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The broken country : on trauma, a crime and the continuing legacy of Vietnam / Paisley Rekdal.

by Rekdal, Paisley, author.

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Athens, Georgia : University of Georgia Press, c2017.

Ly, Kiet Thanh, 1975-

Vietnamese Americans -- History -- 20th century.

Immigrants -- United States -- Social conditions -- 20th century.

Mentally ill homeless persons -- United States.

Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Social aspects.

War -- Psychological aspects.

War and society -- United States.

War and society -- Vietnam.

9780820351179 (paperback : alk. paper) :

0820351172 (paperback : alk. paper)

Association of Writers and Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction.

viii, 147 pages ; 22 cm.

The Broken Country uses a violent incident that took place in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2012 as a springboard for examining the long-term cultural and psychological effects of the Vietnam War. To make sense of the shocking and baffling incident--in which a young homeless man born in Vietnam stabbed a number of white men purportedly in retribution for the war--Paisley Rekdal draws on a remarkable range of material and fashions it into a compelling account of the dislocations suffered by the Vietnamese and also by American-born veterans over the past decades. She interweaves a narrative about the crime with information collected in interviews, historical examination of the arrival of Vietnamese immigrants in the 1970s, a critique of portrayals of Vietnam in American popular culture, and discussions of the psychological consequences of trauma. This work allows us to better understand transgenerational and cultural trauma and advances our still complicated struggle to comprehend the war.

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