“A cultured Cambodian woman surviving genocide by Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge soldiers in black, who ate uncooked human liver with liqueur”
The rich Cambodian culture and all the competing Western influences are vividly displayed in her descriptions of her life with her father as he tries to mold her into a highly educated and independent woman who still exemplifies all the virtues of the idealized, traditional Cambodian woman.
She had little knowledge of the working class or the dangerous political movements afoot. These political movements would transform Cambodia through murder, war and destruction, in what has been called one of the greatest catastrophes of the 20th century.
She lived for four desperate years (1975-1979) in a Prison Without Walls created by POL POT, leader of the communist guerrilla organization called the Khmer Rouge. Cambodians called 'A Murder of Crows'. He committed class genocide against Cambodian’s educated urban citizens through starvation, execution, and forced labor.
What devil possessed his Khmer Rouge to eat their victims' liver with liqueur?
Why did his Comrade Duch torture thousands at Toul Sleng prison, where his 'ten commandments' let only twelve survive?
Why did someone kills his own kind?
Why did he help the history to repeat itself?
Were the Vietnamese our Saviors?
We prayed for the Americans to save us. But they couldn't come back.