Poems that interrogate perspective and voice--who is allowed to "direct", who is allowed to speak--and the risks, too, of wresting that perspective back for onesself, the ways in which it will always be in conversation with the entities who have silenced the speaker's speech. Thought-provoking, beautiful, and had some cool formal stuff going on. Strongly recommend to readers of contemporary asian american poetry, especially those interested in the reverberations of the vietnam war on vietnamese american literature.

A melancholic and candid collection of poems about the author’s parents’ experience with the Vietnam war and then subsequently being in extras in Coppola’s <i>Apocalypse Now</i>, becoming background characters in a fictionalized version of their own history - in a sense, <i>Becoming Ghost</i> in their own stories.

I’m not familiar with the movie <i>Apocalypse Now</i> or the references to Cathy Linh Che’s previous poetry work, but I found each poem to be introspective, reflective, evocative, and emotional. There’s a lot of clever interplay between the parents’ flashbacks of the war and immigration and their experiences working on the movie set, weaving in screenplay references too. I thought it was fascinating how by publishing this work and highlighting the parts her parents were in, they become the main characters rather than continuing to be relegated to background characters.

Che’s structuring of the poems is rather unusual but I appreciate the fluidity, cadence and rhythm of the poems as well as the vivid imagery of a dark history. For instance, the poetry collection is sectioned into multiple parts. From there, some of the poems’ titles have the same titular header but a different subheading. The poem title <i>Becoming Ghost</i> also repeats throughout the collection. I think this would need deeper analysis and I would be interested in listening to a podcast or interview about the author’s intentions.

All in all, a profound and touching tribute to her parents and acknowledgement of their hardships.

Special thanks to Atria Books, Washington Square Press, and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest, independent review.