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Every protest movement is powered by momentum, and eventually, even the most spirited showing from these groups dissipated. AAPI (Asian American Protection Initiative) passed easily. As the rallies fizzled, so did the words "imprisonment", "incarceration", and "internment". What was left was the language of the government, and the language of the media. Both said "detention". There's the saying that history is always written by the victors, but that assumes a winner and a loser. A more accurate saying would be that history is a reflection of who had power, and how they flattered themselves.



incredibly of the times. hauntingly so! if this doesn't catch on in the zeitgeist i'll eat my hat; it deserves to be talked about at large. well-written mostly, interesting, with good work in the little details like I like. pulls a great punch at the end which redeemed what felt like bad storytelling -- the commentary on culture's love of consuming portrayal's of people's suffering instead of their small joys in survival. It's a paradox we can't quite solve as humans.

there's a lot of interesting ideas sort of floated here, some of them to great effect and others very loosely drawn, to my disappointment. sometimes gives a feeling like... some of the story is undernourished. as a whole, it has a fundamental lack in the core. for one thing, (view spoiler)[we never find out the motivation behind the bombings which cause the internment, which is presented as a very deliberate narrative choice but which I found kind of a cop-out. (hide spoiler)] there's not enough attention given to each element presented so it sometimes feels scattershot and underbaked in certain parts. the storytelling does clip along really well though, the pacing is brisk.

loved Ursula especially, the bumbling half-sibling journalist who slurps up the story that defines her career as it's relayed to her by a neglected younger sister trapped in an internment camp for vietnamese americans. loved how the book meditates on questions like who gets to tell the story of a people's tragedy, on race in america, the police state, the importance and the hypocrisy and the emergency of mass media.... the power of stories! of small joys. of suffering. of being a bad daughter and a bad friend and a growing young woman and an errant father. on being first gen american and feeling weird about it. about feeling complicated feelings toward your immigrant mother. on the everyday mundanity of atrocity.

most of the story felt harrowingly possible. it was so so good at predicting how easily people will just kind of accept something horrible that's happening because what can we do except get pepper sprayed at protests about it? some of it did feel purposefully softened, but with the aim of not over-glorifying portrayals of suffering as we discuss in the second half, I can see the reasoning.

excited to read nguyen's future works.