Thanks to NetGalley & Atria for the ARC!

Cathy Linh Che’s "Becoming Ghost" is a sparse, severe, and startling collection of poetry about the author’s refugee parents playing extras in Francis Ford Coppola’s "Apocalypse Now."

The challenge with anti-war poetry is that the form often implicitly romanticizes violence—beautiful language wasted on ugly things. Che resists this impulse by using the barest lexicon possible, employing bluntness to razor-sharp effect. It’s simply impossible for an American reader to deny their complicity by hiding behind the protection of artistic interpretation.

Much of the book is spent upending saccharine, idealized refugee narratives. In “Los Angeles, Manila, Đà Nẵng,” the speaker explicitly rejects the language of metaphor when describing a woman “who will carry bricks for the rest of her life”—refugees are real people, and they deserve the dignity of being seen as just people.

In “In the kitchen, recounting,” we read what could be considered the book’s thesis:

"She asks for my story [private].
She asks for my story [public]."

"Becoming Ghost" constantly wrestles with who narrativizes a body under attack, often through polyvocal slippage. Does the public really deserve the truth? Are Americans even entitled to having someone shatter their myth of unquestioned goodness?


Despite these difficult, abstract questions, the intimate, familial focus of Che’s writing animates the whole collection. This is primarily for and about her parents.

"Apocalypse Now" looms over the book as an extension of the violence against Vietnamese people, with the speaker repeatedly noting how dehumanizing conditions on set were justified with financial restitution. The speaker’s parents collapse into tokens of violence—extras with their humanity made extraneous. What does one do with the knowledge that their parents were paid more to re-enact their own destruction than they were to work in the US? What does it mean that they were more valued as receptacles for violence?

Using the movie as detritus, Che plucks words from its script to form the foundation of poems that critique it and American violence. “Heart of Darkness” is a particularly pointed interrogation of the word “war” itself, as the speaker draws attention to how it neuters the reality of what’s really happening—genocide. By the time we see it named as such late in the collection, it feels like an unquestionable argument.

"Becoming Ghost" is nothing short of a masterpiece, and Cathy Linh Che demonstrates an incredible attention to the voices that speak when we recognize they don’t speak for us. I’m grateful and excited to revisit this one.

This was an evocative and powerful collection, drawing on multiple interwoven themes and unique forms. While it is not a novel-in-verse, BECOMING GHOST told a story from multiple angles, and I found myself reading it much more quickly than I usually do when working my way through a poetry collection. This is one I’ll go back to and study in greater detail.

A punch in the gut, slap in the face collection. Each poem hits something deep inside of you. It’s emotional and leaves you feeling mournful.
I found 4 or 5 poems slightly lacking, hence the 3 star rating, but I still very much enjoyed and will still be reading more from this author in the future.

Becoming Ghost is a collection of poems about the author’s parents’ experiences during the Vietnam War. I sometimes find it hard to analyze or interpret poetry, and this is one of those books for me. I read it in one sitting because the writing is beautiful, powerful, and emotional. There have been a few poems or lines that have really stayed in my mind. Though I did find it difficult with how the poems would change povs or perspectives.

I read the book in almost one sitting, mesmerized by her memories of her family in Vietnam and in the Phillippines where they were temporarily in a refugee camp, and in particular poems about her father, whose home movies played a large role in the family history.

Though written as poems, the book was easy to read, and very revealing about her thoughts about her family history and about the war in Vietnam, as well as the depiction of the war in Coppola's movie, Apocalypse Now.

This is a very melancholic collection about family and the violence that is out of our control but lingers across times and generations. The interesting story of their parents being extras in Coppola's film and being Vietnam War refugees... it's intense.

Thank you Atria for the early copy.

I don’t usually rate a piece of art that’s based on someone’s life, but a majority of mg issues with “Becoming Ghost” had to do with the formatting, not the “plot” or subject itself. I think I may have enjoyed it more if I had read “Split”, because I felt as if I was missing pieces the entire time despite repeatedly going back to reread. I was also confused when it came to the POV of each separate poem.

I wish the notes had been at the beginning of the contents instead of the end. By the time I reached this section, I didn’t want to go back and read them all over again.

If you’ve read “Split” I would recommend “Becoming Ghost”, otherwise I’d skip this one. But again, that’s just me. I’d recommend reading the other reviews as they are largely positive.

I really enjoyed this. I found viewing the Vietnam war and refugee experience through the lens of Apocalypse Now so fascinating. Since reading this, I’ve often just thought about some of the poems randomly throughout my normal day. It’s certainly a collection that will stick with me for a long time.

I was so pleased by the ease with which I connected to Cathy’s words. But wow, I was made to face my ignorance.
How had I never thought about the Vietnamese extras in movies on the Vietnam war? I know how, there’s not an equivalent for basic white girls so it was never on my radar, never something that organically popped into my head as a concern.
I’m not proud of that & am so grateful for this reality check. It’s art like this that can—and will—aid in the flourish of empathy and appreciation for marginalized groups, ideally leading to actual changes in behavior and perception.

The US is LUCKY to be made up of people from a plethora of different backgrounds, & this collection highlights that beautifully too.

If I’m being transparent, their pointing out gaps in my knowledge was what I enjoyed most of all. Should that be on the author to do? No, of course not. This is info I’d like to think I’d have questioned on my own eventually. But maybe I wouldn’t have?

I’m rambling, these topics can be a bit uncomfy. And I think that’s the point.
Get uncomfy. Sit in that feeling, familiarize yourself with it. Then do better.

Thank you bunches to Washington Square Press, Atria, Cathy Linh Che & NetGalley for both the digital and physical ARCs of this gorgeous collection, available 4/29.

3.5/5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and Washington Square Press for the ARC!

Becoming Ghost is a poetry collection discussing the author’s parents’ experiences as refugees from the Vietnam War.
I’ll be honest, this was a collection that I just didn’t understand. I was confused and lost through most of the book. It wasn’t a bad book, it just wasn’t for me.
For starters, I didn’t have context for approximately 80% of the book. I don’t know anything about Che or her family, apart from the information given in this book. And I’ve never seen Apocalypse Now, which is referenced several times throughout the collection (Che’s parents were extras in the film).
In addition, the POV changes between Che and her parents with reckless abandon and no indication of a POV change, so I was usually halfway through a poem before I figured out who was narrating (and there were times I didn’t even know who was narrating).
But I did enjoy the perspective of Che writing from the POV of her (estranged) parents. It was an interesting way to tell the story. Che also pointed out some interesting parallels between the Vietnam War and the Palestinian genocide as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.
This collection will be perfect for some readers. Unfortunately, it was not for me.

CW: child abuse (physical & emotional); PTSD; Vietnam War; genocide; child death; racism

Becoming Ghost is a really interesting exploration of exploitation, specifically regarding the Vietnamese war and the Asian community. Cathy Linh Che plays with poetic forms effortlessly. By utilizing language from Apocalypse Now explicitly, the collection recontextualizes the film into something arguably more authentic to the Vietnamese voices who have been quieted and cast as extras in a colonized, Americanized story. It's a powerful collection that I will recommend for years to come.

Love love love the use of the golden shovel form, that scratched my brain reaaalll good (shoutout to poet Terrance Hayes, the first to do it with Gwendolyn Brooks' 'We Real Cool", one of my favorite poems).
There's a quote I like that's along the lines of, "there's power in clear-eyed self-restraint", and I think that really applies here. When an artist of any kind gives themselves parameters or a form to work within, and they can achieve something that doesn't feel gimmicky or bogged down by the guardrails, it's such a triumph.
The poem structures are varied and, dare I say, playful despite the heavy subject matter.

This stood out to me because it reads like a poetry book rather than a collection of poems, if that makes sense. The poems build to tell a singular, cohesive story, a family history, and that made "Becoming Ghost" feel propulsive in the best way.

My first time reading Cathy Linh Che's work, and I'll be on the lookout for more!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thank you Netgalley for this arc book of poems. I enjoyed it. I was very different from other poem books I've read in the past but in a good way. It read more like a story and I appreciated that. Some were sad and I felt it.

This is the exact kind of poetry that scratches my brain: smart, accessible, provocative without being incendiary, and memorable. I love being able to access other POV's via poetry, and Cathy Linh Che has done it to extraordinary effect here.

It is, as it will likely always be, incredibly timely. Something about the poems is so visceral and forces the reader to consider the grim realities of war and its victors.

I don't know, I am just a person, but I loved this collection. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I was just having a conversation with a friend about the historical elements behind pain and suffering being used for entertainment. Coming across this collection, I felt like it not only tackled that subject but added extra layers to the conversation. This book felt deeply personal—there’s something profoundly powerful about taking a deeper look into our parents, their journeys, their suffering, and what that leaves us with. I especially appreciated the parallels the poetry creates and the deeper contemplation of erasure—who that erasure is ultimately for.

It was deeply saddening to read about how the poet’s parents escaped so much, only to have their darkest experiences used for the enjoyment of white audiences. It’s even more unsettling to know that this is a movie so many people reference as a favorite, a film held in high regard while disregarding the real people whose lives were pushed into the background, turned into caricatures, or silenced altogether. You can really feel the distance between parent and child in these poems, but also the process of understanding, forgiving, and centering. The poet acts as a director of her own, creating a space for her parents to exist beyond an outside narrative—placing them, finally, at the forefront of their own experiences.

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 Apocalypse Now, becoming background characters in a fictionalized version of their own history - in a sense, Becoming Ghost in their own stories.

I’m not familiar with the movie Apocalypse Now 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 Becoming Ghost 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.

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.