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The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir Paperback – Illustrated, April 17, 2018
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In what Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen calls “a book to break your heart and heal it,” The Best We Could Do brings to life Thi Bui’s journey of understanding and provides inspiration to all of those who search for a better future while longing for a simpler past.
This beautifully illustrated and emotional story is an evocative memoir exploring the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has on a child and her family. Bui documents the story of her family’s daring escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s, and the difficulties they faced building new lives for themselves.
At the heart of Bui’s story is a universal struggle: While adjusting to life as a first-time mother, she ultimately discovers what it means to be a parent—the sacrifices, the unnoticed gestures, and the depths of unspoken love. Despite how impossible it seems to take on the simultaneous roles of both parent and child, Bui pushes through. With haunting, poetic writing and breathtaking art, she examines the strength of family, the importance of identity, and the meaning of home.
National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Finalist
ABA Indies Introduce Winter
ALA Notable Books Selection
- Print length344 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherAbrams ComicArts
- Publication dateApril 17, 2018
- Grade level8 and up
- Reading age13 years and up
- Dimensions6.65 x 1.35 x 9.1 inches
- ISBN-101419718789
- ISBN-13978-1419718786
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Thi Bui’s stark, compelling memoir is about an ordinary family, but her story delivers the painful truth that most Vietnamese of the 20th century know in an utterly personal fashion—that history is found in the marrow of one’s bones, ready to be passed on through blood, through generations, through feelings. A book to break your heart and heal it.―Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist
“The Best We Could Do lands with the force of a blow and the strength of a mountain. Thi Bui offers an all-too-rarely-seen Vietnamese perspective on our war there, and a view of Vietnamese history that makes this book essential reading for anyone who seeks to go deep into this subject. At once intimate and sweeping in its portrayal of human experience, The Best We Could Do made me weep.”―Leela Corman, author and illustrator of Unterzakhn
“The Best We Could Do burns back the dead skin of public War memory. Underneath is the raw flesh of another kind of war story—of mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brutally intimate and intimately brutal. This book is a must-read.”―Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis, The Asian American Literary Review, curator for the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
“Devastating and luminous.”―Tom Hart, author and illustrator of the #1 New York Times bestseller Rosalie Lightning: A Graphic Memoir
“This bold, brutal book is the new calligraphy—an exquisite marriage of alphabet and imagery. Each sentence, each scene, and each story breaks down a country, a family, and a father. Then, frame by frame, with artistic vigor and monastic devotion, Thi Bui rebuilds a world in which guilt conquers grief and gratitude becomes not only a guide, but our new Deity. The Best We Could Do teaches us how to say no to fear and yes to truth.”―Fae Myenne Ng, author of Bone, a PEN/Faulkner Award Finalist, Steer Toward Rock, winner of the American Book Award
“Thi Bui’s book took my breath away. In a time of continuing refugee crisis, its message is necessary. The Best We Could Do expands one family’s personal story into a global, historic context, while condensing generations of war in Vietnam to intimate and human proportions. Beautiful and powerful.”―Craig Thompson, author and illustrator of Blankets and Habibi
“By knowing our parents’ story we come to a better understanding of who we are; by living our own version of their story, that understanding is even deeper and more illuminating. In The Best We Could Do, Thi’s exploration of becoming a mother in the shadow of her own parents’ history is Thi drawing her past to write her future. It’s a story that I—as a child turned parent myself—found emotional, introspective, and a cautionary tale of what we pass to our next generation.”―GB Tran, author and illustrator of Vietnamerica: A Family’s Journey
“Thi Bui’s The Best We Could Do is a nuanced, multilayered tribute to a family that has lost as much as it has gained. Bui interprets her family’s demons with generosity and compassion, and she is keen to understand how the roots of trauma and conflict can grow decades later, thousands of miles away. Infused with Vietnam’s tumultuous history, Bui’s memoir reflects her family’s experience against the larger context of war, poverty, and dislocation, and then pulls back, showing how these heavy matters affect life at home in the quieter days that follow. The Best We Could Do is a beautiful, affecting union of memoir and illustration.”―Cecily Wong, author of Diamond Head: A Novel
“The Best We Could Do is a story of massive, sweeping scale told through quiet moments of complex emotion and intimacy. Thi Bui paints the portrait of a single family across three generations, as many continents, and thousands of panels without one false stroke of the brush. Her penetrating examination of family and identity is at once unsentimental and deeply felt, familiar and unlike any other graphic novel you have read. Comics don't get much better than The Best We could Do.”―Jake Wyatt, author and illustrator of Necropolis and Ms. Marvel
“With great mastery of writing and drawing, Thi Bui shows the consequences of war lasting from generation to generation. The Best We Could Do honors Vietnam the way Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis honors Iran. And it’s fun to read too.”―Maxine Hong Kingston, author of The Fifth Book of Peace and I Love a Broad Margin to My Life
**STARRED REVIEW**
"Be prepared to take your heart on an emotional roller-coaster journey with this thought-provoking account that completely satisfies as the story comes full circle. Highly recommended for teens and adults; an excellent choice for book clubs."―Library Journal online (starred review)
**STARRED REVIEW**
"She does not spare her loved ones criticism or linger needlessly on their flaws. Likewise she refuses to flatten the twists and turns of their histories into neat, linear narratives. She embraces the whole of it… In this mélange of comedy and tragedy, family love and brokenness, she finds beauty."―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"One of the most anticipated graphic memoirs of 2017 is debut author Thi Bui’s The Best We Could Do, an illustrated memoir about her family’s journey from South Vietnam in the 1970s, her experience of first-time motherhood, and how places really do shape one’s identity."―Bustle
"Bonus: The entire memoir is illustrated."―The Huffington Post
**STARRED REVIEW**
"In creatively telling a complicated story with the kind of feeling words alone rarely relay, The Best We Could Do does the very best that comics can do. This is a necessary, ever-timely story to share far and wide.”―Booklist, starred review
“Timely and poignant…” ―Entertainment Weekly
“…a cinematic epic, following several generations through the travails of immigration and emotional dislocation.”―PBS NewsHour
“When Bui began work on The Best We Could Do in 2005, she couldn’t have predicted the significance it would hold when it was released in 2017, but now that it’s here, it feels like one of the first great works of socially relevant comics art of the Trump era…Bui presents that saga in a way that is narratively intricate, intellectually fastidious, and visually stunning.“―Vulture
“Bui worked on the book for years, but it’s arrival feels urgent amid today’s travel bans and growing refugee crisis.” ―The Boston Globe
“Gorgeously illustrated… “ ―Teen Vogue
“It’s a deeply personal tale, but universal in so many ways, filled with familiar struggles and joys that so many of us will relate to. You need to read this book.”―PEN America
**STARRED REVIEW**
“A moving, visually stimulating account of the author's personal story and an insightful look at the refugee experience, juxtaposed against Vietnam's turbulent history. “―Shelf Awareness, starred review
“Like Art Spiegelman’s masterpiece, “Maus,” Bui’s memoir elicits complex emotions from understated pen-and-ink drawings.”―The San Francisco Chronicle
“…a nuanced and heartfelt immigrant tale, brought to true life through beautiful and brilliant illustration. On top of that, it's an especially poignant read from the vantage point of 2017.” ―Refinery29
“The story, both deeply personal and historically illuminating, will devastate and inspire you on many levels.”―The Mary Sue
“Bui's minimalist approach ensures readers can't gloss over the harsh realities of her family's immigrant experience, but it also forces us to recognize the universal struggles and triumphs that all families experience. Fans of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis will not want to miss this incredibly relevant work.”―Bookpage
“This book is beautiful. It is personally meditative while also deeply informative, telling the history that lives in one family’s bones while spanning multiple nations, borders, and generations.”―Boing Boing
“…a crucial exploration of the refugee experience in this era of expressly unconstitutional efforts to halt immigration into the United States.”―Hyperallergic
“Thi Bui’s debut graphic novel — a memoir about her family’s immigration from Vietnam to the United States during the Vietnam War — had me weeping openly on the New York City subway."―The Cut
“Following in the footsteps of landmark graphic memoirs by Art Spiegelman, Alison Bechdel and Roz Chast, this powerful and essential book tells the story of the author’s family’s journey from Vietnam to the United States.“―Newsday
“….her story offers readers a particular insight into the life of a family fleeing violence and fear in a time of political upheaval—a reminder of the micro consequences of macro political actions.”―Paste Magazine
"It has all the hallmarks of a book that will be regarded as a pioneer in both form and content.” ―TruthDig
"In this graphic novel, every image looks like the characters are being gently blown away, or else in perfect stillness… It’s a touching memoir.” ―The Coveteur
“Beautiful in both form and content...”―The Awl
“The Best We Could Do is a moving memoir and corrective to Trump-era xenophobia.”―The Comics Bulletin
“…the storytelling of Thi Bui is very strong.”―ICv2
“…haunting writing and breathtaking art…”―Gambit Weekly
"Thematically rich and complex, melding together grief and hope, the personal and the political, the familial and the national, The Best We Could Do is an important, wise, and loving book.” ―The Comics Journal
"The Best We Could Do is a deeply American story, tapping into the national myth, however illusory, of freedom in new beginnings.”―Hyphen Magazine
“…a cinematic epic that poignantly tracks several generations through immigration and emotional dislocation. At its best, this memoir feels not just created but also deeply lived.”―Michael Cavna, The Washington Post
“The memoir is a detailed family history and an accurate representation of Vietnamese people during the Vietnam war and the realities of finding a better life and a new land.”
―TIME
“The Best We Could Do has been compared to Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis for its heart-wrenchingly honest, sometimes humorous, and deeply personal account of what it means to rescue life from the debris of loss.”―Buzzfeed
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Abrams ComicArts; Reprint edition (April 17, 2018)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 344 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1419718789
- ISBN-13 : 978-1419718786
- Reading age : 13 years and up
- Grade level : 8 and up
- Item Weight : 1.54 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.65 x 1.35 x 9.1 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #15,111 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #9 in Emigration & Immigration Studies (Books)
- #14 in Biographies & History Graphic Novels
- #630 in Memoirs (Books)
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Being a Vietnamese American, I was on the lookout for historical graphic novels and there are very few, but this one was just right. It is well written and provided enough context for me to see her POV growing up.
The Best We Could Do is Thi Bui's graphic memoir. Thi was born in Vietnam three months before the Vietnam War reached what we consider to be the end of the war. She came to America with her family in 1978. Bui's memoir spans multiple generations. In learning of her mother's and father's pasts, we learn the history of their parents. We see the struggles and pains of two people from very different walks of life trying to live during a time of war and chaos. We see glimpses of the agony everyone in the middle of the Vietnam War faced. Those who were not directly involved on either side but were caught in the middle of larger powers at war. This memoir more closely details the lives of her parents leading up to them arriving in America and making their life there. I was unsure if this memoir would focus largely on the experience of being a Vietnamese immigrant in America. There were parts that showed how it was for Bui's parents in a country where tensions were still high after the Vietnam War, where discrimination largely due to that was overt, and where degrees were not recognized and people who had spent their lives working and creating careers for themselves were not qualified for most work and had to hurdle multiple challenges to learn a language and complete education all over again if they wanted to provide a better life for their children. What Bui so beautifully captures in this memoir is the why behind how her parents were in raising her. Although Bui was born in Vietnam she was young when her family arrived in America. So I think her experience is one that many first generation Vietnamese-American people of my generation can understand and sympathize with. The wanting to know why their parents are the way they are but unable to ask because many have parents, like Bui's mother, who reluctantly share their stories and don't allow their children that glimpse that could help them better understand. In the panel which was most poignant to me, Bui draws her father as he looks over her work that would become The Best We Could Do. He says "You know how it was for me. And why later I wouldn't be... normal."
Highly recommend this book to anyone who is on a path of healing their own broken heart.
Top reviews from other countries
The narrative examines the different lives and minds of individuals across generations, shedding light on the complex interplay between personal efforts and external factors such as policies, regulations, welfare, international relations, and the natural environment. It emphasizes that numerous factors determine whether life can take a positive trajectory, highlighting that it is not solely dictated by individual willpower.
In circumstances beyond our control, such as war or political upheaval, the mantra becomes "the best we could do is keep alive”, emphasizing the importance of survival. However, in times of freedom and peace, the focus shifts to "the best we could do is enjoy life”, advocating for embracing and cherishing the moments of life.
Thi Bui's memoir masterfully navigates through these themes, weaving together personal narratives with historical context to offer a profound meditation on the human experience. It prompts readers to reflect on their own lives and the delicate balance between survival and living. The book serves as a poignant reminder that while external forces may shape our circumstances, our response to them ultimately determines the quality of our lives.