The Broken Country: On Trauma, a Crime, and the Continuing Legacy of Vietnam

The Broken Country: On Trauma, a Crime, and the Continuing Legacy of VietnamThe 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

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.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Published: 09/15/2017
ISBN: 9780820351179
Pages: 160
Weight: 0.55lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.50w x 0.50d

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 07/17/2017
Kirkus Reviews 08/01/2017