Coming Back

In When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, Le Ly Hayslip begins by describing the hardships the people of her village in Vietnam had to endure.  "Some of the dead, mostly older people, had been privileged to die in almost natural ways: of starvation, of drowning in a river while fleeing a battle, of exposure while sleeping unprotected in the fields, of failed hearts and tired souls worn out by too much trying.  But most were killed by weapons wielded by the French and their Vietnamese allies."  She uses these often tragic examples of daily life to set the mood of a society where many people had to live in fear of things, such as the military, the Americans, the French, starvation, ghosts, and the threat of family members being taken away.  She explains her special bond she had with her mother that was established because she is the youngest child.  Her mother tells her stories and gives her advice about how to live.  Strong to ties to a families ancestors were present in this community, and rituals were performed commonly to honor their memory.  Hayslip tells the stories of her past as she thought of them as they were happening, as a child.  The author's account of the events are easy to connect with and understand because they are told through the eyes of a young and innocent Vietnamese girl.  Readers can connect with Hayslip by thinking of their childhood and of their innocence at the time.  She takes a major event in Vietnam and eventually America and shows how the children saw the actions of the authorities, parents, and soldiers.  Hayslip does a good job of making a connection with the reader and making her accounts of the past easy to understand and interesting to follow.