Lucky Child by Loung Ung: book review

Lucky Child: a daughter of Cambodia reunites with the sister she left behind (2005) is the second memoir of Loung Ung, after the atrocities of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge soldiers. Her first memoir covered the years 1975-1979, when she was 5-9 years old. This memoir spans 1980-1995, from the ages of 10-25, and from Cambodia to America.

In 1979, with her parents and two sisters dead, she is reunited with her four remaining siblings. Her oldest brother Meng, at 22, and his wife Eang, decide to make the dangerous journey from Cambodia to neighbouring Thailand in 1980, taking Loung with them, who is now ten years old and the youngest in the family – the lucky child. They leave behind their 12-year-old sister Chou and two brothers Khouy and Kim, vowing to return to Cambodia in five years time.

For Loung, she is the lucky child, but for others she is the ‘Cambodian genocide survivor’ which is a hard burden to bear.

Fifteen years later, in 1995, Loung returns to Cambodia and to her sister Chou.

This memoir covers her entry into Thailand and onto America as she learns to live in a new culture, while overcoming the devastating memories of war and brutality, and the separation of her family. It concludes with her return to Cambodia to see her sister and brothers.

Loung Ung intersperses her story with separate chapters on her sister Chou’s life in Cambodia. My copy of the book, bought in Cambodia, had two chapter 9s and chapters 10-12 were missing, although fortunately it did not hamper the reading of this novel.

The happy ending is heart-warming, and it reinforces the difference between luck and circumstance, and how resilience and perseverance strengthen family bonds.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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