The broken country
Subtitle: on trauma, a crime, and the continuing legacy of Vietnam
By: Paisley Rekdal
Series: Association of Writers and Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction; Association of Writers and Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 147
ISBN-13: 9780820351179; 9780820351186
Subjects: Immigrants; Vietnamese; Violence; Mentally ill homeless persons; Crimes against; Crime; Emigration and immigration; Psychological aspects; War and society; Veterans; War; History; Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Vietnamese Americans; Social conditions; Political aspects
Other titles: On trauma, a crime, and the continuing legacy of Vietnam
Description: The Broken Country uses a violent incident that took place in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2012 as a springboard for examining the long-term cultural and psychological effects of the Vietnam War. To make sense of the shocking and baffling incident--in which a young homeless man born in Vietnam stabbed a number of white men purportedly in retribution for the war--Paisley Rekdal draws on a remarkable range of material and fashions it into a compelling account of the dislocations suffered by the Vietnamese and also by American-born veterans over the past decades. She interweaves a narrative about the crime with information collected in interviews, historical examination of the arrival of Vietnamese immigrants in the 1970s, a critique of portrayals of Vietnam in American popular culture, and discussions of the psychological consequences of trauma. This work allows us to better understand transgenerational and cultural trauma and advances our still complicated struggle to comprehend the war.
Notes: "Winner of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction, selected by Michael Steinberg"--Cover.

Includes bibliographical references.