Stereotypes fail to shine

Her strong family ties are broken when she is taken by a Catholic charity to the United States. Her closest sister Chou has to stay behind.

Loung is generously treated and makes smooth progress in the land of the "rich white people." Five years later, she is a freshman in high school and has best friends and crushes on the cutest boys.

She sobs at the memory of Chou, who is left behind in the poor peasant village ravaged by mosquitoes and punitive bands of the defeated Khmer Rouge.

As Loung prepares for college, Chou enters fearfully into an arranged marriage, where motherhood soon starts to define her life.

However, despite the strength of its theme, this book is not as memorable as it could be. The descriptions of places and events are energetic but stereotyped. The characters flicker but do not shine.

It lacks critical depth and is politically neutral, with no comment on the Vietnamese army's liberating mission or on the first US war in Iraq. US periodicals sing its praises loudly.

JOHN MOORE