books. After hearing Kim Thúy' speak at the Word on the Street Festival this summer, though, I bumped it up to my must-read list.
Toronto International Film Festival artistic director Cameron Bailey successfully championed Thúy's debut novel Ru in CBC's annual book competition as the book that all of Canada should read. With our city welcoming more than 200 Syrian refugees over the next six weeks, I’ll boldly say that this is a book that all Lethbians should read.
Ru tells the tale of a Vietnamese woman's difficult journey from war-torn Saigon to a new life in Quebec. Thúy offers a window into the immigrant experience that includes passages of a childhood in the midst of the Vietnam War and life in a refugee camp. It is not an easy or pleasant journey and, as a teacher, it serves as a reminder of the histories that ELL students bring with them into our classrooms. The chapters resemble short stories ranging from a half page to two pages in length. Ru is not one story, but a collection of fragmented tales over 141 pages. It's so poetic in English that it make me wish I could read French so I could savour the work in its original language. The French edition that won the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction in 2010.
I know it sounds cliché, but I laughed out loud and cried and re-read portions and then stopped to think about them. Don’t let this slender book fool you; its stories will stick for a long time.
Ru has been on my reading list since it appeared in the 2015 Canada Reads “battle of the books. After hearing Kim Thúy' speak at the Word on the Street Festival this summer, though, I bumped it up to my must-read list.
Toronto International Film Festival artistic director Cameron Bailey successfully championed Thúy's debut novel Ru in CBC's annual book competition as the book that all of Canada should read. With our city welcoming more than 200 Syrian refugees over the next six weeks, I’ll boldly say that this is a book that all Lethbians should read.
Ru tells the tale of a Vietnamese woman's difficult journey from war-torn Saigon to a new life in Quebec. Thúy offers a window into the immigrant experience that includes passages of a childhood in the midst of the Vietnam War and life in a refugee camp. It is not an easy or pleasant journey and, as a teacher, it serves as a reminder of the histories that ELL students bring with them into our classrooms. The chapters resemble short stories ranging from a half page to two pages in length. Ru is not one story, but a collection of fragmented tales over 141 pages. It's so poetic in English that it make me wish I could read French so I could savour the work in its original language. The French edition that won the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction in 2010.
I know it sounds cliché, but I laughed out loud and cried and re-read portions and then stopped to think about them. Don’t let this slender book fool you; its stories will stick for a long time.