This is a graphic novel about a family's immigration from vietnam. Thi Bui has become a mother now in America, and wants to understand her families history. She then learns about her parents past and her own childhood. I found it so powerful, emotional, and eye opening. I enjoyed it immensely and the artwork is amazing. Would recommend to anyone.

Empathetic, honest, and emotional. A gorgeously illustrated memoir of a woman who looks to the past to understand her parents and her complicated relationship with them. In 1978, Thi Bui's parents (Má & Bố)* fled South Vietnam with three young children and one on the way. The Best We Could Do tells the story of them growing up in Vietnam, raising a family in the midst of the Vietnam War, their harrowing nighttime escape by boat, and the difficulties of starting a new life in the United States. The tale begins and ends with the birth of Thi's first baby. After experiencing the overwhelming responsibility and protective instinct towards her newborn, she sees her parents from a completely different perspective.

Thi reveals some instances from growing up that widened the gap between parent and child and kept her from feeling safe and secure. Once her parents' backgrounds are revealed, these stories have a different sheen to them. We see how their pasts shaped who they are and influenced what lessons they felt were important to impart. Má & Bố had completely different childhoods. Their backgrounds were so different that I was really interested to see what circumstances brought them together. Má grew up in a wealthy household in the relative safety of South Vietnam, while Bố grew up in poverty in conflict-ridden North Vietnam. We get to see them grow up as young people with hopes and dreams, and then later as adults who have suffered immense heartache together.

The specifics of Vietnam's history with colonization and conflict are given for context, but more importantly, this book shows what it's like to live day-to-day in those conditions. War and its effects don't stop when foreign troops leave and the headlines cease. I appreciated a part where Thi tries to figure out her father’s allegiances after listening to another one of his contradictory stories because I was struggling with the same thing. It was a good reminder that things aren't always so easily simplified.


My two favorite types of graphic novels are historical fiction and memoirs with historical relevance--images add so much power to these type of narratives. The illustrations are lovingly rendered. So much of the artwork impacted me, but my favorites pages were her parents' wedding, a young Bố hiding underground, and the full spread of her father gazing up at Orion’s belt. Those pages felt like whole stories in themselves. On one page there are actual photographs that were taken when her family arrived at a refugee camp in Malaysia. The contrast between the family I'd come to care for through Thi's loving illustrations and the impersonal identification shots was striking. We see so many photos of refugees and immigrants on the news, it can be easy to forget that they all have a story.

In the introduction, Thi writes about a few of the titles she came up with before settling on The Best We Could Do. Just typing the title out makes my eyes well up with tears, so I’d say it was a perfect choice! It's the story of one family's journey from Vietnam and the obstacles they overcame, but it's also so much more. It's so relevant in a time where immigration and how it should be handled is on the forefront of so many people's minds. We see firsthand why someone might make the tough decision to leave behind everything to start a new life and the incredible sacrifices they must make to provide a better life for their families. Most everyone will be able to relate to some aspect of Thi's story: family, home, identity. What makes us who we are? What we pass on to the next generation? Why is it so unsettling when our view of our parents evolves? It only takes a couple of hours to read, but it's so powerful. When I finished reading, I immediately wanted to read it again. If you're on the fence, you can preview a few of the spreads via 'Look Inside' on Amazon, the publisher's page, or visit Thi Bui's art blog.

When I was in college, I took an oral history class. I was able to interview people that I thought I knew well, as those that I did not, and I found out quite a lot. One of those was my French teacher who told me how she escaped the Nazi's during the war, when she was a young girl. She had been my teacher for all four years of French, but she had never mentioned that in class.

I am reminded about this, becasue Thi Bui became the work on this memoir when she was interviewing her parents for an oral history project. But, from there, she was able to get even more of the story, both through research, and continuing to hear the stories.

What strikes me about her story, is how similar it is to other memoirs I have read, about getting displaced, and how you learn to live with it. Not as horrific as Maus, but still with that sense of something missing, and always being ready to flee, because you never know when you have to again. I am currently, at the time of this reading, reading about book about a woman interred in World War II because she was Japanese. She took keeps everything she needs to flee on her at all times. I heave heard stories of those who have had to flee, and how it never leaves you. You are always prepared because you can't trust the government to protect you.

Well, written, I hope others read it, and it becomes a standard in schools and libraires, because not only does it tell the story of one family, it tells the story of the Vietnam War, which is too recent for older people to know, because they lived through it.

And the last thing, that I thought was profound, was how much starvation there was. Thi's grandfather defects to the thhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1886731043 Viet Kong because they had food, and he was starving.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

While the illustrations were attractive, the story itself was very mediocre.

I normally love memoirs and thought the idea of an illustrated one was very interesting; unfortunately, there wasn't enough information (such as background on the culture and political turmoil) for me to fully follow the story. The text was flat - not nearly as charming as the illustrations.

I don’t know what qualifies as good art; either I like it or I don’t, I guess. I didn’t just like the art in this graphic memoir, I LOVED IT. I can’t even really review the artistic aspect of this properly, because I have no idea what I’m talking about, but every page was stunning and gorgeous and I didn’t want to look away. I kind of want to buy multiple copies of this just so I can rip out the pages and hang them on my walls. I mean, the colors alone! Come on!

The story itself is brilliantly handled. It unfolds at just the right pace. It’s the story of Bui’s parents and the story of a country at war. Bui tells her family’s story in an emotional, relatable way, while also depicting a clear and easy to understand history of Vietnam from the 1940s to the 1970s. There’s violence and danger and heartbreak in both stories, and she expertly weaves them together.

Somehow, even though Bui focuses a lot on being a Vietnamese refugee and becoming a mother—two things I have zero experience with—I so easily identified with her emotions. Bui’s writing is just as strong as her artwork, amazingly. (It’s not fair, why does Bui get to be so talented TWICE? I can’t draw a stick figure or write a coherent sentence, let alone create a masterpiece like this!)

Simply put, this was just very, very good. It’s definitely the best graphic memoir I’ve ever read, and I’ll go ahead and call it one of the best books of 2017. This is a must read, without a doubt.

This is what I expected: An intimate and poignant graphic novel portraying one family’s journey from war-torn Vietnam, from debut author Thi Bui. In the end those expectations came true, but it took quite a long time for that to be fulfilled. I almost thought it wouldn't happen.

Well this turned out to be better than it was in the beginning. As soon as the stories about Vietnam really took flight, and we saw their journey out of Vietnam it started to get better and better. Still I won't rate this high because I was bored for at least 1/3 of the story.

And really, one birth is more than enough for me, I don't need to see x numbers of gruesome labours. I know it was needed to tell the whole family history, but really. Eventually I started to think the births would just continue all the time.

Also everything was just so mixed together, I am sure it is supposed to make sense, but it was jarring for me to see how we went from present, past, past, present, semi-present, past again and then it stayed past. I know she is interviewing her parents, but still it was a bit jarring.

I didn't quite like the parents, with how they treated their kids (especially when they had boyfriends, I know different values and ideas, but really it just made me want to scream at my screen) nor did I quite approve of the dad's way of raising his kids, if you would call it that. There is something highly wrong if one of your kids hides in a closet for hours, holds his bowels so he doesn't have to poop/pee. And then the other kid is learning all about supernatural stuff and disturbing imagery. What?
Later on, during the Vietnam parts I did see that they were good parents and that thanks to all the things they went through they had their own stiff standards and were still solely focused on impressions and surviving, but those parts of the US had already coloured my view of them.

But I have to say that in the end it was still quite a beautiful memoir. It was sad, it was heartbreaking, it was lovely.

The illustrations were quite nice, and they fitted perfectly with the story. Plus I liked the colourscheme of white and orange.

However I just can't rate this one higher than 2.5 stars.