Resensi buku – When Broken Glass Floats

At one evening in Pnom Penh, Cambodia, I was about to have dinner with my friend in a café by the Mekong river. Then, this young boy of 13 was approaching us. He sells books. And he was not the only one. There were lots of kids selling books there. He was very insisting in selling his books and he said it’s for his school tuition money. So, I decided to buy a book from him. He was recommending it. The book titled “When Broken Glass Floats – growing up under the Khmer Rouge” by Chanrithy Him. The author is a Cambodian. I took a glimpse look on the back cover [although I never trust any comments written at the back cover of a book!] before I paid him US$ 3. At that time, I only want to get rid of him as I was having a discussion with my friend. But 2 weeks later, I changed my mind…

It was indeed a good book. I’m glad he recommended that book to me. The story was very touching. It’s merely an autobiography. Chanrithy was a girl of 9 who had to suffer the hard times the Khmer Rouge gave. She and her family had to suddenly change their life from a settle situation under Norodom Sihanouk to a hell created by Angka Leu [Khmer Rouge].

I’ve heard stories about Khmer Rouge when I was little. It was on TV. The invasion and the war between Vietnam – Cambodia and Cambodia – Thailand. But this book had given me a different point of view. It’s a survival story of a child and a family. Khmer Rouge had put Cambodia in hell and Chanrithy gave a clear view through her words about what’s happening at that time. How people scattered and separated from the family. How people died of edema, dysentery and mishandling. How her mother was thrown alive into a well of dead. How her father was told to go to an orientation but in fact he was executed. How her sister and brothers died slowly because of curable illness which become deadly. How the labor camp had forced children to work on adult’s work with so little food. How the Khmer Rouge had manipulated everyone and executed them at the end of the day. How they caught in the middle of war between Vietnam and Cambodia, and then another war between Thailand and Cambodia. How siblings must survive after their parents was executed. Most of all is how they survived and keep the remaining family together during the 7 years of Khmer Rouge rules.

All the things she wrote are beyond my imagination. The way she wrote is making me able to see the killing fields and all the situations of the camps. I got carried away so much with the story. I couldn’t let the book go even for a minute! When I reached the part where the remaining of the family was being rescued and sent to a refugee camp in Philippines, I was so relief. And I even get happier when I reached the part that Chanrithy and her remaining family flew to America under the sponsor of her runaway uncle. It was a happy ending after all. She redeemed her lost life in Oregon, America and working for Khmer Adolescent Project to study the post-traumatic stress disorder among Cambodians.

This book is about love, care, suffer, sadness, happiness in the sadness, longing, patience, pain, survival, trust, faith, belief, hope, culture, being strong, courage, positive thinking, playing smart, creativity, being grateful, faithfulness, despair and lost… a great lost for sure. Surprisingly, never even once I sense something about hatred in this book.

When I finish reading it, I felt so glad that I bought the book at the first place. It wasn’t for good reason at first, but good things are coming out of nowhere, out of anything. In this case, out of this US$ 3 book. I feel a little bit guilty for the little boy who sold the book to me. I was underestimating his recommendation at first. But now, I will recommend this book to other people. If it wasn’t for him, I would never had this great book with me.

“When Broken Glass Floats – growing up under the Khmer Rouge” by Chanrithy Him, published by WW Norton and Company - New York