The Unwanted
Kien Nguyen

Macmillan 2001

343p pbk $30.00

ISBN: 0-7329-1084-6

The book is about the life of a boy born to a Vietnamese mother and an American father and the struggles he goes through while growing up and trying to get to America. The genre is autobiography / historical and would appeal to twelve year olds to adults. The choice of topic is suitable to its intended audience because it is a true story that is interesting and historical, it is full of interesting facts. The storyline is of high quality and keeps the reader interested. It does not include unnecessary detail, it does not get boring. There are no illustrations, the cover is appealing and the cute face draws the reader. The language of the book is appropriate and how it is set out is suitable. It is a read-alone book.

I enjoyed this book. It is sad at times, but it tells of a life very hard to imagine. I would recommend this book to other readers.

The Unwanted – A Memoir, by Kien Nguyen is about Kien’s life, who is an illegitimate child of an American father and a Vietnamese mother. It is Kien’s extraordinarily moving memoir of life in Vietnam and his untiring struggle to reach his father’s land, America.

Kien has meticulously recorded the delicate details of pain and suffering his family went through, when Saigon fell to the Communist forces of North Vietnam in 1975, be it, Loan’s ventures while running errands for the family in the dark, or Kien’s mother’s decision to take the herbs for abortion. Kien’s writing style, embedded with the down-to-earth horrendous stories of war and the elaborate, heart-rending and traumatic emotional outbursts, flows naturally through the significant events covered in the book. It keeps the strand of suspense and anxiety to know ‘what happened next’, alive throughout the book. He has a talent for providing the reader with a vivid picture that makes the reader a part of the saga of his life.

The Unwanted is a gripping yet uncomfortable life story – one which can not be put down until the very end.