Saigon Sisters
Privileged Women in the Resistance
«
The literature on the war in Vietnam includes hundreds of first-person sources by men on all sides in the conflict, but fewer than a dozen books about women are in print. Thus this collection of oral history interviews by Norland (formerly, US Department of State) is an important contribution.
» Choice
The Saigon Sisters offers the narratives of a group of privileged women who were immersed in a French lycee and later rebelled and fought for independence, starting with France's occupation of Vietnam and continuing through US involvement and life after war ends in 1975. Les mer
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The Saigon Sisters offers the narratives of a group of privileged women who were immersed in a French lycee and later rebelled and fought for independence, starting with France's occupation of Vietnam and continuing through US involvement and life after war ends in 1975.
Tracing the lives of nine women, The Saigon Sisters reveals these women's stories as they forsook safety and comfort to struggle for independence, and describes how they adapted to life in the jungle, whether facing bombing raids, malaria, deadly snakes, or other trials. How did they juggle double lives working for the resistance in Saigon? How could they endure having to rely on family members to raise their own children? Why, after being sent to study abroad by anxious parents, did several women choose to return to serve their country? How could they bear open-ended separation from their husbands? How did they cope with sending their children to villages to escape the bombings of Hanoi? In spite of the maelstrom of war, how did they forge careers? And how, in spite of dislocation and distrust following the end of the war in 1975, did these women find each other and rekindle their friendships? Patricia D. Norland answers these questions and more in this powerful and personal approach to history. -- Cornell University Press
Tracing the lives of nine women, The Saigon Sisters reveals these women's stories as they forsook safety and comfort to struggle for independence, and describes how they adapted to life in the jungle, whether facing bombing raids, malaria, deadly snakes, or other trials. How did they juggle double lives working for the resistance in Saigon? How could they endure having to rely on family members to raise their own children? Why, after being sent to study abroad by anxious parents, did several women choose to return to serve their country? How could they bear open-ended separation from their husbands? How did they cope with sending their children to villages to escape the bombings of Hanoi? In spite of the maelstrom of war, how did they forge careers? And how, in spite of dislocation and distrust following the end of the war in 1975, did these women find each other and rekindle their friendships? Patricia D. Norland answers these questions and more in this powerful and personal approach to history. -- Cornell University Press
Detaljer
- Forlag
- Northern Illinois University Press
- Innbinding
- Innbundet
- Språk
- Engelsk
- Sider
- 280
- ISBN
- 9781501749735
- Utgivelsesår
- 2020
- Format
- 23 x 15 cm
Anmeldelser
«
The literature on the war in Vietnam includes hundreds of first-person sources by men on all sides in the conflict, but fewer than a dozen books about women are in print. Thus this collection of oral history interviews by Norland (formerly, US Department of State) is an important contribution.
» Choice
«
It is quite easy, and motivating as well, to imagine a course on Vietnamese history after World War II that includes only work by women and with The Saigon Sisters as a pivotal work connecting them all. As Norland's powerful oral-history recounting of the lives of this 'band of sisters' demonstrates, friendship and independence required vigilance but endured despite decades of war.
» Pacific Affairs
«
To read a good group biography is to come out with a different level of appreciation for the ways, trivial and tremendous, that humans influence one another... Norland tells the stories of nine [Vietnamese women] who chose to stay, and who, after spending their childhoods secretly dreaming of Vietnamese independence, found surprising ways into the resistance.
» The Atlantic
«
[Norland] gives [these women] a platform to talk directly to the reader[,] thereby revealing the women's double and even multiple lives, full of contradiction and inner conflicts caused by the complexity and long duration of the war years. The Saigon Sisters is a substantial collection of thoughts, memories, moments of pain and joy in individual lives.
» Asian Review of Books
«
In recording the histories and putting them to print, Patricia Norland succeeded in capturing an important slice of history and the very personal story of exemplary women.
» Foreign Service Journal
«
To put it mildly, these stories are gripping.
» Green Left